Soul Force Podcast

Bacha Khan and the ecstasy and anarchy of nonviolence

Safoora Arbab

Pakistani scholar Safoora Arbab, discusses with Paul Livingstone the extraordinary legacy of Abdul Ghaffār Khān, also known as 'Bacha Khan' and the Pushtun 'Khudai Khidmatgar'.  Under Bacha Khan's leadership, this movement encouraged creativity and feminism as it transformed the Pushtun cultural values of honor and courage into a radical force of nonviolent resistance. 

As one of most effective anti-colonial freedom movements of the 20th century, Safoora elucidates the grassroots social roots of the largest army of non-violent soldiers in history and what it can inspire in us today.  She points to the simplicity, universality and the beautiful ordinariness of non-violence in a movement which lives on in the hearts and minds of the deeply courageous Pushtun people and their struggles today.


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