Pages from History: Khaksar Movement

The Khaksar movement was a social movement based in Lahore, Punjab, British India, established by Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi in 1931, to free India from the rule of the British and establish a Muslim government in India uniting both Hindus and Muslims. Membership in the Khaksar movement was open to everyone and had no membership fee regardless of the person’s religion, race, caste, or social status. The emphasis was on the brotherhood of mankind and being inclusive for all people. The Khaksar movement’s foundation is “… essentially to free India from colonial rule and to revive Islam, although it also aimed to give justice and equal rights to all faiths.”

They took their name from the Persian words Khak and Sar, respectively meaning dust and like, and roughly combined to translate as a “humble person”. Mashriqi began recruiting followers to his cause in his village of Ichhra near Lahore.

An early report said that the movement began with 90 followers. By 1942 it was reported that the membership was four million and it was “phenomenal in its success. “There was also an associated weekly newspaper called Al-Islah. The Khaskar Movement was vocal in its opposition to the partition of India and instead favored a united India. During the partition itself, the Khaksars took a vow to do what they could to protect those in distress; this resulted in many lives being saved, including Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. IN one incident, a Khaksar volunteer entered a local colony near Rawalpindi to calm people down, but was stabbed to death. Allama Mashriqi disbanded the Khaksar Tehrik on 4 July 1947 considering that the Muslims of India were more than satisfied after the newly revived hope of a new separate Muslim state i.e. Pakistan and he felt that they had lost much of their motivation which could meet the requirements of the Khaksar movement.

Courtesy: August 2022 Vol-1 No-5 South Asia Research Center of India