Syed Ali Mujtaba
NEW DELHI — Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of God), an organisation dedicated to the spread of inter-faith harmpny in the country, has been organising meetings in different states of India to pursue its motto.
Khudai Khidmatgar was founded byKhan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as the Frontier Gandhi, in 1929 as part of India’s freedom struggle. In 2011, Khudai Khidmatgar was revived and reenergised to create amity among religios communities to spread inter-faith harmony in the country.
At a meeting patronisd by Tara Gandhi, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, in New Delhi in 2011, 50 Khudai Khidmatgar volunteers were administered as members of the organisation who offered their selfless serices to spread inter-faith harmanoy, according to Faisal Khan, the national convener of the Khudai Khidmatgar organization from Bhopal.
On January 30, 2025, the Khudai Khidmatgar’s volunteers organised a meeting on the occasion of the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi in Bhopal. Faisal Khan says that the volunteers are working earneatly by organising various meetings at different places to spread their message,. Meetings were organised successfully in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh andin Tamil Nadu.
The Bhopal meeting was organised with the help of Madhya Pradesh Sarvodaya Mandal who along with Khudai Khidmatgar organised ”Sadbhavna Samvad” on the day of ‘Gandhiji’s Shahadat Diwas’ on 30th January 2025 at Gandhi Bhawan.”
“All meetings were devoted to spreading the message of inter-faith harmony and are done in collaboration with various like-minded organisations in the country,” Faisal Khan said.
Kripal Singh Mandloi , aleader of Khudai Khidmatgar said “Humanity is natural to human beings, not hate. Any fake or unnatural thing won’t last long as we all tend to return to our natural being very shortly. So all in all we need to do is be natural “human beings” filled with humanity and aspire for peace and harmony.”
Giving the context of the revival of Khudai Khidmatgar, Kripal Singh Mandloi said, “In present times we again see big money is being used to spread hate. And hate can only be countered with love. So taking the message of love and Inter-faith harmony is the motto of Khudai Khidmatgar.”
Khudai Khidmatgars was originally formed in 1929 in and around Peshawar, currently in Pakistan. The name of this organisation means ‘those who serve God or the creation of God serve humanity’.
The nuanced understanding of the concept of Khudai Khidmatgar is, “it is our duty to serve God but God does not need any service, so the best way to serve God is to serve his creations that are we human beings particularly those who are in distress and in need.”
