The Baloch And Balochistan

Three thousand years ago, a group of Indo-Iranic tribes (called Balaschik at that time) settled in the northwestern Caspian region of Balashagan. Circumstances forced them to disperse and migrate towards south and eastern parts of Iranian plateau. In medieval times, they finally settled in present Balochistan where they became known as the Baloch. During their long and tortuous journey from Balashagan to Balochistan, the Baloch faced persecutions, deportations, and genocidal acts of various Persian, Arab and other regional powers. During 17th century, after dominating Balochistan culturally and politically, the Baloch carved out a nation state (the Khanate of Kalat). In 1839, the British occupied Balochistan and subsequently it was divided into various parts. In the wake of the British withdrawal from India in 1947, Balochistan regained its sovereignty but soon Pakistan occupied it in 1948. The historical account of the Baloch is the story of a pastoralist nomadic people from ancient times to mid-twentieth century. The author outlines the origin of the Baloch state and its variegated history of survival against powerful neighbors such as the Persians, the British and finally, Pakistan. This fascinating research work discovers the background of the long drawn-out conflict between the Baloch and Pakistan and Iranian states.

The book is about history of the Baloch conflict with Iran and Pakistan. The work describes and analyzes, from the very beginning, the protracted and bloody struggle of the Baloch against Iran and Pakistan. It is an attempt to answer some of the pertinent questions regarding the background and contextual factors of this long-drawn conflict. The book analyzes the strength and weaknesses of opposing parties in the conflict, and it discusses the role of regional and international interest groups. It is also an overview of the problems facing the Baloch national struggle in both countries and prospects for the success of the Baloch resistance in near future.

Culture is an integrated system of institutions, ideas, beliefs, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society. It is an important factor in shaping and re-shaping the identity of a people. The culture has helped the Baloch to survive and to retain its national identity in difficult times in their national history. This book is a modest effort to discuss the conditions which have ensured the continuity of the Baloch culture, and the inspiring characteristics which still direct the Baloch society. It is an exploration towards understanding the Baloch and its socio-cultural traditions in their proper historical perspective.

Compiled by Dr Naseer Dashti, this first-ever English Balochi Dictionary written in Roman script is a milestone in Balochi language and literature. Bringing together the Balochi equivalents of thousands of English words will certainly be a great help for learners, translators, scholars, and researchers. Balochi is one of the oldest languages in the world but for various reasons its development has been hampered. This dictionary being in the Roman script will be a great step forward for the development of the Balochi language.

The Great Game for Central Asia led to British involvement in Balochistan, a sparsely-populated area in Pakistan, mostly desert and mountain, and containing the Bolan Pass, the southern counter- part of the more famous Khyber. It occupies a position of great strategic importance between Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and the Arabian Sea. Heathcote's book is a history of the Khanate of Kalat and of British operations against the Baloch hill tribes who raided frontier settlements and the Bolan caravans. Its themes include rivalry between British officials in Sind and the Punjab, high profile disputes between British politicians over frontier policy and organization, and the British occupation of Quetta, guardian city of the Bolan, in the run-up to the Second Afghan War. Among the many strong characters in this story is Sir Robert Sandeman, hitherto hailed as "the peaceful conqueror of Balochistan," now revealed as a ruthless careerist, whose personal ambitions led to the fragmentation of the country under British domination. The closing chapter summarizes subsequent events up to modern times, in which the Baloch have maintained a long-running struggle for greater autonomy within Pakistan.

During the early 19th century the British came in direct contact with the Baloch, first with those living in the Punjab and Sind, and later with those in Balochistan proper. Soon after their arrival in the region, they began studying the Baloch as an ethno-national group, their language, literature, folklore, tribal structure, physical features, and so on, forming theories and suggesting hypotheses regarding their origins and relations with other nations and peoples. While some maintained that the Baloch originated from north-western Iran, others believed they came from Central Asia, from Arabia, or from else- where.1 Among the early British writers, some also opined that while some tribes might have a foreign origin, bulk of the Baloch were the autochthonous population of the country. With the passage of time, however, other theories were abandoned and a northwest Iranian origin came to be the widely accepted one. This thesis was established on three basic grounds: first, from the Balochi oral tradition which claims that the Baloch came from a place called Alab/Alap, identified as Aleppo in Syria by Western writers and later followed by some lo- cal writers too; secondly, their mention in the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi where they are sometimes shown along with the people of Gilan and Dilam, regions situated on the Caspian Sea regions; and thirdly, on the basis of their language, which is classified as belonging to the northwestern group of Iranian languages having close affinities with Kurdish and other languages of that branch.

This book critically examines the causes of the increase in insurgent violence in Balochistan and explores the relations between the national government of Pakistan and the province of Balochistan. Based on historical analysis, the book argues that the national government of Pakistan and the leaders of Balochistan both use a standard narrative when dealing with each other. According to the Baloch narrative, Islamabad exploits Balochistan’s natural resources without giving Balochistan its due share and has never accepted and granted Balochistan equal rights. The centre’s narrative emphasizes the tribal character of the Baloch society and suggests that the Baloch elite hinder Balochistan’s integration with the federation. This book demonstrates that both narratives are inherently flawed and presents a precipitous picture of the problem of insurgent violence. It also shows that the Baloch leadership is divided along tribal lines and lacks a unified voice and proposes that the Baloch elite use the narrative of enduring injustice only as a source of politicization of Baloch ethnicity when an actual or perceived injustice is taking place. An important addition to the literature on ethno-political conflicts, this unique analysis of the importance of narrative in the imagination of political movements will be of interest to scholars in the fields of South Asian studies, ethnic conflicts, separatist and political movements and Asian politics.