Ghani Khan

Modern Pashto's philosopher-poet, known as 'Lewanay Falsafi' (the mad philosopher)

PashtoPoet, painter and philosopher

Life

Abdul Ghani Khan was the son of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan), leader of the Khudai Khidmatgar non-violent movement. He studied art at Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan in India and later studied in England and the United States, where he trained in sugar technology.

Back home he worked in the sugar industry and was briefly active in politics, but became best known as a poet, painter and sculptor. He was imprisoned for several years after independence, a period in which he wrote much poetry.

Major works

Poetry collections: Collections such as Panoos, Palwashay and Da Panjray Chaghar, later gathered in his collected works (Kulliyat).
The Pathans: A short, witty English book (1947) describing Pashtun character and culture.

Themes and style

Beauty, love, the meaning of life, freedom of thought and the mysteries of God, often expressed with humour and a questioning, philosophical mind.

Legacy

Ghani Khan is regarded as one of the greatest modern Pashto poets, and his poems are popular in Pashto music. He received the Sitara-e-Imtiaz.