A FRONTIER LEADER •
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. J. D. Jenkins' letter needs an immediate reply, but I must leave certain statements in it over for the present, and deal only with Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's character, which he attacks. Probably he has never met the Khan Sahib, while I have spent many days of closest intimacy with him and am proud to be able to call him my personal friend.
He has a very remarkable nature, childlike, deeply religious, yet without one trace of religious bigotry. He also has a great respect for this country and sent his children to be educated here when they were quite young. In the speech which Mr. Jenkins mentioned—where he was charged with sedition—he paid a very high tribute indeed to the Rev. Mr. Wigram, his old headmaster, saying that he owes the high ideals he has tried to follow mainly to him.
It is true that he stated his own opinion (which is shared among many Indians in India) that 200 or even more people were shot down at Peshawar on a certain occasion. He made other serious allegations, chiefly referring to the misdoings of the police, blaming the Government for them. But I have seen the Court copy of the English translation of what he said ; and while there were statements in it to which I should take strong exception, it was nothing less than monstrous to sentence him to two years rigorous imprisonment for a speech like that. He made the following declaration in Court : " I had no desire to utter words of sedition. I am, therefore, sorry that I made the statements in my speech, however unwittingly, which are open to exception."
Even after words like those, to give him this sentence, and thus to imprison him again just after he had suffered more than two years' imprisonment without any open trial— all this seems to show me how very far we have departed from the best traditions of the past, when we won, as admini- strators, the friendship of the best men in India instead of antagonizing them.
The Khan Sahib is a man of noble birth and undoubted nobility of character, who has won the hearts of his own people by his willingness to suffer for them. He is also a devout believer in God. Yet all we seem able to do is to clap him in gaol, time after time. The futility of this is obvious. Cannot we find some better method ?
I have not been recently to the Frontier, and, therefore, I ought not to prejudge the whole question till I have been there. But since the character of the Khan Sahib, who has become my friend, has been defamed, I would wish to bear testimony to what I know at first hand about him.—Yours, C. F. ANDREWS.
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