At the beginning of the 20th century Pashtun society was colonized, stagnant, violent, worn down by feuds, inequalities, factionalism, poor social cooperation, and plain ignorance. Education opportunities were strictly limited. Pashtuns are Muslims; and religious leaders and Mullahs were known to have told parents that if their children went to school, they would go to hell. Khan stated that “the real purpose of this propaganda” was to keep Pashtuns “illiterate and uneducated”, and hence his people “were the most backward in India” with regard to education. He also stated that by the time Islam reached his people centuries earlier, it had lost much of its original spiritual message.

Formed out of the Society for the Reformation of Pashtuns (Anjuman-e-Islah-e-Afghan), it initially targeted social reformation and launched campaigns against prostitution. Bacha Khan as its founder seemed to be influenced by the realisation that whenever British troops were faced with an armed uprising they eventually always overcame the rebellion. The same could not be said when using non violence against the troops.

The movement started prior to the Qissa Khwani bazaar massacre, when a demonstration of hundreds of non violent supporters were fired upon by British soldiers in Peshawar. Its low point and eventual dissipation was after Pakistan's independence in 1947, when the Muslim League Chief Minister Abdul Qayyum Khan banned the movement and launched a brutal crackdown on its members, which culminated in the Babra massacre. At its peak, the KK movement consisted of almost 100,000 members.

Initially the movement focussed on social reform as a means of improving the status of Pashtuns against the British. Ghaffar Khan founded several reform movements prior to the formation of the Khudai Khidmatgar, the Anjumen-e Islah ul-Afghan in 1921, the farmers' organisation Anjuman-e Zamidaran in 1927 and the youth movement Pashtun Jirga in 1927. Trying to further spread awareness on Pashtun issues Abdul Ghaffar Khan founded the magazine Pakhtun in May 1928. Finally in March 1930, almost on the eve of the Qissa Khwani Bazaar Massacre the Khudai Khidmatgar were formed.

Khan drew his first recruits from the young men who had graduated from his schools. Trained and uniformed, they served behind their officers and filed out into various villages to seek recruits. They began by wearing a simple white overshirt, but the white was soon dirtied. A couple of men had their shirts dyed at the local tannery, and the brick-red colour proved a breakthrough, it was this distinctive colour that earned the Khudai khidmatgar movement activists the name "the Red shirts" or surkh posh. Other reason for the choice of red color was a symbolic adherence of the anti colonial movements to the revolutionary and socialist discourse.

Structure

Volunteers who took the oath formed platoons with commanding officers and learned basic army discipline. The volunteers had their own flags: red in the beginning, later tri-colour and bands: bagpipe and drums. The men wore red uniforms and the women black. They had drills, badges, a flag, the entire military hierarchy of rank and even a bagpipe corps.

Khan set up a network of committees called jirgas, named and modelled after the traditional tribal councils. Villages were grouped into larger groups, responsible to district-wide committees. The Provincial Jirgah was the ultimate authority.

Officers in the ranks were not elected, since Khan wanted to avoid infighting. He appointed a salar-e-azam or commander-in-chief, who in turn appointed officers to serve under him. Other ranks included Jarnails (Generals). The army was completely voluntary; even the officers gave their services free. Women were recruited too, and played an important role in the struggles to come.

Volunteers went to the villages and opened schools, helped on work projects, and maintained order at public gatherings. From time to time they drilled in work camps and took long military-style marches into the hills.

Ideology

Under the influence of Abdul Ghaffar Khan the movement advocated non-violent protests and justified their actions through an Islamic context. Khan did not find Islam and non-violence as incompatible. Despite that the movement was intrinsically non-sectarian. In more than one occasion when Hindus and Sikhs were attacked in Peshawar, Khidmatgar members helped protect their lives and property.

“The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world and taught us ‘That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God's creatures.’ Belief in God is to love one's fellow men.” – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

“There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the Prophet all the time he was in Mecca.” – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Pledge of the Khudai Khidmatgar

Example 1

• In the name of God who is Present and Evident, I am a Khudai Khitmatgar.
• I will serve the nation without any self-interest.
• I will not take revenge (badla) and my actions will not be a burden for anyone.
• My actions will be non-violent.
• I will make every sacrifice required of me to stay on this path.
• I will serve people without regard to their religion or faith.
• I shall use nation-made goods.
• I shall not be tempted by any office.

Example 2

In the presence of God I solemnly affirm that:

The Oath of the Khudai Khidmatgar

• I am a Servant of God, and as God needs no service, serving His creation is serving Him,
• I promise to serve humanity in the name of God.
• I promise to refrain from violence and from taking revenge.
• I promise to forgive those who oppress me or treat me with cruelty.
• I promise to refrain from taking part in feuds and quarrels and from creating enmity.
• I promise to treat every Pasthun as my brother and friend.
• I promise to refrain from antisocial customs and practices.
• I promise to live a simple life, to practice virtue, and to refrain from evil.
• I promise to practice good manners and good behavior and not to lead a life of idleness.
• I promise to devote at least two hours a day to social work.
• I put forth my name in honesty and truthfulness to become a true Servant of God.
• I will sacrifice my wealth, life, and comfort for the liberty of my nation and people.
• I will never be a party to factions, hatred, or jealousies with my people; and will side with the oppressed against the oppressor.
• I will not become a member of any other rival organization, nor will I stand in an army.
• I will faithfully obey all legitimate orders of all my officers all the time.
• I will live in accordance with the principles of nonviolence.
• I will serve all God's creatures alike; and my object shall be the attainment of the freedom of my country and my religion.
• I will always see to it that I do what is right and good.
• I will never desire any reward whatever for my service.
• All my efforts shall be to please God, and not for any show or gain.

Anthem of Khudai Khidmatgar

British troops employed a wide variety of tactics against KK activists.

"The British used to torture us, throw us into ponds in wintertime, shave our beards, but even then Badshah Khan told his followers not to lose patience. He said 'there is an answer to violence, which is more violence. But nothing can conquer nonviolence. You cannot kill it. It keeps standing up. The British sent their horses and cars to run over us, but I took my shawl in my mouth to keep from screaming. We were human beings, but we should not cry or express in any way that we were injured or weak." – Musharraf Din (Baldauf).

Another tactic employed against non-violent protesters who were blocking roads was to charge them with cars and horses.

In 1930, soldiers of the Garhwal Rifles refused to fire on non-violent protests led by Khudai Khidmatgars in Peshawar. By disobeying direct orders, the regiment sent a clear message to London that loyalty of India's armed forces could not be taken for granted to enact harsh measures. However, by 1931, 5,000 members of the Khudai Khidmatgar and 2,000 members of the Congress Party were arrested. This was followed by the shooting of unarmed protestors in Utmanzai and the Takkar Massacre followed by the Hathikhel massacre.

In 1932, the Khudai Khidmatgar movement changed its tactics and involved women in the movement. This unnerved many Indian officers working in the region as in those days of conservative India it was considered a grave insult to attack women, more so in a conservative Pashtun society. However the brutality increased and in one case five police officers in Benares had to be suspended due to "horrific reports about violence used against young female volunteers".

The British bombed a village in the Bajaur Valley in March 1932 and arrested Abdul Ghaffar Khan as well as more than 4,000 Khudai Khitmatgars. The British bombardments in the border area continued up till 1936–1937 because, “India is a training field for active military training which can be found nowhere else in the Empire", a British court concluded in 1933.

Other alleged tactics ranged from poisoning to the use of castrations against some Khudai Khidmatgar activists.

After the anti-war resignation of Dr. Khan's Ministry in 1939 because of the events of World War 2, British tactics towards the movement changed to employ divide-and-rule tactics through the instigation of sectarian and communal tensions over brute force. Governor George Cunningham's policy note of 23 September 1942, called for the government to ‘continuously preach the danger to Muslims of connivance with the revolutionary Hindu body. Most tribesmen seem to respond to this’, while in another paper he commented about the period 1939–1943: ‘Our propaganda since the beginning of the war had been most successful. It had played throughout on the Islamic theme.’