Balochistan
Balochistan
بلۏچستان | |
---|---|
Countries | |
Population (2013) | |
• Total | c. 18–19 million |
Largest cities |
Balochistan
The Balochistan region is split among three countries:
Etymology
The name "Balochistan" is generally believed to derive from the name of the Baloch people.[8] Since the Baloch people are not mentioned in pre-Islamic sources, it is likely that the Baloch were known by some other name in their place of origin and that they acquired the name "Baloch" only after arriving in Balochistan sometime in the 10th century.[10]
Johan Hansman relates the term "Baloch" to
During the time of Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE), the Greeks called the land Gedrosia and its people Gedrosoi, terms of unknown origin.[17] Using etymological reasoning, H. W. Bailey reconstructs a possible Iranian name, uadravati, meaning "the land of underground channels", which could have been transformed to badlaut in the 9th century and further to balōč in later times. This reasoning remains speculative.[18]
History
The earliest evidence of human occupation in what is now Balochistan is dated to the
Classical period
From the 1st century to the 3rd century CE, the region was ruled by the
During the wars between Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) and Emperor Darius III (336-330 BCE), the Baloch were allied with the last Achaemenid emperor. According to Shustheri (1925), Darius III, after much hesitation, assembled an army at Arbela to counter the army of invading Greeks. His cousin Besius was the commander, leading the horsemen from Balkh. Berzanthis was the commander of the Baloch forces, Okeshthra was the commander of the forces from Khuzistan, Maseus was the commander of the Syrian and Egyptian contingent, Ozbed was the commander of the Medes, and Phirthaphirna was leading the Sakas and forces from Tabaristan, Gurgan, and Khurasan. Obviously, as part of a losing side, the Baloch certainly got their share of punishment from the victorious Macedonian forces.[21]
Medieval period
During the reign of Arab dynasties, medieval Iran suffered the onslaught of Ghaznavids, Mongols, Timurids, and the incursions of Guzz Turks. The relationship between the Baloch and nearly all these powers were hostile, and the Baloch suffered enormously during this long period. The Baloch encounters with these powers and the subsequent Baloch miseries forced the Baloch tribes to move from the areas of conflicts and to settle in the farflung and inaccessible regions. The bloody conflicts with Buyids and Seljuqs were instrumental in waves of migration by the Baloch tribes from Kerman to further east.[23]
The Hindu Sewa Dynasty ruled parts of Balochistan, chiefly
The region was fully Islamized by the 9th century and became part of the territory of the
There are only passing references of Baloch encounters with the Mongol hordes. In one of the classical Balochi ballads, there is mention of a Baloch chieftain, Shah Baloch, who, no doubt, heroically resisted a Mongol advance somewhere in Sistan.[citation needed]
During the long period of en masse migrations, the Baloch were traveling through settled territories, and it could not have been possible to survive simply as wandering nomads. Perpetual migrations, hostile attitudes of other tribes and rulers, and adverse climactic conditions ruined much of their cattle breeding. Settled agriculture became a necessity for the survival of herds and an increased population. They began to combine settled agriculture with animal husbandry. The Baloch tribes now consisted of sedentary and nomadic population, a composition that remained an established feature of the Baloch tribes until recently.[28]
The Khanate of Kalat was the first unified polity to emerge in the
Tribalism and nomadism
Baloch tribalism in medieval times was synonymous with pastoral nomadism. Nomadic people, as observed by Heape (1931), regard themselves as the superior of sedentary or agriculturist. It is, perhaps, because the occupation of nomads made them strong, active, and inured to hardship and the dangers which beset a mobile life.[33]
The areas of Balochistan where the Baloch tribes moved in had a sedentary population, and the Baloch tribes were compelled to deal with their sedentary neighbors. Being in a weaker position, the Baloch tribes were in need of constant vigils for their survival in new lands. To deal with this problem, they began to make alliances and organized themselves into a more structured way. The structural solution to this problem was to create tribal confederacies or unions. Thus, in conditions of insecurity and disorder or when threatened by a predatory regional authority or a hostile central government, several tribal communities would form a cluster around a chief who had demonstrated his ability to offer protection and security.[33]
British occupation
The British took over the area[
In the 1870s,
Beginning from 1840, there began a general insurrection against the British rule throughout Balochistan. The Baloch were not ready to accept their country as part of an occupied Afghanistan and to be ruled under a puppet Khan. The powerful Mari tribe rose in total revolt. The British retaliated with excessive force, and a British contingent under the command of Major Brown on May 11, 1840, attacked the Mari headquarter of Kahan and occupied Kahan Fort and the surrounding areas (Masson, 1974). The Mari forces withdrew from the area, regrouped, and in an ambush wiped out a whole convoy of British troops near Filiji, killing more than one hundred British troops.[34]
During the time of the
Post-colonial history
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In 2021, there was an earthquake that killed dozens of people. This came to be known as the
Culture
The cultural values which are the pillars of the Baloch individual and national identity were firmly established during the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, a period which not only brought sufferings for the Baloch and forced them into en masse migrations but also brought fundamental sociocultural transformation of the Baloch society. An overlapping of pastoral ecology and tribal structure had shaped contemporary Baloch social values. The pastoralist nomadic way of life and the inclination to resist the assimilation attempts of various powerful ethnic identities shaped the peculiar Baloch ethnic identity. It was the persecution by strong and organized religions for the last two thousand years that has shaped their secular attitude about religion in social or community affairs. Their independent and stubborn behavior as the distinctive feature of the Baloch identity is consistent with their nomadic or agro-pastoral past.[39]
Med o Maraka, for resolution of disputes among the Baloch, is a much-honored tradition. In a broader context, it is, in a way, accepting the guilt by the accused or offender and asking for forgiveness from the affected party. Usually, the offender himself does this by going to the home of the affected person and asking for forgiveness.[40]
Dress code and personal upkeeping are among the cultural values, which distinguish a Baloch from others. The Baloch dress and personal upkeeping very much resemble the Median and Parthian ways. Surprisingly, no significant changes can be observed in the Balochi dress since the ancient times. A typical Balochi outfit consisted of loose-fitting and many-folded trousers held by garters, bobbed hair, shirt (qamis), and a head turban. Generally, both hair and beard were carefully curled, but, sometimes, they depended on long straight locks. A typical dress of a Baloch woman consists of a long frock and trouser (shalwaar) with a headscarf.[41][42]
Music
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Zahirok is one of the most important and well-known balochi song genres, often described as the “Balochi classical music” by the Baloch themselves.[43][44]
Instruments in traditional
Religion
Historically, there is no documented evidence of religious practices of the Baloch in ancient times. Many among the Baloch writers observed that the persecutions of the Baloch by the Sassanid emperors Shapur II and Khosrow II had a strong religious or sectarian element. They believed that there are strong indications that the Baloch were the followers of Mazdakian and Manichean sects of Zoroastrianism religion at the time of their fatal encounters with Sassanid forces. No elaborate structure of religious institutions has been discerned in the Baloch society during the Middle Ages. The Baloch converted to Islam (nearly all Baloch belong to the Sunni sect of Islam) after the Arab conquest of Balochistan during the seventh century.[50]
Governance and political disputes
The Balochistan region is administratively divided among three countries,
The Balochistan region has also experienced a number of insurgencies with separatist militants demanding independence of Baloch regions in the three countries to form "Greater Balochistan".[53] In Pakistan, insurgencies by separatist militants in Balochistan province have been fought in 1948, 1958–59, 1962–63 and 1973–1977, with a new ongoing low-intensity insurgency[54] beginning in 2003.[55] Historically, drivers of the conflict are reported to include "tribal divisions", the Baloch-Pashtun ethnic divisions, "marginalization by Punjabi interests", and "economic oppression".[56] However, over the years, insurgency waged by separatist militants declined as result of crackdown by Pakistani security forces, infighting among the separatist militants and assassinations of Baloch politicians willing to take part in Pakistan's democratic process by the separatist militants.[57] Separatist militants in Pakistan demand more autonomy and a greater share in the region's natural resources. The Baloch population in Pakistan has endured grave violations of human rights, which include extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture. These actions are purportedly perpetrated by state security forces and their associates.[58] In 2019, United States declared Baloch Liberation Army, one of the separatist militants fighting the government of Pakistan, a global terrorist group.[54]
In Iran, separatist fighting has reportedly not gained as much ground as the conflict in Pakistan,
See also
References
- ^ Iran, Library of Congress, Country Profile . Retrieved December 5, 2009.
- ^ Afghanistan, The World Factbook . Retrieved December 5, 2009.
- ^ Central Intelligence Agency (2013). "The World Factbook: Ethnic Groups". Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
- ^ Other variations of the spelling, especially on French maps, include Beloutchistan and Baloutchistan also Baloch Land.
- ISBN 978-1-4669-5896-8.
- ^ Ahmed, Manzoor; Khan, Gulawar (22 September 2020). "The History of Baloch and Balochistan: A Critical Appraisal". South Asian Studies. 32 (1 (2017)) – via University of the Punjab.
- ^ Dames, Mansel Longworth (1904). The Baloch Race: A Historical and Ethnological Sketch. Royal Asiatic Society.
- ^ a b Pillalamarri, Akhilesh (12 February 2016). "A Brief History of Balochistan". thediplomat.com. THE DIPLOMAT. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
- ^ "Human Rights in Balochistan: A Case Study in Failure and Invisibility". HuffPost. 25 March 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
- ^ Elfenbein, J. (1988), "Baluchistan iii. Baluchi Language and Literature", Encyclopaedia Iranica
- ^ Parpola 2015, Ch. 17: "The identification of Meluhha with the Greater Indus Valley is now almost universally accepted."
- ^ Hansman 1973, p. 564.
- ^ Hansman 1973, p. 565.
- ^ Hansman 1973, pp. 568–569.
- ^ Parpola & Parpola 1975, pp. 217–220.
- ^ Thapar 1975, p. 10.
- ISBN 978-1-108-08275-4
- ^ Hansman 1973
- ^ Doshi, Riddhi (17 May 2015). "What did Harappans eat, how did they look? Haryana has the answers". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on May 17, 2015.
- ^ Tandon 2006, p. 183.
- ^ "Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ Tandon 2006, pp. 201–202.
- ^ Pillalamarri, Akhilesh. "A Brief History of Balochistan". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ Fowle, T. C.; Rai, Diwan Jamiat (1923). Baluchistan. Directorate of Archives, Government of Balochistan. p. 100.
The Hindus of Kalat town may indeed be far more indigenous since they claim descent from the ancient Sewa dynasty that ruled Kalat long before the Brahui came to Baluchistan.
- ^ Balochistan Through the Ages: Geography and history. Nisa Traders. 1979. p. 316.
The country up to and including Multan was conquered by the Arabs and the Hindu dynasty of Sind and probably also the Sewa dynasty of Kalat came to an end.
- ISBN 978-969-0-10047-4.
The Sibi division was carved out of the Quetta and Kalat Divisions in April, 1974, and comprises districts of Sibi, Kachhi, Nasirabad, Kohlu and Dera Bugti. The Division derives its name from the town of Sibi or Sewi. The local tradition attributes the origin of this name to Rani Sewi of the Sewa dynasty which ruled this part of the country in ancient times.
- ^ "The Regions of Sind, Baluchistan, Multan and Kashmir: the Historical, Social and Economic Setting | Programme des Routes de la Soie". fr.unesco.org. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ "Engaged review of contemporary art and thought". www.nakedpunch.com. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ a b "Brahui". Encyclopedia Irannica.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59884-659-1.
- ^ "Mastung > History of district". Retrieved 28 June 2021.
The Brahui Khans of Qalat were dominant from the 17th century onwards until the arrival of the British in the 19th century.
- ISBN 978-0-415-68614-3.
The Brahui Khanate of Kalat sits at the apex of...
- ^ a b "Gale - Institution Finder". galeapps.gale.com. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ a b c "History – Government of Balochistan". Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ISBN 9780299054403.
The British began to assume control over the rough desert region in extreme western India known as Baluchistan in the 1870s.
- ISBN 978-0-19-579634-6.
Besides the Balochistan Muslim League, three pro-Congress parties were still active in Balochistan's politics: the Anjuman-i Watan, the Jamiatul Ulama u Hind, and the Qalat State National Party.
- ISBN 9780429750526.
Furthermore, Congress leadership of Balochistan was united and there was no disagreement over its president, Samad Khan Achakzai. On the other hand, Qazi Isa was the president of the League in Balochistan. Surprisingly, he was neither a Balochi nor a Sardar. Consequently, all Sardars except Jaffar Khan Jamali, were against Qazi Isa for contesting this seat.
- ^ "Asian Disaster Reduction Center(ADRC)". www.adrc.asia. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
A 5.9 magnitude quake struck Balochistan province, Pakistan at 03:01 am on 7 October 2021 local time at a depth of 20km. According to the Disaster Management Authority, at least 20 people were killed and about 300 injured.
- ^ "Balochi Culture". History Pak. 2013-05-29. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ "Baloch | people | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ "Balochi culture dress". Balochi culture dress. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ "The Baloch race. A historical and ethnological sketch". 1904. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "CULTURE: BUDDING LOVE FOR MUSIC". 21 May 2023.
- ^ Khan, Badal. "Zahirok: The Musical Base of Baloch Minstrelsy".
- .
- ^ Massoudieh, M. T. (2016-06-21). "BALUCHISTAN iv. Music of Baluchistan". Encyclopædia Iranica.
- ^ "Regional Music". Retrieved January 5, 2024.
- ^ Khan, Badal. "Zahirok: The Musical Base of Baloch Minstrelsy".
- ^ Hafeez, Somaiyah (2023-01-01). "Baloch music through history and time". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
- . Retrieved 2022-04-21.
- ^ a b c Grassi, Daniele (20 October 2014). "Iran's Baloch insurgency and the IS". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
- ^ "Ex-president Pervez Musharraf: From Pakistan military ruler to fugitive in murder cases". The Indian Express. 2023-02-05. Retrieved 2023-05-20.
- ^ Shukla, Srijan (20 February 2020). "Who are Baloch Liberation Army? Insurgents who killed 30 in Pakistan in last one week". The Print (India).
- ^ a b "US declares Pakistan's separatist Baluchistan Liberation Army as terrorist group". The Indian Express. 3 July 2019.
- ^ Hussain, Zahid (Apr 25, 2013). "The battle for Balochistan". Dawn. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
- ^ Kupecz, Mickey (Spring 2012). "PAKISTAN'S BALOCH INSURGENCY: History, Conflict Drivers, and Regional Implications" (PDF). International Affairs Review. 20 (3): 106. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
- ^ "Balochistan's Separatist Insurgency On The Wane Despite Recent Attack". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 18 April 2019.
- ^ "The untold story of human rights violations in Balochistan: Unveiling the historical context". DNA India. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
- ^ Bhargava, G. S. "How Serious Is the Baluch Insurgency?" Asian Tribune (April 12, 2007). Retrieved December 2, 2011.
- ^ "Suicide Attack Kills 27 Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards". Haaretz. 13 February 2019.
Bibliography
- Hansman, John (1973), "A Periplus of Magan and Meluhha", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 36 (3): 553–587, S2CID 140709175
- Hansman, John (1975), "A further note on Magan and Meluhha (Notes and Communications)", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 38 (3): 609–610, S2CID 178684667
- Parpola, Asko; Parpola, Simo (1975), "On the relationship of the Sumerian toponym Meluhha and Sanskrit mleccha", Studia Orientalia, 46: 205–238
- ISBN 978-0-19-022692-3
- Tandon, Pankaj (2006), "New light on the Pāratarājas" (PDF), Numismatic Chronicle, 166: 173–209, JSTOR 42666407
- JSTOR 3632219
Further reading
- Axmann, Martin (2019). "Baluchistan and the Baluch people". In Fleet, Kate; ISSN 1873-9830.
- Fabry, Philippe (1991) Balouchistan, le désert insoumis, Paris, Nathan Image, 136 p., ISBN 2-09-240036-3
External links
- Baluchistan is a map published by The Century Company
- Afghanistan, Beloochistan, etc. is a map from 1893 published by the American Methodist Church
- Balochistan Archives- Preserving our Past