Enlightened Anarchy: The Socio-politics of Nonviolence and Khudai Khidmatgar Resistance in British India

“A state of enlightened anarchy,” according to M.K. Gandhi, is the ideal end for the socio-politics of nonviolence. In this workshop we will explore the pragmatics of founding such alternate communities—is it even viable and, if so, how could such communities be brought into being? How can they flourish and survive in face of the unprecedented weaponization, authoritarianism and repression of nation-states that we see unfolding every-day, everywhere in the world today? The nation-state structure is not only intrinsically violent but, as we clearly see now, it no longer represents its people; instead it is enmeshed in perpetuating neo-liberal economics, expanding globalized capitalism and neocolonial domination in service to special interests groups; US imperialism, in particular, exemplifies this quite unashamedly. However, what is most heartening in these dark times is the rise of resistance: most people are out on the streets, are aware of the truth despite the massive propaganda machines being deployed, and their passionate spirit of solidarity also expresses a desire to create systemic change. How can this spirit of resistance also be organized towards creating alternatives to the nation-state? Resistance alone, although hugely important, can often also reinforce systems of oppression unless it, simultaneously, creates new structures; the two hands of nonviolence must be deployed together: to obstruct as well as to construct; to say no to systemic violence but also to say yes to structural change. Although successful anarchic communities do exist, such as the Landless Workers' Movement in Brazil, I will highlight a silenced historical nonviolent movement that was in the nascent stages of creating an alternate socio-political community before it was brutally destroyed by the postcolonial nation-state of Pakistan: the Khudai Khidmatgar movement led by Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as the Frontier Gandhi. In alliance with M.K. Gandhi’s Satyagraha, they not only resisted colonialism in British India but transformed their own subjectivity and, consequently, their society. Despite cultural valorizations of violence, they embodied nonviolence readily, denoting it as the enlightened form of Islam, and because of an indigenous ethos they also readily understood the anarchic aims of its framework. I will present a brief history of this invisibilized movement—often the case with anarchic communities—highlighting the overlaps between their aims and the framework of nonviolence, then we will discuss the concept, and the pragmatics, of “enlightened anarchy” together.