University Of Central Punjab

Pakistan Studies
Assignment No # 01

Submitted To: Ma’am Farzana BiBi

Submitted By: Hasnain Ahmad Farooqi (l1f19bsaf0091)
Date : 7th November 2021

Fav Personality: Abdul Ghani Khan

Abdul Ghani Khan
Khan Abdul Ghani Khan  ;(1914 – 15 March 1996) was a Pakistani Pashtun philosopher, poet,
artist, writer and politician. He was a son of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, aka Bacha Khan a
prominent British Raj-era Indian independence activist. Throughout his life as a poet in
both British India and Afghanistan, Khan was known by the titles Lewanay Pālsapay  , ('Mad
Philosopher') and Da īlam Samander ('Ocean of Knowledge'). Ghani Khan was born in
Hashtnagar in 1914. He is widely considered the best Pashto language poet of the 20th century
and stands on a par with Khushal Khan Khattak and Rehman Baba.

Life:
Khan was born in Hashtnagar, in the Frontier Tribal Areas of British India—roughly located in
the modern-day village of Utmanzai in Charsadda District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He
was a son of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a prominent Indian independence activist, and was the elder
brother of Abdul Wali Khan. Khan's wife, Roshan, was from a Parsi family and was the daughter
of Nawab Rustam Jang a prince of Hyderabad. He went to study at the art academy
at Rabindranath Tagore's University in Shantiniketan, where he developed a liking for painting
and sculpture He visited England and studied sugar technology in the United States, after which
he returned to British India and started working at the Takht Bhai Sugar Mills in Takht Bhai in
1933. Largely owing to his father's influence, Khan was also involved in politics, supporting the
cause of the Pashtuns of British India. Due to his activism, Khan was arrested by
the Government of Pakistan in 1948—although he had given up politics by then—and remained
in prison till 1954, in various jails all over the country. It was during these years that he wrote his
poem collection, Da Panjray Chaghaar, which he considered to be the best work of his life. His
contribution to literature (often unpublished) was ignored by the Pakistani government for much
of his life; although near the end of his life, his works did receive much praise and as well as an
award—for his contributions to Pashto literature and painting, the then-President of
Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, conferred on him the Sitara-i-Imtiaz on 23 March 1980.

Political Life and Imprisonment:

During a part of Ghani Khan's life, modern-day Pakistan did not exist. India was under British
rule (hence called British India) and was fighting for its independence from the British. On 15
August 1947, India finally gained its independence. And a day before, on 14 August 1947,
Pakistan had been born, becoming independent of British India. Hence, before all this
independence, the Pashtuns who are now in Pakistan (all except the Swati Pashtuns, since Swat
was an independent, princely state until 1964) were under the rule of British India before the
partition of India and Pakistan. This is where and why Bacha Khan's work was significant.
As for Ghani Khan, he was initially influenced by his father's political struggles and thus worked
for the independence of the Pashtuns ruled by British India. However, he later came to disagree
with his father's ideologies (he stopped supporting the idea of nonviolent resistance, seeing that it
was not beneficial to the Pashtuns). He says, in an interview, that he left his father's political
movement of non-violence, called "Khudai Khidmatgar" ("God’s Soldiers") because of some of
the movement's motives that he disagreed with.
Although he was no longer involved in politics by the time of Pakistan's independence (1947),
the government of Pakistan imprisoned him several times, sending him to jails from all over the
country. His father spent close to half of his lifetime in jail (44 years out of his 99 years). Ghani
Khan used his time in jail to write poetry; his main work in jail is called Da Panjrey
Chaghar ("The Chirping of the Cage").

Works:
Aside from a few poems of his youth and early manhood, Ghani Khan's poetry, like his
temperament, is anti-political. His poem collections include Panoos, Palwashay, De Panjray
Chaghar, Kullyat and Latoon. He also wrote in English; his first book was The Pathans (1947).
His only published work in Urdu was his book titled Khan Sahib (1994).
The singular distinction of his poetry – aside from his obvious poetic genius – is a profound
blend of knowledge about his native and foreign cultures, and the psychological, sensual, and
religious aspects of life.
A translation (Pashto to English) of selected 141 poems of Ghani Khan, called The Pilgrim of
Beauty, has been authored by Imtiaz Ahmad Sahibzada, a friend and admirer of the poet. The
book was printed in 2014 in Islamabad, Pakistan. It is a joint initiative by individual donors in
Pakistan and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Afghanistan. The book also contains paintings of
Ghani Khan. The Pakistan launch of the book took place in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Pukhtun
Festival, in March 2015. The Afghanistan launch took place on 22 February 2016 by the
Ministry of Information and Culture.In 1982, At Edwards College Peshawar, Quaid Muhammad
Khan(President Of Pushto Literature) familiarized Ghani Khan with Sardar Ali Takkar so that he
could be able to read Ghani Khan ghazals with some music at the background (Modern Day
Tappy).

Quotes and Prose:

Ghani Khan's love for nature and the local habitat of the Pashtun people is visible
in his work. He wrote

 "Pashtun is not merely a race but, in fact, a state of mind; there is a Pashtun
lying inside every man, who at times wakes up and overpowers him."
 "The Pashtuns are rain-sown wheat: they all came up on the same day; they are
all the same. But the chief reason why I love a Pashtun is that he will wash his
face and oil his beard and perfume his locks and put on his best pair of clothes
when he goes out to fight and die."
 As a progressive and intellectual writer, he wrote, "I want to see my people
educated and enlightened. A people with a vision and a strong sense of justice,
who can carve out a future for themselves in harmony with nature."
Tribute:
Khan Abdul Ghani Khan died on 15 March 1996 and was buried in Utmanzai, Charsadda. After
his death, in recognition of his outstanding achievements, the Government of Khyber-
Pakhtunkhwa Province built a public library and park as a memorial to him on about 8 acres
(32,000 m2) of land, naming it "Ghani Derai" (the mound of Ghani). The site is a historical
mound very near his home, Dar- ul-Aman, and within the confines of his ancestral village,
Utmanzai, on the main highway from Razzar to Takht-i-Bhai.
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