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 BALOCH and BALOCHISTAN

A historical account from the Beginning to the fall of the Baloch StateBy NASEER DASHTI

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2012 Naseer Dashti
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-5896-8

Contents

Chapter 1: Tracing Baloch History............................................1Chapter 2: Major Powers of Ancient Iran......................................11Chapter 3: The Historical Beginning of the Baloch............................30Chapter 4: Dispersion of the Baloch from Balashagan..........................45Chapter 5: The Arab Conquest of Iran and the Baloch..........................63Chapter 6: Regional Dynasties of Iran and the Baloch.........................82Chapter 7: The Baloch in Medieval Times......................................114Chapter 8: Development of Baloch Cultural Values.............................135Chapter 9: Birth of the Baloch State.........................................149Chapter 10: Consolidation and Expansion of the Khanate.......................169Chapter 11: The Khanate at Its Peak..........................................183Chapter 12: The Period of Civil War and Decline..............................197Chapter 13: The British Occupation of Balochistan............................205Chapter 14: Balochistan After Occupation.....................................219Chapter 15: Conflicts between the Khan and Sardars...........................232Chapter 16: Balochistan Under the British Rule...............................246Chapter 17: The Baloch Resistance Against Occupation.........................261Chapter 18: Persian Encroachments inWestern Balochistan......................272Chapter 19: The Division of Balochistan......................................285Chapter 20: Political Mobilization of the Baloch.............................299Chapter 21: The Creation of Pakistan in Context..............................309Chapter 22: Independence and Demise of the Baloch State......................321Chapter 23: Fall of the Baloch State:An Overview.............................341Chapter 24: The Long Walk from Balashagan to Balochistan.....................353References...................................................................363Index........................................................................377

Chapter One

Tracing Baloch History

Nearly three thousand years ago, a multitude of tribes left their abodes in Central Asia and moved toward west, south, and southeast directions. These people were called Aryans and a section among them became known as Indo-Iranic tribes. Some of the Indo-Iranic tribes settled in northwestern Iranian region of Balashakan. Circumstances forced this pastoralist nomadic group of tribes known at that time as Balashchik to migrate en masse and abandon their original homeland. After many centuries of wandering and sufferings, these pastoralist nomads ultimately settled in the south and eastern fringes of Iranian plateau. Here they changed from being the Balashchik to become the Baloch, and the name of the region they finally settled became known as Balochistan "the country of the Baloch." They imposed their language and culture upon the whole region and created a nation-state that lasted for nearly three hundred years in an independent or semi-independent status. The Baloch state witnessed many ups and downs throughout its existence and finally vanished from the map of the world when it was occupied by Pakistan in 1948.

It is not easy to trace the Baloch history. The mention of the Baloch in the ancient historical documents is rare. From ancient historical accounts, some aspects of the Baloch history can be reconstructed but only in a very tentative and abstract form. It appears that there has been a blackout of any description of the Baloch by the ancient historians. Most probably, it is due to the fact that the Baloch were a pastoralist nomadic group of tribes, having no direct or formidable contribution to the political upheavals of the period. Like many other pastoralist nomads of ancient Iran, who descended upon Iranian plateau from Central Asia, historical accounts are rare about the Baloch; the difference, however, is that some of these ethnic groups vanished and ceased to exist as a separate entity, whereas the Baloch emerged as a distinct linguistic and cultural entity during the medieval era.

Due to scarcity of detailed accounts, the ethnic origin of the Baloch, the exact location of their original homeland in the Iranian plateau, is still a subject of guesswork. Actual circumstances of their migration or an expulsion from their original abode could not be found in any historical documents. There are only some passing references in some of the ancient accounts of Iranian history. Only on some of the rock inscriptions of Sassanid times can one find a place Balasagan or Balashakan or Balashagan and a description of an ethnic group Balashchik from some ancient Greek and Armenian historical accounts. On some occasions, the Baloch had been described as warriors in the armies of Median, Achaemenid, and Sassanid emperors, while on many other occasions, they were branded as brigands and unruly barbarians. There are also some brief accounts of encounters between some of these emperors with the Baloch and some claims of annihilating the Baloch by many other emperors of Persian dynasties.

There is historical evidence that the Baloch were part of military forces of Emperor Cyrus, Xerxes, and Cambyses of Achaemenid Dynasty. Firdausi in his "Book of Kings" (Shahnama) described the Baloch as part of the Army of Cambyses (Siahwash), son of Kai Kaous of the Achaemenid Dynasty. The second mention of the Baloch in the "Book of Kings" is during the rule of Chosroes I (Anosharvan) from AD 531 to AD 579 of Sassanid Dynasty. From the time of Kai Kaous to Anosharvan, nothing can be found in historical documents about the Baloch for a period that spans up to a thousand years. It is not clear what happened to this ethnic group during this period—a group whose inclusion in the armies of different Achaemenid emperors had been mentioned graphically by Iranian historians of medieval times.

The paucity of documented historical and anthropological data had given rise to innumerable speculations concerning the origin of the Baloch. Different opinions and theories about the origin of the Baloch have been put forward. Earlier researchers on the origin of the Baloch deliberated on various theories and tried to align the Baloch with different racial entities of the region. Speculations were mainly focused on the lines that whether Baloch belongs to Aryan, Semitic, or Turanian group of tribes—Pottinger (1976) believed that the Baloch had Turkmen ethnic origins, Rawlinson (1873) was in favor of a Chaldean (Semitic) origin of the Baloch, Bellew (1874) aligned them with the Indian Rajput tribes, and Dames (1904) considered them as from the Aryan groups of tribes.

During the latter part of the twentieth century, extensive and authentic researches on many languages of Iranian plateau disclosed definite links of the Baloch with other ethnicities of the region. From these research works on the roots of Balochi and other languages, it became clear that theories of the Baloch origin of being Chaldeans, Arabs, or the indigenous population of Balochistan had no logical or scientific credentials. The racial origin of the Baloch is now academically well established that of coming from the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranic tribes. On linguistic and cultural grounds, it is now commonly believed that the Kurds and the Baloch come into...