The Baloch Issue
Keywords:
Mountain, Kalat, Indian, boundariesAbstract
The Baloch issue in the contemporary history is becoming more and more salient considering the geopolitical and strategic importance of the region. Particularly in Pakistan this issue becomes crucial for the future of the whole region since almost majority of the worldwide Baloch live in that country. Are the Baloch entitled to have their own state, as it is argued by the Baloch nationalist? To address these questions, this paper seeks to place the current Baloch problem in the broader context of history, regional relations and the geopolitics in the South Asia. Examining the experiences that the Baloch have undergone since the advent of the British Raj, the paper discusses its implications for the Balochs’ struggle to the right to self-determination. At last, attempt will be made to explain and analyze, why the Baloch have remained a forgotten people among the world community.
References
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Inayatullah Baloch, The Problem of Greater Baluchistan, 1987, pp. 19-23; See also Janmahmad, Essays on Baloch National Struggle in Pakistan, p. 427.
It was in Makkuran that the early middle ages saw the first emergence of a distinctive Baloch culture and the establishment of the Baloch principalities and dynasties.
Inayatullah Baloch, The Problem of Greater Baluchistan, p. 19
The exact number of the Baloch populatoin is difficult to determine. As of 2010, the Baloch are 5% of Pakistan's 177,276,594 million people. Similarly, some estimates put the Baloch population in Iran at over four million (http://www.unpo.org/members/7922). See also, Taj Mohammad Breseeg, 2004, pp. 66-70.
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Ibid.
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Prof. Dr. Taj Mohammad Breseeg
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Ibid.
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The Aryan migration has been steady and taken place in successive waves. The first to arrive on the Iranian plateau, around the middle of second millennium BC, are termed Indo-Iranians. They moved from the region of the Oxus and Laxartes rivers. The Indo-Iranian appear to have lived in settled communities and spoken an Indo-European tongue (for more information see, Yu. V. Gankovsky, The People of Pakistan, p. 146).
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For more information see, Taj Mohammad Breseeg, 2004, chapter 3.
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The Baloch Issue
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See “Treaty Between the British Government and the Khelat State – 1876” in: Mir Ahmad Yar Khan Baluch, Inside Baluchistan, pp. 230-34.
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It also is known by some sources as the “Anjuman-e Ittehad-e Balochan wa Balochistan” (Organisation for the Unity of the Baloch and Balochistan), see Riccardo Redaelli, The Father’s Bow: The Khanate of Kalat and British India, 19th – 20th Century, Firenze: Il Maestrale, 1997, p. 143.
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Ibid., 24.
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Ibid.
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Prof. Dr. Taj Mohammad Breseeg
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For more detail see, Reza Raees Toosi, “Isteratezhi-e Sarzaminha-e Sookhteh” (The Backward strategy), in: Tarikh-e Ma’aser-e Iran (The Contemporary History of Iran), Tehran: Mo’assesah-e Motale’at-e Tarik-e Ma’aser-e Iran, Winter 1376/1997 (pp. 19-69).
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The Baloch Issue
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Marvin and Bernard Kalb, Kissinger, p. 180. It should be remembered that the Shah of Iran was the first who recognised Pakistan as an independent sovereign state.
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