Q. Who among the following was the founder of “Khudai Khidmatgar” and is also known as Badshah Khan?
(A) Syed Ahmed Khan
(B) Hakim Ajmal Khan
(C) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
(D) Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Answer: D
The movement was led by Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known locally as Bacha Khan, Badshah Khan, or Sarhadi Gandhi. It gradually became more political as its members were being targeted by the British Raj.
In 1929, the Khudai Khidmatgars (“Servants of God”) movement, led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, nonviolently mobilized to oppose the British in India’s Northwest Frontier Province. Ghaffar Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgar movement inspired thousands of Pashtuns (also called Pathans), who were known as fierce warriors, and others to lay down their arms and use civil resistance to challenge British rule.
Although Ghaffar Khan’s initial reform efforts predated his involvement with Gandhi and the Indian National Congress (INC), he later formed a formal alliance with them and became a formidable force during and following the INC’s civil disobedience campaign of 1930-1931, helping the INC win provincial elections in 1937.