1. Change comes from action while most organizations stress that change comes through education.
2. Conflict is inherent in peace making
3. Spirituality makes a difference because it creates a connectedness to God as the creator, who may intervene. 1

1. Discipline
2. Role definition
3. Coordination/leadership
4. Spiritual under girding/worship
5. Risk-taking
6. Advocacy

Ghaffer Khan’s approach came both from his religion, Islam, and from the Pukhtoon as a martial race. It is quite visible from his quotation speaking to the people on different occasions as once he said, “The holy prophet Muhammad (PBUH) came into this world and taught us: That man is a Muslim who never hurts any one by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God’s creatures. Belief in God is to love one’s fellowmen”.6  On another occasion he spoke to the gathering of servant of God, “There is nothing surprising in Muslim or a Pukhtoon like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the Prophet all the time he was in Mecca, and it has since been followed by all those who wanted to throw off an oppressor’s yoke. But we had so far forgotten it that when Gandhi placed it before us, we thought he was sponsoring a novel creed.”  His appeal to the Pukhtoon race was also unique when he calls them to remember their history and the race they belong to. As Pukhtoon they consider themselves the martial race that always rule but is never ruled. They also consider themselves one of the missing tribes of Moses and think they are the old and pure race in each and every respect. Ghaffar Khan was aware of the Pukhtoon psyche as he mentioned to them, “O Pukhtoon! Your houses have fallen into ruins. Arise and rebuild and remember to what race you belong,is not the Pukhtoon amenable to love and reason? He will go with you to hell if you can win his heart, but you cannot force him even to go to heaven. Such is the power of love over the Pukhtoon.”

Agency:

In both the cases of CPT and the Servant of God, the struggle is against the oppressor and helping the oppressed. The commitment is that you (the oppressed) are not alone, for we are with you in your struggle. But there is difference between the two approaches. The CPT personnel enjoy all the privileges, being Canadian nationals or US or from a US or Canadian organization.  While in the case of The Servant of God they were from the same oppressed class, against the powerful oppressor. CPT works only through publicity to the people of the churches to make them aware of the human right violations in different part of the world.  They have no organized structure to pressure the Government inside the US. They work actively outside the US in areas where American forces are active in destruction and violation of human rights. They have less access to the main sources from where the problem starts. If they worked in the US, then the needs of their presence would be minimized to a large extent. Almost all the time the staff from the US and Canada is present in conflict areas where the locals have not been involved in addressing the problem on their own without active support of CPT. They only address the conflict and not the root cause of the conflict like economic exploitation, lack of awareness etc. While in the case of The Servant of God they were from the same areas where the problem was. Its root was among the people of the areas as in this Pukhtoon proverb, “That the village rabbit can be caught very easily by the village Dog.” Ghaffar Khan starts his struggle first from establishing schools in his areas to educate the people. There was another type of slavery system called DEHQAN. Dehqan was the tenant on the landlord’s land. They were  brought by the khan or landlord to cultivate his land and were given money for daily life. After the harvesting the borrowed money was deducted from the selling of crop and nothing was usually given to the tenant. Tenants relied on the landlord throughout their lives. But the sad part of the story was that not only the one bread-earner individual tenant was the landlord’s servant, but also all family members were servants, free of cost. Ghaffar Khan challenged such practices. Gaffer Khan’s Servant of God worked actively against the prevailing social evils in the Pukhtoon community. As many traditional superstitious customs were very common at that time: like revenge, gender discrimination, man-monopolized society etc. His main and most important political struggle was against the British regime but this was nonviolent as opposed to many others who declared violent struggle during this time that made the lives of Pukhtoon miserable.

Purpose

The power cannot listen to the powerless unless the powerless speak to them in the same language without indulging in violence. To face the powerful with force will worsen the situation but not if nonviolent action is used to stop the oppressor from oppression. It can easily be done if the nonviolent peoples are well organized and have a strong common bond to face the oppressor and speak the truth on behalf of the oppressed. It is the motto of CPT and was the motto of The Servant of God.

CPT volunteers are active in different parts of the world in the areas of conflict and face the powerful forces against the powerless through their direct nonviolent actions.  They minimize the violence to a large extent. The CPT field staff has first hand field-based information, and keep the people of more than five hundred US churches well informed, about the US and its allied human rights violations in different parts of the world.
The Servant of God strategy was different from CPT as they addressed the problem of oppression through different way and means. They act both top down and bottom up in their way of actions. Through the school establishment they made the young generation aware of scientific education to face the future world challenges with scientific ways and also to make the masses that were uneducated about their rights aware. Education also paved the way to get relief from the corrupt traditional religious leaders and to get independence. The awareness campaign led to revolts among the masses against the traditional exploitation of the traditional leaders who oppressed the poor through different ways and means. It also cleared the way to get rid of the social evils of the society and traditional norms and values. The British tried to engage the Pukhtoon through a divide-and-rule policy to keep their reign tight. Any violent action was a good excuse to use law and order to suppress them more. The Servant of God - one hundred thousand nonviolent, well organized volunteer soldiers fought against the entire on different fronts nonviolently.

Both of the organizations work tirelessly, through their collective salvation and joint actions to minimize human suffering and work for the well being of humanity. Their approach to problems was based on an appeal to divine help on religious grounds. The oppressors were active in both cases to oppress the opponents, with the use of power to keep the status quo and to exploit their resources. CPT volunteers play an active role outside their country of origin against their country or allied forces, and face them with courage. While inside North America they adopt an awareness strategy through publicity among five hundred churches.

On the other hand Ghaffar Khan presented himself as a role model, used religion and the prophet’s teaching to face the oppressor in their own community on different fronts. His theory and practice both were nonviolent. He fought against the other chiefs and religious leaders of the areas by giving up his landlord status and adopting a simple life, preaching the real essence of religion to the general population of North West Frontier Province.

Hypocrisy and lack of commitment to the main cause on the part of leaders weaken the organization. Often the elders bring nice ideas and mandates, but deviate from them and expect the followers to do almost the entire job for them. They keep themselves separate from the masses due to lack of accountability that widens the gap between the followers and leaders.

Both the CPT and Servant of God leadership keep close contact with their follower and present themselves as role models in each and every respect. Ghafar Khan’s slogan and appeal to the peoples were through, Faith, Patience, Righteousness, Love and Action. He ran the party affairs through the grand council Jirga, and implemented it through The Servant of God.

He organized the people against the internal and external exploiter on the grass root level. His awareness campaign and strong discipline within each step of the party created a strong network from top to bottom and his own presence among the people in difficult times created more trust among his follower to do the job more enthusiastically against the oppressors.

Conclusion

The origin of each religion is explained as a Pukhto proverb, “The wells are different but the source of water is the same.” Peace is the main focus of each religion and love for humanity was the message of every prophet to his followers. The power, greed, jealousy and competition among human beings made the miserable to both the oppressed, due to lack of resources and for the oppressor due to the need to secure and protect the status and gain more and more. The teaching of Islam is based on:

All these three important aspect were present in the true sense in the life of Ghaffar Khan. He went from the high-ranking landlord life and embraced the life of the poor, being with them all the time through good and bad.  He spent thirty years, fifteen before partition and fifteen after the creation of Pakistan, in prison and seven years in exile for the cause of the poor people. He showed his patience for his just cause by having one hundred thousand, well-organized strong warrior army. He could easily have fought with any power of the world. His thankfulness to God was through his religious practice, praying five times a day, as the essence of prayer is thankfulness for God’s blessing. He himself followed these entire principal; and his followers also strictly followed the same rules by taking this oath before joining the force:

I am the khudai khamathgar, and as God needs no service, but serving his creation is serving him, I promise to serve humanity in the name of God.
I promise to refrain from violence and form taking revenge. I promise to forgive those who oppress me or treat me with cruelty.
I promise to refrain from taking part in feuds and quarrels and from creating enmity.
I promise to treat every Pukhtoon as my brother and friend.
I promise to refrain from antisocial customs and practices.
I promise to live a simple life, to practice virtue and to refrain from evil.
I promise to practice good manners and good behavior and not to lead a life of idleness.
I promise to devote at least two hours a day to social work.7

Their training was organized through different stages to make them prepared for future nonviolent actions and any violation led to the suspension of their membership for two years time, even sometimes permanently. The famous Anthem of servant of God was:

We are the army of God
By death or wealth unmoved.
We march, our leader and we,
Ready to die.
We serve and we love
Our people and our cause.
Freedom is our goal
Our life the price we pay.8

The CPT Mission statement offers an organized, nonviolent alternative to war and other forms of lethal inter-group conflict. CPT provides organizational support to persons committed to faith-based nonviolent alternatives in situations where lethal conflict is an immediate reality or is supported by public policy.

CPT seeks to enlist the response of the whole church in conscientious objection to war, and the development of nonviolent institutions, skills and training for intervention in conflict situations. CPT projects connect intimately with the spiritual lives of its constituent congregations. Gifts of prayer, money and time from these churches undergird CPT peacemaking ministries.9

CPT states that it is an organization identified with Jesus of Nazareth and the community of people who see in him the nonviolent Christ of prophetic expectation. CPT workers are persons who have chosen to join the nonviolent community of Jesus Christ and who are committed to seeking God’s will in their work, worship, and decision making.

On project site, CPT works with local partners from a variety of faith traditions. CPT encourages the formation and development of other faith-based, nonviolent peace teams and desires to work cooperatively with them.

There are many commonalities in both organizations, but a lot of differences in their strategies to address the problem. In the case of CPT the name makes it distinguished from other faiths.  The people from other faiths did not feel comfortable to be with them. Conflicts today are almost always in other faith areas. Christian faith and American identity make their job suspicious. In different parts of the world where they have been involved for years, there is no easy way to evaluate the reduction of violence or the empowerment of the local community to address the problems on their own. After the cold war the US has been involved directly or indirectly in every conflict. The problems are due to the US’s different interests, and the need for awareness of the peoples of the US.  CPT is lacking such programs of awareness, since within the US people don’t know much about the outside world. They only are present in the area of conflict and address the conflict but have no programs to make the people in the US aware of the economic, social, and material roots of the conflict. They visit the country on tourist visas, and their involvement in peace-building work makes their job suspicious in the host country. 

Ghaffar Khan worked on different fronts His awareness campaign and practical actions against the local traditional system feudal lords, religious leaders and outside British Government were very successful to a large extent but he still faced hardships in overcoming some obstacles. His economic, social, and political agenda was confined to the Pukhtoon community only and could not appeal to the outside world or other Muslim or non-Muslims of the Indian sub-continent, due to his strong friendship with Gandhi. Outside the province most Muslims were in the Gandhi nonviolent movement. Gandhi’s nonviolent movement was a strategy while Ghafar Khan’s nonviolence was theory and practices both. His friendship with Gandhi also made him pro-Hindu in religious circles. The British, his political opponents, used this against him. His opponent on political fronts challenged even his religious faith and religious approaches to nonviolence.

Later on his demand for an independent Pukhtoonistan (separate country for Pukhtoon tribe) made it worse for him. His family monopoly in the party and deviation from the nonviolent philosophy was a setback to his life long struggle. He was so frustrated by his opponents that he give his will to be buried outside Pakistan.  He was laid to rest in Jalal-abad Afghanistan.

Bibliography

Christian Peacemaker Teams, Mission Statement, Policies and Guidelines.