The Baloch National Question in Pakistan

By Dr. Naseer Dashti

In the contemporary Asia and Africa where the boundaries of many states were drawn by former colonial powers incorporating many nationalities into one state disregarding cultural, linguistic and historical contexts, national minorities are often excluded from state power structures. In majority of these states the dominant nationality attempts to impose a monological definition of national identity and links this with coercive control structures of national security. This is done in the name of the sovereign authority of the state, this authority often being implemented in practice by the majority ethnic group dominating the decision making institutions of the state. To cope with the problem of ethnic diversity and conflicts, historically, the newly independent countries of Asia and Africa adopted the policy of Assimilation and Elimination. Pursued with variable intensity and diverse outcomes, the objective of these States has been to deactivate ethnicity and forge ‘nationalizing’ States that could serve one dominant ethnic group and its interests. Strategies of assimilation policies include attempt to impose one official language in public administration, education and the media. In political arena, states encourage over-representation of the dominant nationality in public positions. In the legal arena, they empower the dominant nation’s institutions and conventions of private law. In the economic realm, they extend preferential treatment to regions representing the interests of the hegemonic nation’s elites. In many of these post colonial countries, the State attempts vigorously to strengthen its institution of state identity on the one hand and national minority mobilizes for the safeguarding of its national collective identity on the other hand. In this situation the absence of a viable dialogue of mutual recognition results in violent confrontations and in the subsequent structural paralysis of the State. The history of Pakistan was characterized by the domination of Punjabi nationality and its ally Indian immigrants over the remaining minority nationalities resulting in constant tensions between the state centre and federating units. The Baloch National Question in Pakistan can be explained in this perspective.

The Baloch Pakistan relation has a peculiar historical context which differentiates the political mobilization of Baloch people against the Pakistani States with the political resistance of other minority nationalities in Pakistan. At the time of British withdrawal from India, the Baloch land consisted of British Balochistan and State of Kalat. British Balochistan was part of British India which was created by joining the Afghan territories acquired from Afghanistan after the Anglo-Afghan wars and some of the Baloch areas which were taken on lease from Kalat State by Indian Government in order to develop communication links with southern Afghanistan. State of Kalat had the same status as Nepal and Bhutan dealing directly with British Crown. State of Kalat declared independence on 12^th August 1947, two days before the formal partition of India into Pakistan and Bharat. Soon after declaring independence general elections were held in Balochistan and a two house parliament was established. In the complex and conspiratorial milieu of Indian partition the British Balochistan was incorporated in to Pakistan under the pretext of a controversial referendum in June 1947. This act was strongly contested by Kalat State. After the establishment of Pakistan, Kalat Sate was pressurized with the threat of armed action to join the newly founded religious state. Both houses of Kalat parliament unanimously rejected the idea of joining Pakistan. During the last week of April, 1948 Pakistani forces moved in to Baloch territory from north and south. The ruler, Khan of Kalat capitulated and signed an illegal treaty of accession with Pakistani authorities on 27^th of April, 1948. The newly independent Baloch State survived only nine months ending with its annexation in to Pakistan.

Faced with the problem of a genuine and authentic national identity and raisons d’etre, Pakistani State opted for transforming national cultures of different nationalities in to a so-called Pakistani Islamic culture by adjusting it to the requirements of dominant nationality. Conceived and created on the theory that religion alone can be a binding force between diverse ethnic and national entities of North West and Southeast of Indian subcontinent, Pakistan came as a unique phenomenon in modern political history. Its top leadership and bureaucracy came from northern India, having no cultural and social roots in the country. It was also unique that the language of a few hundred thousands emigrants was declared as the national and official language of a sovereign state. It was not only the ruling elite but the very ‘ideology of Pakistan’ that was alien to the present nationalities comprising Pakistan. Proponent of Pakistan ideology, the Muslim league, a political party that was formed and groomed by British colonial rulers in early twentieth century, had no popular support within the present geographical boundaries of the country, a fact fully reflected in the pre-partition general elections. It was only a section among Muslim minority in northern India that was in the forefront of Pakistan movement, motivated in the hope that their future economic prosperity might be materialized in a separate state.

Founded upon un-natural and superfluous principles, the Pakistani State fostered irrational mentality. This led to the creation of an official, monolithic, absolute Islamic Pakistani identity by ignoring the multiple identities that comprised the federation of Pakistan. The emphasis on Islamic brotherhood along with the ‘strong center doctrine’ was institutionalized by the rulers, which excluded minority nationalities from power structures and contributed to widening of rift between the center and periphery. In the process of creating this artificial Islamic identity, the thousands years old cultures and languages of the minority nationalities were traded off with the language and cultural traditions of immigrants from north India. Soon it became clear that this “god given” country is more or less an extension of Punjabi-immigrant domination over other nationalities in all spheres of life. The paradox of Pakistani Islamic nationalism resulted in hostility towards national aspirations of minority nationalities.

Having shaky and unsure ideological and conceptual foundations, the Pakistan State resorted to strong-arm tactics in dealing with the demands of different national identities. In a Baloch context, whether in reserve or in actual employment, brutal force has ever been present and this has been so since the incorporation of Balochistan in to Pakistan in 1948.

a) Massive military crack downs of atrocious proportion were waged against Baloch people in 1948, 1958, 1973 and the present military operation in Marri, Bugti, Jhalawan and Southern Balochistan is the latest in this series.

b) Kidnapping, torture, and selective killings of Baloch political figures by state security agencies and fomenting intertribal and intra-tribal conflicts have been the norms in Balochistan since long.

c) A ‘state of siege’ has been imposed on Balochistan through police, paramilitary and armed forces repression. In all practical terms Balochistan had been ruled as a conquered territory and present day Balochistan looks like a war zone. In the absence of any meaningful international pressure, Pakistani forces are perpetrating all kinds of brutality and human rights violations with impunity.

Besides ruthless army actions the State Establishment had been adopting a variety of policies to confront Baloch demand of cultural, political and economic emancipation. These can be summarized as follows:

· Balochistan has been ruled in a manner of indirect colonial rule. In the disguise of state engineered elections, agents of state security agencies were “elected or projected” as the representatives of Baloch masses. This is a thorough corruption of colonial traditions and merely an extension of majority domination by proxy.

· The State has also been fostering intertribal and intra-tribal rivalries among those Baloch tribes whose chiefs are leading the Baloch National Struggle.

· Fundamentalist religious elements allied with state establishment have been actively encouraged, funded and patronized by State to take over, in the long run, the very fabric of a secular Baloch society.

· By a process of induced assimilation education in Balochi is prohibited and a north Indian language and culture has been superimposed on Baloch people.

· Demographic changes have been actively planned and being executed by the State to reduce the Baloch into a minority in their own land. Settlers from majority nationality have been given incentives to move to northern Balochistan in the past. The recent allotment and occupation of the thousands of acres of lands in southern Balochistan for the planned settlement of 2.5 million people from Punjab will bring about a demographic shift in favor of majority nationality.

The National Question of Baloch is an old and historically constituted reality. Founded in 1666 AD, the Khanate of Kalat was the symbol of Baloch sovereignty, independence or semi-independence status till 1948. The independent status of Baloch Khanate began to change from mid 19^th century. After the Baloch State declined to be involved in foreign aggression against Afghanistan, an English detachment attacked capital Kalat on 13 November 1839. The ruler, Khan Mehrab Khan, was killed in the battle and a new Khan was appointed as nominal ruler of Baloch State with a British representative as the supreme authority. During 1873 and 1893 Britain granted nearly half of Baloch land to Persia and a small northern portion to Afghanistan by drawing two lines on the map of the region namely the Goldsmid and Durand lines by forcing unjust agreements upon Baloch State. As a result of these dividing lines Balochistan has been minced by the powerful grinding jaws of Indian originated two nation theory of Pakistani State in the east and the brutal, tyrannical and religious fundamentalism from the reminiscent of Persian Empire in the west.

Baloch have never reconciled with the idea of their country being incorporated in the religious fundamentalist state of Pakistan nor have accepted the partition of their land into Iranian or Pakistani or Afghani Balochistan. Baloch had never agreed to compromise their thousands year old language, traditions and values in order to adopt state sponsored and the artificial culture of a fundamentalist Islamic State. The desire among Baloch to protect their identity, culture, language, territory and traditional life style contributed to the political movements which on many occasions led to outcomes such as armed resistance. In-spite of the diversity of struggle the Baloch resistance movements in Iran and Pakistan had all the same background - the will of national liberation.

The National Question concerns the oppression of one or a number of other people by a dominant nationality. This fact can not be denied that Balochistan was conquered by force and is being ruled by brutal force. In all the institutions of Pakistan, the Baloch are practically and statutorily been excluded from the political, economical and cultural processes of the state. Political power is explicitly the monopoly of the central government dominated by Punjabis and immigrants. All of this is being rationalized on the basis of ideology of Pakistan; the core of this fundamentalist ideology is the conquest and domination of the minority nationalities of Pakistan in the name of religion. The features of Baloch National Question in Pakistan have been determined by a number of factors including the loss of Baloch homeland, loss of their independent/semi-independent state and subsequent economic, social and cultural exploitation and the brutal state reprisal against the demand of collective Baloch rights. The Baloch as a nation resent the repression and marginalization by a particular nationality in the name of Islamic brotherhood. The Baloch people are discontented because they feel that their cultural and traditional values are endangered by the attempts of the dominant nationality to impose imported and alien cultural values. They believe that their land has been arbitrarily partitioned by imperialistic powers. They believe that the occupying countries, ruling over the divided parts of Balochistan, have excluded Baloch people from state structures of economic and political power. They resent the educational system of the host countries based on irrational sectarian and religious parameters. They recognize that the secular and liberal mindset of Baloch people is incompatible with the religious and fundamentalist ideologies of the host countries. They are discontented because they feel that they do not enjoy the liberty of conscience in the host countries. They are discontented because they believe that despite immense natural resources of their land Baloch people are living below poverty line. Baloch masses firmly believe that Baloch identity is more at peril than ever before. The Baloch demand for self-rule constitutes a democratic pursuit that is incompatible with the despotism and religious-based nationalism of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. The Baloch believe that the path to their national salvation and emancipation lies in the achievement of the universal right of self-determination that is the only peaceful mean and is an essential element in the solution of National Questions.