The historic speech made by late Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo as leader of the house in the Darul Awam on 30th December 1948 formed the quintessence of that Baloch national consensus. However, within a year, the government of Pakistan engineered the accession of Kalat and its subsidiaries — Kharan, Mekran and Lasbela — to Pakistan by means of series of coercive actions, the historical fallout of which survives till today in the shape of popular resentment against the real and perceived sense of injustices meted out to the people of Balochistan by successive federal governments in Pakistan.”

MAKRAN – A SUBSIDIARY OF KALAT

“About the middle of the last century the whole of Makran, as well as Kharan and Mashkhei, was conquered by Nasir Khan, the Khan of Kalat, and annexed to his dominions. He instituted a liberal system of government by which the administration was carried on jointly by a Naib, representing the Khan, and the local Gichki Sardar, between whom the revenues were divided in certain fixed shares.

“This arrangement seems to have worked satisfactorily until the Gichkis began to degenerate and the Naoshirwanis began to oust them by intrigues of every description. The Noashirwanis who occupy Kharan are of pure Persian stock. Kharan stretches from the Jhalawan hills to the Persian border, a country of long sandy valleys with but little cultivation; its inhabitants a righting, raiding, restless clan whose life was dependent on successful forays against the more settled countries of their neighbours.

“Sprung from a bold and determined race, filled with the sense of their own importance, and possessed of a much higher order of intelligence than the other ruling races in Makran, the younger members of the Naoshirwanis, as they found their shares in the ancestral property insufficient for their wants, have endeavoured to carve out for themselves fortunes from the property of their less energetic neighbours. But they differ from the Arab conquerors of the country in that whereas the Arab converted the land from desert to oasis, the Naoshirwani reduces oases to deserts.

“In 1888, led by Naoroz Khan, the Naoshirwanis raided Panjgur, and slew Mir Gajian, the Gichki Sardar, who was also the Khan’s naib. At this time Azad Khan was still head of the Kaoshirwanis. Sandeman thus describes him:

“‘In spite of his great age Azad Khan retains his mental faculties unimpaired. Bowed by age, he is unable to mount a horse without assistance, but, once in the saddle, his endurance is greater than that of many a younger man. Possessed of unflinching resolution, impatient of wrong, generous to reward, stern and relentless in punishment, Sardar Azad Khan has above all things enjoyed a reputation for unswerving honesty. He is never known to depart from his word once given, and has a sincere contempt for chicanery or falsehood.’

“Sandeman visited the country in 1884. Disputes between the Naoshirwanis and the Khan of Kej were adjusted, and before his death three years later, at the age of 101, the veteran chief had shown his friendship for the British Government by rendering valuable assistance in the matter of transport to the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission. He had also arranged, in cooperation with our officers, for the protection of trade routes.

“The Khan of Kalat, owing to his dislike of the Naoshirwanis was displeased with the settlement; he wished rather to establish his own power in an absolute form in Panjgur; therefore in order to get the Naoshirwanis into trouble he countenanced disturbances.

“Muhammad Hasan, Gichki, of Sami claimed the sardarship of Panjgur. He was aided by the Noshirwanis under Baluch Khan, and was enabled to keep the whole countryside in a distracted condition, causing damage to the resources of Panjgur, estimated at several lakhs, and reducing the unfortunate people to the extremity of wretchedness.

“In 1890-91 Sir Robert Sandeman again visited Panjgur, which was in a state of almost complete anarchy. Peace was introduced by the occupation of Panjgur by British Indian troops, but after their withdrawal in 1893, complaints were received of the misbehaviour of Muhammad Ali, the Khan’s naib, and in 1896 he was replaced by Kaoda Muhammad Khan, an influential and capable Baluch headman. The state of Kej was somewhat less disturbed, owing chiefly to the high character of the Gichki Sardar, Bhai Khan, and his influence with the tribes. But as the Sardar grew feeble with age the Khan’s Naoshirwani, Mir Shahdad, raised feuds in order to increase his power and lessen that of the Gichkis, great destruction of property and loss of life ensued, and the ruling power was brought into contempt. The attempt to manage the Rinds of Mand through the Naib and Sardar of Kej was also far from successful. They looted the caravans carrying the Persian trade, and it was impossible to exact from them any reparation for the damage caused by their raids. Mir Shahdad was replaced shortly afterwards by Abdul Karim, Gichki. In revenge for his supersession in the naibship, Mir Shahdad attacked and severely wounded a British officer, and then fled the country.

“So low had our influence in those parts sunk that, in 1890, Sher Muhammad, a nephew of Sardar Bhai Khan, openly defied the British Agent, and fired upon his camp from the stronghold of Nasirabad in Kej. Nasirabad had been held by one Mehrab Khan, who was expelled by Sher Muhammad. The two men were relations and disputed the right of ownership. In 1891, Sir Robert Sandeman decided in favour of Mehrab Khan, but required him to pay Sher Muhammad Rs.100 per annum compensation. In 1893 the latter forced Mehrab Khan to sell the fort to him for Rs.1,300 or about a quarter of its value.

“In 1896 the Khan of Kalat made a tour in the Makran country, accompanied by Lieutenant E. LeMesurier, Officiating Political Agent in Kalat, and by Mir Yakub Khan, eldest son of Sardar Sir Nauru Khan and by several leading men of the Sarawan and Jalawan tribes.

“The principal incidents of the tour were:

“(a) The surrender of the Nag fort in Kolwa by the sons of Baluch Khan, Naoshirwani.

(b) The surrender of the Nasirabad fort near Kej by Sher Muhammad Gichki.

(c) The arrangements initiated for the future administration, under the Khan’s orders of the districts of Kej (including Bolida, Kolwa, and Panjgur).

“At Nasirabad a jirga was assembled and, on their finding, Sher Muhammad was confirmed in possession of the fort on a payment of Rs.100 per annum to Mir Mehrab Khan.

“Having regard to Sher Muhammad’s turbulence in the past the Nasirabad fort was garrisoned by seventy-five Kalat sepoys, Panjgur also was garrisoned by twenty-five of the Khan’s troops, and the Nag fort was held by twenty levies. The Nazim was provided with an escort of twenty levy camel sowars.

“Afterwards Baluch Khan’s grandson, Muhammad Umar Khan, was made Naib of Kolwa, and was living with Baluch Khan at Hor Kalat, in 1898.

“Thus tranquillity was introduced into this wretched country. Yet in Panjgur, Kej and Kolwa the elements of disturbance still remained. In Panjgur the fear of Naoshirwani aggression, in Kej also Naoshirwani intrigue and smouldering feuds and animosities amongst the Gichkis and in Kolwa the notorious freebooter Baluch Khan left in power to oppress and to rebel; and moreover the universal dislike of a Muhammadan people to a Hindu Nazim, were sparks to be fanned by the first breath of opportunity into a conflagration.

“It would indeed appear, from a study of after events, that this pacification of the country resulted in gradually combining all the ruling Sardars in common cause against the paramount power, thus putting a temporary end to internal feuds. The troubles in northern Baluchistan and the outbreak in Persian Makran, where Mr. Graves of the Telegraph Department was murdered, caused a certain amount of unrest throughout the country.

“Baluch Khan, Mehrab Khan Gichki, and a large number of other Sardars of Kej all attributed their own discontent and rebellion to the appointment of alleged oppression and tyranny of Diwan Udho Das. It may be here stated that in the final settlement an enquiry was held into these allegations and the Kej motibars signed a paper saying they had no cause for complaint against Udho Das and no complaints against him were substantiated. Nevertheless, this probably was the cause of the outbreak.

“On the 6th January 1898, Mehrab Khan Gichki, attacked the Nazim Diwan Udho Das, looted his treasury and took him prisoner but on the representation of his elder brother he was set at liberty and shut up in Kalatuk, in Kej, under protection of Abdul Karim, Naib of Kej. Mehrab Khan then sent a messenger to Baluch Khan, telling him what he had done. It appears probable that the country at this time was in a state of unusual internal quiescence and that no outbreak was suspected, because four officers of the Survey Department, with a large unarmed following of lascars, etc., and a very small escort of local levies, were sent to undertake survey operations in the Kolwa and Kej valleys.

salimansar52@gmail.com

A banker by profession, Salim Ansar has a passion for history and historic books. His personal library already boasts a treasure trove of over 7,000 rare and unique books.

Every week, we shall take a leaf from one such book and treat you to a little taste of history.

BOOK NAME: Frontier & Overseas Expeditions From India

AUTHOR: Intelligence Branch Division of the Chief of Staff

PUBLISHER: Army Head Quarter India

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 1910

The above excerpt has been taken from Pages: 241 — 245

The Wandering Falcon By Jamil Ahmad Publisher: Hamish Hamilton- Penguin Books Price: Rs 399

The tribal regions bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan have been dominated by the Taliban for two decades now, and their very mention strikes as much terror as disdain in our hearts… the violence and bloodshed, the total subjugation of women, and honour deaths immediately come to mind.

But Ahmad, who was born in Jalandhar and served as an officer in the Civil Service of Pakistan for long years, mainly in the Frontier and the Balochistan region, obviously looks at the place with different eyes. He also served as minister in Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul.

This is a striking debut by the 78-year-old writer who lives in Islamabad; the different stories detailing the lives of various tribes in the region are strung together by the presence of Tor Baz or the black falcon, who grows from an infant to a young man on the pages of this immensely readable book.

With a rare empathy and pathos, understanding and insight, Ahmad’s vivid strokes create a canvas of tribal traditions and customs, the tenderness and the cruelty that dominate it, the candour, honesty and, above all, the code of honour that defines the essence of tribal life. But the rapidly changing modern world, with its boundaries and travel documents, its bureaucratic norms and pompous methods of dispensing justice, has neither time nor sympathy for this code of honour.

Even though this book has been cast in the decades before the Taliban rule, the first story ‘The Sins of the Mother’ deals with honour killing. It is about a camel herder who elopes with his sardar‘s daughter and they can’t get shelter anywhere for long, as they are bound to be caught and killed. But they do manage a few years of tenderness together before the inevitable happens. But the child born to them is spared, and changes patrons from one story to another.

Ahmad takes us to a world where the tribal chiefs are respected and adored; Roza Khan is an old man in ‘A Point of Honour’set in Baluchistan. “His big frame and height were all that remained of the strength and prowess of his youth; that and his memories.” Cataract in both eyes had made him almost blind and helpless and yet he knew his people “needed a symbol”, and their “sense of honour and grace were such that they would attribute all heroic deeds to him and all failures to themselves.” They’d never admit that in reality he was a man to be pitied.

Those of us with a flat or one-dimensional viewpoint on the tribal clans of Pakistan or Afghanistan need to thank the author for walking us through the value systems and immeasurable wisdom embedded in some of the tribal elders. Khan leads a team of “rebels” which is cornered and when opinion is expressed that only they, and none else, could decide on the leadership issue, as it was a matter of conscience, the old man, “sad and lonely behind his curtain of darkness”, retorts: “Never have I seen a man truly troubled by his conscience. Conscience is like a poor relation living in a rich man’s house. It has to remain cheerful at all times for fear of being thrown out.”

Imposition of boundaries

One of the most poignant stories is about the Pawindahs of Afghanistan, who with their caravans regularly cross into Pakistan when the weather gets too harsh for them. But there comes an era when these nomads are asked to produce travel documents at the border. The leader’s son responds thus: “How is it possible for us to be treated as belonging to Afghanistan? We stay for a few months there and for a few months in Pakistan. The rest of the time we spend moving. We are Pawindahs and belong to all countries or to none.”

But then there are no answers for such dilemmas in a world that is getting more and more paranoid about issues such as borders, immigration and security.

As the entourage, including camels, has no water to drink, it takes the risk of defying the border guards. A woman, Gul Jana, takes the lead saying: “I am going with a Koran on my head. Nothing can happen to me.” She does that, the rest follow; “the firing was indiscriminate. Men, women and children died. Gul Jana’s belief that the Koran would prevent tragedy died too.”

The biggest appeal of the book lies in the understated nature of the narrative. Without too much breast-beating or drama, Ahmad unmasks the hypocrisies embedded in Pakistani civil society. After the sham of a courtroom trial of Baluchis, where everybody is ordered to be shot dead, there is total silence about the event. “No newspaper editor risked punishment on their behalf. Typically, Pakistani journalists sought salve for their conscience by writing about the wrongs done to men in South Africa, Indonesia, Palestine and Philippines — not to their own people. No politician risked imprisonment; they would continue to talk of the rights of the individual, the dignity of man, the exploitation of the poor, but they would not expose the wrong being done outside their front door.”

Ahmad tells us that the dead Baluchi men would live in no songs or legends and would soon be forgotten even by their own kith and kin because “the terrible struggle for life makes it impossible for too much time to be wasted over thoughts for the dead.”

Evocative prose

In simple, yet evocative prose the author describes the harsh landscape with even harsher weather conditions… the sandstorms, the excessive heat and cold, the elusive waterholes, the importance of the camel — one lost camel meant one or two men would have to drop out. And yet their land had seen to it that “beauty and colour were not erased completely from their lives. It offered them a thousand shades of grey and brown with which it tinted hills, its sands and its earth. There were subtle changes of colour in the nights and the brightness of the days, and the vigorous colours of the tiny desert flowers hidden in the dusty bushes.”

A book written with such searing empathy and honesty stays with you for a long time. The line that will haunt me, while removing my ignorance and prejudice of tribal people and lifestyles, relates to the courtroom sham, where all the “accused” were ordered to be killed. Says Ahmad: “What died with them was a part of the Baluch people themselves. A little of their spontaneity in offering affection, and something of their graciousness and trust. That too was tried, sentenced and died with these seven men.”

The book gives a rare insight into a neighbour you always thought you knew, but are surprised how little you actually know about it. A peak into society, the undercurrents and the psyche of the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan is absorbing. “A fundamental political fact about Pakistan is that the state, whoever claims to lead it, is weak, and society in its various forms is immensely strong.”

Back home, in New Delhi, it has spurred the flexing of muscles on the ‘Wanted List’ of 26/11 terrorists, with Pakistan in retaliation typically blowing hot, blowing cold.

With its back against the wall, it has sounded out stern warnings to India against any action similar to that carried out by the US. In the latest development, China has come to Pakistan’s rescue, acknowledging its role in anti-terrorist activities. And amidst these gestures and counter-gestures comes a book Pakistan: A Hard Country that gives a rare insight into a neighbour you always thought you knew, but are surprised how little you actually know about it.

Journey across a troubled nation

Penned by Anatol Lieven, a reporter for The Times in Pakistan in the late 1980s, the book takes you on a veritable journey across the troubled nation. The author, a Professor of International Relations and Terrorism Studies in the War Studies Department of King’s College, London, runs you through the history of the Islamic nation, its strategic geographical placement, its political tribulations, and why it is what it is today. Lieven speaks from two perspectives. One is that of working as a journalist in the country that gave him access to a whole lot of important as well as ordinary people, from generals to rickshaw pullers.

The other is of a researcher in recent years that added to his travels in the country, and through which he earned deep insights into some of the regional idiosyncrasies in Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan. “Pakistan is divided, disorganised, economically backward, corrupt, violent, unjust, often savagely oppressive towards the poor and women, and home to extremely dangerous forms of extremism and terrorism and ‘yet it moves’,” writes Lieven, quickly conceding its toughness and resilience as a state and society. And when Lieven describes the Islamic nation’s pockets of “successful modernity”, “excellent administration”, “few modern industries,” and “fine motorways”, there is a familiarity that lingers for the Indian reader. Is the description not a mirror image of yesteryears India?

India as role model

The image continues to stick and grow as the author describes the values imbibed by Pakistan’s army and the state of its cantonment townships. Yes, familiar, very familiar — with India obviously the role model in many ways and understandably so. Familiar too is Lieven’s treatise on the elite families of the country, including their inherent feudal culture and attitudes.

Just like in India, in Pakistan too, it is these elite families that throw up the politicians — be it a Zulfikar Ali Bhutto or Asif Ali Zardari. Lieven has a really interesting take on politicians in Pakistan. He writes, “ …while Pakistani politicians in general get a pretty bad press, and deservedly so, it is sometimes possible to feel sorry for them. They are often not saints, but they often need the patience of saints, as well as the courage of wolves, the memory of elephants and the digestion of crocodiles…”

Relating a story of his journey with a Pakistani politician, he describes what we are used to in India — petals being thrown over the politicians’ land cruiser, chanting his slogans, bowing to kiss his hand, motor-bikes and scooters waving the party flag and children running out for the free tamasha (show).

The most absorbing characteristic of the book is Lieven’s travels through the provinces. Karachi and Lahore are all too familiar to Indians who keep an eye on the going-ons in the neighbourhood, but the book provides a rare peak into the society, the undercurrents, and the psyche of the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.

Lieven has also been able to delve into the minds of some of these communities and used an anthropological analysis to explain why it is the Pathans who largely man the armed forces, the deep resentment of the Baloch tribals towards the mainstream administration, the psyche of Pakistan’s Taliban and how it differs from Afghanistan’s Taliban.

As a reader brought up on stories and scenes of Balochistan in the late 1920s, when my grandfather served as a doctor in the Railways close to one of the world’s longest and famous tunnels (the Khojak tunnel, which was surrounded by springs and streams and an equal number of myths), my appetite for Pakistan’s provinces may have exceeded that of an average reader.

But Lieven’s account left a sense of regret at the mismanagement and neglect of a province rich in natural resources and relatively modernised during the British era, which had the potential to prosper and do the Islamic nation proud.

Weak state, strong society

Another positive going for the book is the author’s ability not to fall into the trap of a ‘Western’ writer, though he is one. May be it is his long years and obvious familiarity with the country that has held him in good stead.

And, while he argues against any kind of US action that may bring them gain in Afghanistan, but destroy the essential fabric of Pakistan in the process, he describes the relationship as one “of mutual exploitation heavily flavoured with mutual suspicion.” When he argues for Pakistan, he is at his anthropological best — “A fundamental political fact about Pakistan is that the state, whoever claims to lead it, is weak, and society in its various forms is immensely strong.” Can a description be more apt?

Pages : 345
Book Format :Trade Book 6×9

Author Biography
[Click here to read an excerpt from the book]
Description
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province rich with natural gas, gold and copper. Located on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan, land of the Balochs, where the first Baloch confederacy was founded in 1666, has had a bitter history of exploitation and suppression by a strictly centralized federal government heavily influenced by the country’s military.

While the central government and the province confronted each other four times since the forceful annexation of the Baloch land into Pakistan in 1948, the ongoing movement entails more systematic and radical dimensions. Malik Siraj Akbar, editor of the The Baloch Hal, the first online English newspaper of Balochistan, takes a look at the last one decade how the dimensions of the Baloch movement changed.

A Hubert Humphrey Fellow at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Malik reveals the “enforced disappearance” of hundreds of Baloch political workers and their brutal murder by the Pakistani security services under a “kill and dump” policy during detention in a phenomenon similar to Argentina’s Dirty War. The book analyzes growing state-sponsored radicalization in secular Balochistan. Malik is the most widely quoted journalist on Balochistan. He insists that the killing of former governor Nawab Akbar Bugti, 79, by Pervez Musharraf’s regime proved as the 9/11 of Pakistan’s relations with the resourceful province. The Balochistan question merits attention of the international community not only for a stable Pakistan but also to provide the world alternative options for a secular buffer state between Iran and Afghanistan if Pakistan falls in the hands of Islamists.

Baloch Nationalism and the Geopolitics of Energy Resources: The Changing Context of Separatism in Pakistan

• Added April 17, 2008
• Type: Monograph
• 62 Pages
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Brief Synopsis

The author examines the energy context of the simmering Baloch separatist insurgency that has surfaced in recent years in Pakistan’s sprawling Balochistan province. In particular, he looks at how Pakistan’s mounting energy insecurity–a product of rapid increase in demand coupled with rising scarcity and the region’s intensified energy rivalry–has both magnified the economic and strategic importance of this province while at the same time complicating Pakistan’s efforts to cope with the province’s resurgent tribal separatism. The author concludes that Pakistan’s government needs to overhaul its counterinsurgent policies to avoid protracted conflict and to enlist the Baloch as partners in energy development, not antagonists of it.