Mumbai organisation to honour Frontier Gandhi today with memorial lecture

Mumbai: City-based organisation Sarhadi Gandhi Memorial Society will remember freedom fighter Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890--1988) at Islam Gymkhana on Tuesday. Nicknamed "Frontier Gandhi" because of his non-violent resistance to British imperialism and social works in Nort-West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan), Khan had opposed partition. So much so that on Pakistan 's creation after division of India, he had famously lamented: "You have thrown us to the wolves."
As part of commemoration programme, the Society is holding a memorial lecture by noted Islamic scholar Prof Akhtarul Wasey on Tuesday. "Feb 6 was Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's birth anniversary but we are celebrating it on 11th February due to logistical reasons. He epitomised courage, valour and selfless service. He was a staunch patriot who strongly opposed the diabolical two-nation theory of the Muslim League. It is our duty to remember such a nationalist leader," said the Society's founder-president Advocate Syed Jalaluddin.
Khan who was awarded Bharat Ratna posthumously, visited Mumbai several times, including during the centenary celebrations of the Congress party in 1985. "Rajiv Gandhi helped wheel in Frontier Gandhi on the stage at the inaugural ceremony of the Congress's centenary celebrations," recalled Jalaluddin.
He added that the idea of launching an organisation in memory of "Frontier Gandhi" came when a hospital named after him in Haryana was renamed after Atal Bihari Vajpayee. "There is nothing wrong in naming any institution after Vajpayee but this hospital was established by those whom he had saved during partition riots. That day I decided to do my bits to keep his memory alive" said Jalaluddin.