Imagining the Indian Nation Through Provincial Development and Freedom Movement: A Close Reading of Ghaffar Khan's
                    My Life and Struggle

Md Samsujjaman; Mohaiminul Islam; Mamud Hassan

doi:10.1111/sena.70013

journal article Dec 18, 2025

Imagining the Indian Nation Through Provincial Development and Freedom Movement: A Close Reading of Ghaffar Khan's My Life and Struggle

Md Samsujjaman

Mohaiminul Islam

Mamud Hassan

Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism Vol. 26 No. 1 pp. 175-183 · Wiley

View at Publisher Save 10.1111/sena.70013

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the processes of nation‐building that emerged during colonial India through a close textual analysis of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's autobiography
My Life and Struggle
(1969). It asks: how does Gaffar Khan's life narrative articulate an alternative model of Indian nationhood from the peripheries of empire? Using life‐writing theory and postcolonial frameworks of subaltern politics, the study examines how Khan's ethical and educational reform initiatives within the North‐West Frontier Province (NWFP) contributed to both provincial development and the broader anticolonial movement. The paper argues that Khan's text constructs a counternarrative to mainstream Indian nationalist autobiographies—particularly those of Gandhi and Nehru—by foregrounding a Muslim, Pakhtun and provincial perspective that redefines nationhood in inclusive and pluralistic terms. Through non‐violent activism, interfaith harmony and educational empowerment, Ghaffar Khan envisioned a civic nationalism grounded in moral reform rather than religious exclusivism. This study contributes new insight to Ghaffar Khan scholarship by demonstrating how his autobiography functions not merely as personal testimony but as a politically charged discourse of decolonial selfhood that expands the understanding of nation‐building in South Asian history.

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Details

Published: Dec 18, 2025
Vol/Issue: 26(1)
Pages: 175-183
License: View

Authors

M

Md Samsujjaman

Department of Humanities and Sciences Malla Reddy College of Engineering Secunderabad India

M

Mohaiminul Islam

Amity School of Languages Amity University Chhattisgarh Raipur India

M

Mamud Hassan

Department of Humanities and Sciences Malla Reddy College of Engineering Secunderabad India

Cite This Article

Md Samsujjaman, Mohaiminul Islam, Mamud Hassan (2025). Imagining the Indian Nation Through Provincial Development and Freedom Movement: A Close Reading of Ghaffar Khan's My Life and Struggle. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 26(1), 175-183. https://doi.org/10.1111/sena.70013

Imagining the Indian Nation Through Provincial Development and Freedom Movement: A Close Reading of Ghaffar Khan's My Life and Struggle

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