Drona Bandyopadhyay
Balochistan is a troubled province of the perpetually troubled state of Pakistan. The political instability and ethnicity based Baloch insurgency and brutal counter-insurgency measures by the Pakistani security forces have sequeled in creating a permanent atmosphere of exploitation, fear, mistrust, and aberrance in all walks of societal life in Balochistan. This discernible socio-political anomaly is continuing to disarrange the social fabric and political process in the province since 1947-48. For the last 76 years Balochistan has been witnessing a persistent environment of internal turbulence and it is impossible to forecast on its future course of occurances but it can be doubtlessly inferred that prevailing conditions will not change for any improvement in imminent timespan.
Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan but supports meagre population due to its rugged and barren topographic conditions. Almost the entirety of the desolate province is featured with inhospitable geography and unfavourable climate. Desolate Balochistan covers almost 44% of total land in Pakistan but sustains only 3%-5% of total population.
Located in the south-western part of Pakistan, Baloch province lies on the geological continuation of the Iranian plateau. This remote province is exceptionally rich in mineral and energy resources. According to the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP), there are more than 80 varieties of minerals with significant amount of proven deposits are found in this province. The vast south-western province provides 40% of energy needs and in particular produces 36% of natural gas in Pakistan.
It is also the economically poorest province of Pakistan. The chronic poverty, lack of communication infrastructure, educational and employment facilities have compelled the people of this impoverished province to be the sorrowful victims of deprivation induced extreme marginalization within the Pakistani state. The dismal rankings of Balochistan in different parameters of human development even after more than 75 years of independence, abolishment of kingship and colonialism is an apposite case of deliberate failure and ignominy on the part of the entire Pakistani statecraft.
Balochistan is an ancient land and the site of 8000 year old Mehrgarh archeological ruins of pre-Harappan civilization and its geographical location in between Iran and Indian subcontinent has brought it at the forefront of deep geo-political cross-currents in history. It is also a classic exemplication of cross-point of human civilization since it is influenced by two great ancient human civilisations – Iranian (Persian) and Indian.
According to 2011 Census Reports of Pakistan, Balochistan has Baloch majority with large Pashtun minority. The major Baloch tribes are Marri, Mazari, Mengal and Bugti. On the contrary the Pakisan Statistical Yearbook of 2008 have mentioned that Baloch language was spoken by 40% of the provincial population while Brahui and Pashtun languages were spoken by 20% and 25% of the people, respectively. The remaining 15% constitutes Hazaragi, Punjabi and Urdu speaking communities. The Baloch, Pashtun, and Hazaragi, the native languages of Balochistan, are the languages of Iranian linguistic family while Brahui is a Dravidian language of Indian family.
Without going further into the details of geography and history of Balochistan, 1666 AD can be taken as the base time-point for analytical convenience as the Khanate of Kalat was organized by the Ahmedzai clan with the support of most of the Baloch tribes in that year. As the subsidiary ruler of the mighty Mughals the Khan of Kalat ruled over Kalat and its tributary principalities of Las Bela, Kharan and Makran. Coincidentally the 1666 AD is also important for the history of Bengal. The Mughals completed their conquest of Subah-i-Bangala (province of Bengal) with the capture of strategically important Chittagong region from Arakanese rulers under the military captaincy of the provincial governor, Shaista Khan.
In 1783 the Khan of Kalat granted suzereignty to the port of Gwadar to a man called Said bin Ahmad who later became the ruler of Oman. In 1958 Omani royalty decided to sell the Gwadar exclave and first offered the sale proposal to India but due to quick declination from New Delhi that was redirected to Pakistan which purchased Gwader enclave on 8th September 1958.
With the advent of British colonial powers in the Indian subcontinent since 18th century, the Balochistan region had emerged with a greater strategic importance for the entire British Empire. Down the timeline the western Balochistan was acceded to Iran in 1871 and the Balochistan Agency was constituted in 1877 comprising of the princely states of Kalat, Las Bela, Kharan, Makran and Chief Commissioner’s province of Balochistan with Quetta as its capital. The districts of Chagai, Jhatpat, Loralai, Sibi, Zhob and Quetta-Pishin were part of British Balochistan. After the drawing of Durand Line in 1893 a portion of northern Balochistan was given to Afghanistan. The Khan of Kalat gave the northern Pashtun dominated districts of his kingdom to the British Raj on lease except the Zhob district and the country of Khetran tribes which were brought under British rule from Afghanistan.
The Pashtuns were mainly inhabitated in erstwhile British-Indian province of Balochistan. In post-1947-48 context the Pashtuns demographically dominate the northern part of Balochistan and Baloch people dominate the south. The Brahui speakers are found mainly in central part while Hazaras are concentrated in and around Quetta.
In 1940s the British Balochistan province experienced Pakistan movement and eventually the Muslim community became very sympathetic to the Pakistan cause only due to religious reason. The Muslim League, which spear-headed the Pakistan Movement, became popular in urban areas of Balochistan. As a result Balochistan became part of Pakistan but the future Kalat remained uncertain.
In 1946 Khan of Kalat expressed his intent to make his kingdom free and sovereign. It was summarily rejected by Congress leadership. Simultaneously Khan of Kalat also submitted a Memorandum in this regard to the Cabinet Mission for the same issue. Surprisingly the draft was prepared by Mohammad Ali Jinnah in the capacity of principal legal advisor to the Khanate. The Cabinet Mission rejected it too. But the Khan declared Kalat independent on 11th August 1947 and before that on 4th August signed a ‘Standstill Agreement’ (draft prepared by Jinnah) with incipient Pakistani authorities with the mediation of British-Indian govt. According to the “Standstill Agreement” the legal opinion would have to be sought regarding the future leased areas (‘Chief Commissioner’s Province’). Unfortunately that legal opinion had not been taken. In reality the ambitious Khan wanted complete sovereignty and independence for entire Balochistan which was downright contravention of the ‘Standstill Agreement’. In the meanwhile the princely states of Las Bela, Kharan and Makran had merged themselves with Pakistan in March 1948. The Khanate authorities including the pro-Congress leadership of Kalat State National Party (KSNP) led by Ghaus Baux Bizenjo and others started to initiate bilateral negotiation with the Indian Govt. for accession of Kalat to India. But in compliance with the policy of avoidance of ethnic balkanization of Indian sub-continent Congress utterly dismissed the proposal of Kalat kingdom.
Likewise Congress also refused to support the ‘independent Bengal plan’ of Abul Hashim-Suhrawardy-Sarat Bose in eastern India. As a direct consequence an All India Radio (AIR) broadcast was made on 27th March 1948 in this regard. The particular news broadcast reported a press conference by V.P. Menon, the ‘small, alert and ferociously intelligent’ (according to Ramchandra Guha), the erstwhile Secretary to the Govt. of India, where he said “Khan was passing India to accept Kalat’s accession” but “India would have nothing to do it”. This clearly upheld the official position of India on Kalat.
The violation of ‘Standstill Agreement’ by Kalat state encouragingly invited the Pakistani armed forces to attack the Kalat state on 26th March 1948 and poorly equipped Khanate forces surrendered within a day. It can be mentioned here that Kalat had diplomatic missions in Karachi and New Delhi in 1947-48 period. When it was briefly independent. The last ruler Mir Ahmed Yar Khan Ahmedzai was escorted by General Akbar Khan of nascently organized Pakistan army to Karachi and the last Khan was compelled to sign the “Instrument of Accession” with Pakistan on 27th March 1948 and concurrently the Pakistani navy took the possession of Jiwani and Pasni ports. Therefore the historic 400 year old Khanate of Kalat was abolished and Balochistan region under erstwhile direct and indirect British colonial rule became an integral part of Pakistan.
References
- https://sundayguardianlive.com/world/6099-jinnah-recognised-balochistan-s-independence
- https://account.bbc.com/signin?realm=%2F&clientId=Account&lang=en-GB&ptrt=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fworld-asia-india-62422428&isCasso=false&action=sign-in&redirectUri=https%3A%2F%2Fsession.bbc.com%2Fsession%2Fcallback%3Frealm%3D%2F&service=IdSignInService&nonce=ugL7wheA-j_9PUjo__APrGK1TidVW6kwSBug