Every year on November 11, the public holiday is observed in the Poonch district of Azad Kashmir, to commemorate the social, religious, economic, and political services of the legendary leader Col. (R) Khan Muhammad Khan. This essay is a humble effort to acknowledge such contributions.
Col. (R) Khan Muhammad Khan, was born in the village Chechan, Pallandri, AJK, in a very remote and deprived area, inhabitants of which are now, by the virtue of, awareness and enlightenment generated by stalwarts like Col. Khan Muhammad Khan grabbing key positions in various professional field and yielding command and respect.
Despite a modest educational background, prevailing massive ignorance, and illiteracy, Col. Khan ventured to fight against socio-economic evils and hardship thereby, set a memorable example of success and proving that where there is will, there is way.
Whenever someone chooses to study his whole life struggle one will necessarily reach the conclusion that Col. Khan Muhammad Khan adopted, followed, and practiced for success and glory, three sound principles of an accomplished person which are unflinching faith, perseverance, and passion. As Allama Muhammad Iqbal famously described:
To secure a comprehensive understanding of struggle and his achievements it is necessary to make a thorough appraisal of the ground realities and dynamics of his time, in the face of which he visualised the steps to fight against heavy odds to achieve an objective that has a sweeping impact on the future of mankind and history.
Col. Khan Muhammad Khan firmly believed that objectives of socio-economic uplift, emancipation from worst subjugation and persecution, and deliverance from poverty, as these were deep-rooted and pervasive, can only be achieved by launching a movement on various fronts simultaneously.
To resolve the livelihood issue, he persuaded the people to increase their financial resources by recruitment in the British army, the only readily available source of income at that critical period. He underlined the importance and advocated that on the one hand, it would provide a source of income as well as an opportunity for exposure to British people who are educated, well-trained, and disciplined, which in turn would motivate our youth to learn and lead.
Col. Khan Muhammad Khan's strategy was two prongs. On the one hand, it worked very effectively to steer his community out of the quagmire of despondency, depression, and poverty by seeking jobs in the British army.
The second important strategic front Col. Khan Muhammad Khan, engaged and confronted with devotion and dedication was to fight against illiteracy, ignorance, and conservative mindset amongst the masses. He was thoroughly convinced that socioeconomic ailment and economic deprivation of the society can only be addressed and resolved by educating the young people, which is only possible through the establishment of educational institutions of both religious and scientific nature.
However, prevailing situations on these fronts of education both (religious and scientific) were very depressing and deplorable. Dogra regime was highly skeptical about of people of Poonch particularly Bagh, Rawalakot, Tarar Khel, Hajira, and Pallandri in the view of historical revolt of 1832 and subsequent events of disobedience, so the government was not inclined to invest in human resource development.
Muthi Atta Movement was a very innovative financial tool and product to resolve the problem of paucity of finances and resources, which were earnestly needed to embark upon the journey of increasing literacy and education
So, in this backdrop of complete negligence and reluctance on the part of the Dogra regime towards the promotion of education rather it was bent upon keeping the people of Poonch backward by denying the right of education in the areas with Muslim majority. So, Col. Khan Muhammad Khan appeared on the surface of the political and social arena and put forward a very creative idea & model of the Muthi Atta Movement by preaching to the people by way of visiting every nook and corner of Poonch to inculcate the mind of people, that we may survive and flourish by self-reliance only.
Muthi Atta Movement was a very innovative financial tool and product to resolve the problem of paucity of finances and resources, which were earnestly needed to embark upon the journey of increasing literacy and education.
For the purpose of making his notion and idea, to gather resources for the noble cause of promoting education, besides male members of society, he very efficiently and successfully launched this movement in the female population because it was never possible without their cooperation, as they were directly involved in the manual grinding of the grain in every house and the household female managed to spare a Muthi Atta willingly daily. Although initially it appeared as a very small contribution, yet, when studied its practical impacts, these were exceptional and far-reaching.
By virtue of the Muthi Atta Movement, a religious educational institution and mosque were established in 1934 under the umbrella of the Sudhan Educational Conference and secondly scholarship scheme was introduced for young talented students who succeeded in taking admissions to various educational institutions of the subcontinent. He was also a very illuminating political and social figure whose role influenced millions of people of Poonch positively, who were blind and dormant at that time of their future. It was only Khan Muhammad Khan, who made them believe and inspired them to rise to the occasion by taking modern education, hence some of them led the people’s independence movement, and many of them played a very constructive and decisive role in building the government of the state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
By critical appreciation of the remarkable tasks and achievements of Khan Muhammad Khan, a parallel can be drawn between him and the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Dr. Muhammad Younas, who founded 1983 Grameen Bank Bangladesh, a first-time micro-financing bank by the dint of an inspiration he gathered from women to whom he lent 27$ only, which that lady returned 100 percent after succeeding in cultivating vegetables and establishing household poultry farm, which enabled her to create an alternative source of income for the whole of her family.
Both personalities (Col. Khan and Dr. Younas) shared some common features in that they mobilised women folk very effectively to bring about socio-economic change and uplift, which helped to alleviate poverty in their respective spheres to a considerable extent.
Therefore, Col. Khan's role, when analysed in this context appears that his contribution towards the uplift of common people is no less than any of the socio-economic reformers elsewhere.
It is high time to assume responsibility for both the government and private entities to address the real cause behind the current unrest and upsurge in youth
In the backdrop of earlier analysis, I may safely without any fear of contradiction construe, that Col. Khan Muhammad Khan despite a very modest level of formal education and without any international exposure visualised, invented, and implemented a very novel, innovative, creative, but, highly fruitful idea of the micro-financing model in the shape of Muthi Atta Movement especially involving the female segment of a very conservative and orthodox society therefore, he deserves tremendous acknowledgment and recognition.
I think it becomes the responsibility of the leadership of Sudhan Education Conference and the rest of the elite diaspora of Poonch to pay a rich and befitting tribute to Col. Khan Muhammad Khan (late) by way of establishing Muthi Atta Bank for accumulating financial resources to promote professional, technical and skill-based education in Poonch area particularly and rest of Azad Kashmir to enable bulge of youth which is although generally having conventional education, however, lacking technical skills, artisan ability, and problem-solving insight, hence, fail to snatch any opportunity to employ themselves, consequently fall into a valley of despair and disappointment as well as become prey to exploiter very conveniently. It is high time to assume responsibility for both the government and private entities to address the real cause behind the current unrest and upsurge in youth. Sudhan Education Conference and the rest of the diaspora needed to establish Muthi Atta Bank to enhance and enlarge the very rich legacy of Col. Khan of inspiring to save and invest to long-term projects which shall arm our youth with capacity to seek livelihood worldwide.
I hope this idea of Muthi Atta Bank (micro-financing) shall be evaluated in real and pragmatic terms, any suggestion in this regard shall highly be appreciated.