India-Pakistan-Afghanistan: Gandhi, Khan, and nonviolence
I had seen the book A Man to Match His Mountains but never read it. Its reputed theme was so simple and strong that I told myself I understood it well enough without having to work my way through the words: a Muslim man from a fierce warrior clan on the Pakistan-Afghanistan-India border emerges as one of Gandhi’s main co-workers in the cause of freedom and nonviolence.
When Dan and Lily of the local Dharma Disco here in Nyack, New York, told me there was going to be a documentary movie premier at Lincoln Center about the man, I jumped at the chance. Not only would this add some flesh to the thin bones of my understanding of such a heroic figure, but it was made by T. C. McLuhan. Up to that moment I knew her only and reverentially as the author of Touch the Earth, a beautiful study of the relationship between Native Americans and their land.
Dan told me, “She took 21 years to make this movie, flying between New York and Afghanistan and Pakistan and India, interviewing people who knew Badshah Khan, and digging up all kinds of rare, archival footage.” He also satisfied my curiosity by letting me know that she is the daughter of Marshall McLuhan, the renowned analyst of media. I found it titillating that the dad threw a piercing light upon communication, and the daughter in her work (or at least the work I’m aware of) throws an embracing one upon the backdrop, upon humanity’s most basic relationship with the earth.
The movie, The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, A Torch for Peace, screened in Manhattan on November 8th, exported me to the place and time and personality of Badshah Khan. That he organized one hundred thousand people who had a reputation for being clannish to the ultimate degree is incredible. That he credited the Koran for giving him the imperative of nonviolence is a theme that cries out to be heard in this world that seems to demand that the word Islamic be followed by a hyphen joined with either “militia” or “terrorist.” That he spent 30 years of his life in prison as a supposedly dangerous agitator and yet accomplished so much is excruciatingly humbling. That most of the younger people in his area of the world know nothing about him is tragic — or is it emblematic of fertile ground waiting to be sown? The movie left me to ponder that one of the things this world needs most is a new definition of the term hero.
After the movie a musical set was performed by a quartet led by David Amram, famed composer and impresario of world music. He composed the movie’s score, which was seamless.
The Frontier Gandhi has been shown in a very few select venues. Teri McLuhan is working on distribution rights now and looking at particular film festivals that would work for the picture, and a DVD version won’t be ready until the middle of next year. On December 1st, soon after the Mumbai massacre, she emailed me, “Right now I am en route to India, Pakistan, & Afghanistan. Finally I am taking the film ”˜home’ to the people. Such a remarkable story of hope, peace, and nonviolence couldn’t be more timely. It’s almost unbelievable. The roadblocks continue, however — but they are the markers!”
