The poet of Balochistan

Mir Gul Khan Naseer (Politician, Scholar, Historian, Poet) 1914-1986 PRIVATE



"The poet-politician gave a new meanings and form to Balochi poetry. The concept of freedom and sovereignty were beautifully portrayed. He opposes Balochistan losing its independence.The degrading poverty .His poetry is the greatest manifestation and the most profound expression of the Baloch political and social approach since the early thirties .His exhortation to the Baloch to up hold their tradition is a clear sign of the deep-rooted hatred felt towards the new political dispensation.His poems soon turned to popular slogans and were the subject of discussion by the elite. Mir Gul Khan Naseer was the greatest revolutionary poet in Baloch literary history. His work embraced some fifty years of his life. He participated in the Baloch struggle for national independence and remained behind bars for several years from 1941 to 1979. He was a socialist by inclination and opposed the tribal system and its attendant injustices. His contribution to Baloch political awareness is overwhelming. Mir Gul Khan Naseer considered himself destined to guide the people towards social awareness and the achievement of their political rights. He assigned himself the task of educating the youth for the great cause for which he suffered immensely during his lifetime.He was uncompromising, honest and respectable. As far back as November 1936 he composed a poem praying that he might have courage and strength to awaken the people from ignorance, so that they would be able to find a proper place among world nations once again. The poem, which is in Urdu, shows his determination for a lifelong struggle in a cause, which was very close to his heart6.Mir Gul Khan Naseer is an institution in Balochi poetic history. His message is impressive. It circles round the Baloch and their history. His works portray a deep hatred for Pakistan and its institutions, which he regarded as corrupting and degenerating in substance and nature. The new generation of revolutionary poets has been greatly influenced by his philosophy. 1 have not attempted any translation of his work for the simple reason that none of his poems can be singled out for omission for the purposes of this chapter. A separate treatment would be required if Mir Gul Khan’s poetry were to be analyzed in the context of the Baloch national struggle and its impact on youth.Mir Gul Khan Naseer is the author of many books on Baloch history and traditions. His poetic work includes three books: Gul Bang, Shapgerouk and Grand, Gul bang, published in 1952, contains fifty-one poems. His second publication, Shapgerouk was printed in 1964. It includes forty-three poems. The Grand appeared in 1971 and contains some seventy poems. Mir Gul Khan had a prolific pen and a philosophical mind. His treatment of the Baloch social and traditional ethos depicts a high sense of history and culture. His poems describe the Baloch and their country in a true historic perspective. Mir Gul Khan was the product of agonizing socio-political conditions. He saw the British Raj in Balochistan, a brief period of Baloch sovereignty and ultimately Balochistan losing its independence and merging into a newborn state. British rule perfected a tribal system molded to the requirements of an alien rule, with the sardars exploiting the Baloch masses. The pre-independence era was also the period of the Khan’s oppressive rule with the connivance of his British masters. The short period of Baloch independence from August 1947 to’ March 1948 witnessed conspirational maneuvers against the Baloch, culminating in the merger of their state into Pakistan. The post—1948 years are the time of constant struggle to gain some sort of political and social rights. Mir Gul Khan Naseer participated actively in the process and his attitude was clearly shaped by these events.The periodic uprisings and deep discontent among the Baloch after 1948 are by no means an isolated phenomenon. It is fairly common in Balochi literature and folk traditions. Disapproval of the accession to Pakistan was widespread. The Khan is greatly hated. This hatred is widely depicted in folk literature as well as in poetry. To quote a single instance, a cartoon was carried by Balochi, (Karachi) in December 1957 showing the Khan of Kalat prostrate before the Pakistan authorities, asking for privileges. The cartoon is captioned” Dream, this is your luck. Our ‘Khan-e--Muazim’, do not dream for the power (and respect) of previous days”Since the ‘great betrayal the Baloch poet watches every event with distaste and expresses his resentment for the socio—political set—up. The opposition to the accession of the Khanate to Pakistan was upheld and his hero Abdul Kareem Khan, the brother of Khan of Kalat, Ahmed Yar Khan, is regarded as one of the great patriots. In 1958 came the first encounter with the Pakistan Army, when Mir’ Namrouz Khan and a few others revolted and took to the mountains. Apparently they were aggrieved because of the arrest of the Khan of Kalat by Pakistan’s army in a pre-dawn attack on his residence in Kalat on 6th October 1958; but the causes were deep down. Mir Namrouz Khan and his followers were clearly against the Khan’s decision to accede to Pakistan, and when the Khan showed a semblance of authority by demanding certain rights, they readily pledged their support. The Insurgency had, however, wider repercussions. Leadership of that uprising was in the hands of petty tribal notables, and in some cases they behaved in a manner prejudicial to their professed aims; still they were regarded as heroes by the masses. In certain places many people were harassed by elements claiming contacts with the Yaghis, the rebels, sometimes alienating people in the Makkuran region; but as a whole the people considered them the upholders of their pride and self—respect. Baloch literature during and after this period is full of praise for them. The pattern then changed, and the educated class played a greater role in 1973-77 uprising. This event hap been regarded as the beginning of the Baloch ‘Liberation Movement’. Every Baloch in all walks of life supported the ‘movement’, which was so popular with the people that the Pakistan government decided not to trust the local people and brought in on a massive scale, army officers seconded to the civil services, to hold the administrative assignments in the province. By 1975—76 almost every district head was an army officer or a civil servant from the Panjab and North West Frontier Province.

A Brief History of Balochistan

The BalochThe waves of migrations, beginning from as early as 3500 BC and continued till the end of fourteenth century AD in the aftermath of devastating economic, political and religious events in the Caspian region, brought the Baloch tribes in the present semi-desert land of Balochistan. Baloch traces their history to the ancient Parthian family of Aryan tribes living in the Caspian Sea region. It is estimated that the present population of Baloch, is more than 20 million. One amongst the few state-less nations in contemporary world, majority of the Baloch are inhabited in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. A large number of them are living in Diaspora mainly in Arabian Gulf and some European countries. Historically, settlement in to present day Balochistan by Baloch tribes began as early as 1200 years before the birth of Christ. Baloch folk tales and legends points out that major shift of Baloch population from Caspian Sea region to the present semi-desert land of Balochistan was brought about in three different times and different places. The first migration was of the Baloch tribes residing in the northern areas of what is now called Kurdistan. These Baloch are called Narui (Nara denoting north in archaic Balochi) and they settled in the areas now called Seistan, Zabol in present-day Iran, Helmand valley in present Afghanistan and Chagai plains in present Pakistani province of Balochistan. The second migration took place a few hundred years after the first migration. In this batch, the migrating Baloch tribes of Mount Elburz in the south of Caspian Sea settled in what is now called central Balochistan in Pakistan. The third and most important of all is the migration of the remaining Baloch tribes said to be living in Aleppo who first settled in Kerman, then Makuran and finally to the plains of Sibi and Kachchi in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. This occurred during 12th century AD. Baloch society is organized on similar pattern as the ancient Aryan tribes.Balochi, the language spoken by the Baloch is a member of Indo-Aryan languages. The main dialects of Balochi language are termed as Western (Mekurani), Rakhshani and Eastern Balochi. In central Balochistan many Baloch tribes of Brahui origin speak a dialect, which is believed to be a compound of Balochi and a Dravidian language. In the Pakistani province of Punjab most of the Baloch have adopted Sarakai which also belong to the Aryan family of languages. The Balochi is closely related with Kurdish, Persian and Sanskrit languages but appears to be more archaic than these languages Balochistan Balochistan literally meaning the country of Baloch is strategically situated at the eastern flank of the Middle East, linking Central Asian States with Indian subcontinent and Indian Ocean. Presently the three parts of Balochistan are under the sovereignty of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Being one of the ancient inhabited lands with a 10000 years history of civilization, it is a land of contrast. Much of its landmass of 695,380 square km is a high barren plateau 1,000 to 1,500 meters (3,000 to 5,000 feet) above sea level, enclosed by various mountain ranges; it has desert lands stretching hundreds of miles. In the proximity of a coastline of more than 1500 km in the south, lies one of the semi- deserts of Makuran, the ancient Gedrosia that nearly defeated Alexander the Great by thirst and hunger when he marched through it on his way back to Mesopotamia. In the west, the great Iranian salt desert, the Dasht-e Luth separates Balochistan from Persia proper. There is scanty rainfall, which ranges between 3 to 12 inches annually. Balochistan has hottest places where temperature shoots up to over 120 В°F, as well as coldest towns where mercury falls down much below freezing point. In between the cheerless mountains and dry and wide deserts are beautiful fertile valleys. Wherever water is available the fertile fields produce various types of agricultural products like wheat, barley, rice, potato, sugar beet, and cotton. Dates, and various other fruits, flowers and medicinal plants are among the country’s agricultural products. Beside the large natural gas reserves, which are providing almost all the gas requirements of Pakistan, it has also unexplored rich mineral resources of copper, aluminum, lead, chromium, iron and gold. The archeological explorations include this land as one of the oldest inhabited areas of the earth. The area had commerce with the ancient civilizations of Babylon, India and Central Asia. It is presumed that the famous Indus civilization derived most of its material elements from Iran and beyond through the Baloch Borderland. There is a marked cultural similarity between ancient settlements in Balochistan and those of Indus valley civilization. The archeological findings in different parts of central and northern Balochistan indicate that some 7 to 15 thousand years ago a fair number of people, familiar with agriculture and use of domesticated animals inhabited the region. The German and French excavations at Mehrgarh, Nausharo and Pirak in the Kachhi plain and Kech valley reveal a long cultural sequence from the Neolithic Period through the Iron Age. The sites indicate that development from villages to towns and then to camps, and from agriculture to migratory pastorals took place in ancient times. The people lived in clay-brick houses, and were familiar with stone ornaments and jewelry of precious seashells. The rising number of settlements from the beginning of settled life in the 6th millennium through the mid-third millennium BC witnesses the success of food production through farming and agriculture. The pattern is very similar during the later 3rd millennium during which the largest number of sites in southern Balochistan co-existed with the Indus Civilization. Enigmatically, after 1900/1800 BC, the Indus Civilization disintegrated into several regional cultural complexes some of which remain dormant till today. Inexplicably in the same period, the settlements and irrigation systems were abandoned and no human traces left in southeastern Balochistan. Balochistan has been themeeting grounds ofancientcivilizationsandempires.The irst recorded mass migration of a tribal people in the area is that of Aryans, which began after the disintegration of the Mesopotamian empires of Sumer and Akkad after the death of Emperor Hammurabi. Although some of the Achaemenian, Greek, Mauryan, Kushana, and Sassanian rulers and historians mention southern Balochistan in their records, nevertheless, significant archaeological finds that may correlate their presence are rare. Various regions of Balochistan were known as Gedrosia, Drangia, Turan and Sajistan and Kermania Altera. The narration about these areas by Greek or other ancient historians are sketchy and no firm conclusion could be drawn about the inhabitants of these areas. The Greek historian Arian mentioned two distinct groups of people Ichthyophagi and Oreitai living in the region during Alexandraв?Ts campaigns[1]. Balochistan changed hands frequently between the great empires of ancient epochs. Remaining the part of the Darius Empire in 5th century BC, it remained under Greek domination for some two decades. In 305 BC, Chandra Gupta defeated Alexanderв?Ts successor Seleucus Nicator and the region came under the control of the Mauryan Empire. During Maurya reign Balochistan witnessed the incursions of white Huns. Another historical event of the era was the invasion of the Saka, declaring the region as Sakastan, the country of the Saka, a name that has survived as the northwestern Balochistan being still called as Seistan. From 227 to 590 AD, Balochistan came under the Sassanians, with Ephthalite Turks controlling the central and northern areas. Later the area fell under the Sassanian Dynasty and remained under their control till the end of the 6th century[2]. Hindu rulers of Sindh also replaced the decaying Sassanians before the Arab conquests. Significant relics of Graeco-Bacterian rule and Buddhist settlements have been identified in northern and southern Balochistan. Among the most important invasions of Balochistan was the Arab incursion in 7th century AD, bringing far reaching social, religious, economic and political changes in the region. In AD 644 an Arab army under the command of Hakam defeated the combined forces of Mekuran and Sindh. The Arabs established several fortified cities in southern Balochistan and during their rule, trade and commerce flourished in the area and the sea routes were extensively used for trade between Middle East and India. The period of Arab rule brought the religion of Islam in the area. The Baloch tribes gradually embraced Islam replacing their centuries old Zoroastrian religion. The Arab control of Balochistan lasted till 10th century. The overthrowing of Sassanian yoke and lessening of the threats from Indian rulers enabled the Baloch tribes to establish their own semi-independent tribal confederacies, leading to the formation of a subsequent Baloch State. For the next seven centuries the region was under loose control of many dynasties of surrounding areas. Major parts of Balochistan were under Ghaznavi and Ghori rulers from Afghanistan, till the end of fifteenth century when the country fell into the hands of the Argons and subsequently the Mughuls. The defeat of Baloch forces at Khabis and Bumpur resulted in the complete victory of Gaznavi dynasty over Balochistan. During most of the 12th century southern Balochistan was under the control of Seljuks, before the arrival of Mughuls. Towards the beginning of the 16th century the Portuguese captured several places along the Makuran coast. The period from AD 1400 to 1948 can be distinguished for an era of declining grip of the surrounding powers on Balochistan and the rise of Baloch influence. The predominance of Baloch socio-political and cultural institutions is the characteristic of this period. The early decades of the Baloch era was marked with the formation of loose tribal unions. One of the most important was the tribal union of Rind and Lashaar consisting of 40 bolok or tribes. Different Baloch tribes and tribal unions were linked economically through trade and agricultural and animal products. They interacted socially, cooperated politically and united militarily whenever faced with a common external threat. Bumpur, in the western Balochistan, Kech in the southern and Surab and later Kalat in central Balochistan were the center of Baloch power in the period of tribal unions of Baloch history. During this period Balochistan was not free of external threats or interventions but the combined strength of Baloch tribal unions were able to defend their territory against the Afghan or Persian invading forces on various occasions. The Khanate: The Baloch ConfederacyDuring sixteenth century bonds between various tribes loosened due to internal feuds and constant infighting between various tribes. Subsequent period witnessed an era of anarchy and chaos throughout Baloch land. Such a state of affair continued till seventeenth century when in 1666 AD, Mir Ahmad, the leader of a Brahui tribal confederation founded the Ahmadzai Khanate of Kalat. The birth of Kalat State coincides with the decline and disintegration of Safavid, Mughul and Afghan Empires and the simultaneous rise of British colonial power in India. The Kalat State was the first and the last Baloch State headed by sovereign rulers, the в?oKhanв?ќ, who survived various attempts of different powers of the period to dominate the land till 1948. At the peak of its power the Khanate of Kalat included the entire region of present day Pakistani Balochistan, and most part of the Iranian and Afghani Balochistan. The Baloch landmass extended from Afghanistanв?Ts western district of Farah in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south. From west it stretches from the present Iranian province of Kerman and the Luth Desert to the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh in the east. The Kalat State was the improved version of old tribal union prevailing in Balochistan. It did not bring any changes in the general tribal setup. The tribal alliance was broad-based, with tremendous powers allowed to tribal chiefs, who recognized the Khan as the paramount power and contributed revenue to him and a fixed contingent of armed men in time of war. Although the tribal chief was selected through the general consent of the clan headmen, the office of the Khan was hereditary, being a benevolent ruler of a loosely decentralized tribal confederacy. A council of advisors representing the major tribes and allied people assisted the Khan. The Khan was the head of the confederacy but he enjoyed no absolute power. The Council took major important decisions. The Khan had no standing army beyond a contingent of household servants and bodyguards. Militarily, every able-bodied Baloch was supposed to take-up arms in an emergency. The Khan was supplied with contingents of fighting men by the tribal heads according to their respective strength. The main sources of revenue of the State were the collection from port of Karachi and taxation from Bolan Pass. A nominal source of revenue was also from the Mekuran Coastal trade. Taxation on agricultural and affiliated products was fixed between one-tenth, one-third, and half of the produce depending upon distance and area concerned. The land was usually the property of the tribe with few exceptions. The land could be forfeited if the tribes failed to supply a specific number of men and material in times of war. The bureaucratic institutions were organized on the same pattern, as was vogue in the surrounding countries of the region during that period.The foreign policy of the Khanate was one of peaceful coexistence with all the neighboring states. The Khanate was a sort of buffer
between Persia, Afghanistan and Sindh or later the British India. Kalat State being the neighbors of powerful Persian Empire, the resurgent Afghanistan and powerful British Empire in India, the degree of sovereignty enjoyed by the Baloch State was not constant throughout. Khan Naseer Khan (1750-1795) in a bid to thwart the danger emanating from Persia extended nominal allegiance to Afghan ruler Ahmed Shah[3]. The fall of Baloch ConfederacyBaloch destinies changed drastically beginning from mid 19th century due to powerful historical happenings in Asia and Europe. In this period while Russia was pushing southward, the decayed Persian Empire was trying to gain its lost glories and England was struggling to consolidate its position in Europe and in colonized world. The Russian ambitions for warm waters, the resurgence of Persian nationalism and British efforts to ward off the Russian thrust southward were the factors causing collateral damages resulting in territorial division of Baloch land and subsequent destruction of the sovereign Baloch State. The French exploratory mission to Persia in 1807 for exploring the possibility of an overland invasion of India through Persia and Balochistan caused great alarm among British authorities in India. Appeasement of Persia to be neutral in the great game being played in central Asia, compelling Afghanistan to be a buffer between Russian and British areas of influences, were the causative factors of devastating Afghan wars and the extension of British proxy rule in Balochistan and its partition. From the military bases in Balochistan it was easier for Britain to secure the buffer status of Afghanistan and Iran vis-à-vis Russia and also to secure its communication links with Middle East and Europe. After the Khanate of Kalat declined to be involved in foreign aggression against Afghanistan, occupation of Baloch State became necessary for England to safeguard the supply line for British invading army in Afghanistan. An English detachment attacked capital Kalat on 13 November 1839. Khan, Mir Mehrab Khan was killed in battle and a new Khan was appointed as nominal ruler of Baloch State with a British representative as the supreme authority, reducing Khan to mere vassals of British Crown. From 1839 onward the British had gradually consolidated their power in Balochistan through a series of wars and treaties imposed on Kalat State. These treaties gave the British the rights of safe passage through Kalat (1839), the right to stationing of troops (1854), the right to extend Indo-European telegraph line through Baloch Coast (1863) and various other agreements giving Britain some major economic and territorial concessions. The northern areas of Balochistan including Bolan Pass was leased out to Britain, which was later, named as British Balochistan. An important and consequential treaty was signed in 1876 between Khan, the tribal chiefs and British authorities in Delhi. Under the agreement, the Khanв?Ts authority was accepted over the region, but it was to be administered by the British in accordance with local customs. The British occupation of Kalat was perhaps the greatest event in Baloch history. It weakened the authority of Khan, broke up the traditional system of governance giving extraordinary clouts to tribal chiefs and establishing a в?oShahi Jirgaв?ќ, a nominated council, having vast jurisdictional power, unprecedented in Baloch annals. After the fall of Kalat unto First World War, Baloch tribes fought unsuccessful battles against the mighty forces of British Empire. The Baloch resistance to British authority lasting nearly a century was acts of individual tribes and could not assume a form of a national struggle due to many factors. These including lack of communication between various tribes, superiority of enemy in all respects, lack of inspiration from the Khan, and lack of any political organization for channeling the resistance movement. Partitioning BalochistanSoon after the death of Khan, Naseer Khan, and later geo-strategic events that reduced Khanate to a subordinate position, the central control of Khanate on Baloch chieftains began to loosen. This coincided with Iranian encroachments on western Balochistan during the reign of Qajar King Nasir-al Din Shah (1848-1896). In 1849, an Iranian army defeated Baloch forces in Kerman and captured Bumpur. The Iranian expansions increased after the extension of Indo-European telegraph line from Karachi to Gwadar and then up to Jask in western Balochistan in 1861. By the time of completion of that line in 1870, Iranian forces had advanced very far in Western Balochistan. It was the period when Britain was trying to neutralize Persia in order to prevent her with siding either with Napoleon or the Czar of Russia. To compensate the loss of Persian territory in the west to Ottoman Empire, Britain decided to grant a portion of Baloch land to Persia. In 1871, the British Government accepted an Iranian proposal and appointed Maj. General Goldsmid as Chief Commissioner of the joint Perso-Baloch Boundary Commission. In 1871 Persian and British Governments excluding the Khanate delegate from the final joint meeting that took the decision agreed upon a boundary line. This line dividing Western and Eastern Balochistan is called в?oGoldsmid Lineв?ќ forming the present international boundary between Pakistan and Iran. In 1893, a similar arbitrarily drawn line в?~The Durand Lineв?T demarcating the Afghan and British Indian borders gave a large part of Baloch land in northern Baloch regions of Helmand and Nemroz into Afghan sovereignty. Resisting Foreign DominationThe Baloch in Western Balochistan were in constant revolt against foreign domination of Persian dynasties. The revolt of Jask (1873), of Sarhad (1888), and the general uprising in 1889, resulted in the scorch earth policy to suppress Baloch rebellion by Iranian forces in 1889. A major uprising under Baloch chieftain Sardar Hussein Narui in 1896 prompted a joint Anglo-Persian expeditionary force to crush the rebellion. The rebellion was crushed after two years and Narui chief was arrested. With resultant weakening of Qajar dynasty in Iran after the death of Muzzafar-al Din Shah and the preoccupation of British authorities dealing with the Baloch uprisings in the Eastern Balochistan, the Baloch tribal chiefs in the west began consolidating their hold on their territories. In the beginning of twentieth century, Bahram Khan gained control of almost the entire central and southern region of Western Balochistan ending the occupation of Iranian forces. In 1916, the British recognized him as the effective ruler of Western Balochistan. His nephew, Mir Dost Mohamed succeeded Mir Bahram Khan. Mir Dost Mohamedв?Ts attempts to consolidate his power coincided with the rise to power in Persia of Reza Khan in 1921. In 1928 an Iranian force began operation against Mir Dost Mohamed. The skirmishes continued for seven months and ended in the victory of Iranian forces over Baloch and eventual surrender of Mir Dost Mohamed, thereby Western Balochistan was finally annexed with Persian Empire. Accession to PakistanPakistan, a state which was created in 1947, has its ideological, theoretical and political foundation on the premises of the existence of a Muslim nation in the sub-continent distinct from other inhabitants of the country and as such they are entitled to achieve a sovereign status by carving out a new country putting together the areas of northern India and East Bengal as a Muslim country governed by Muslims. This fallacious political and ideological slogan was coined by the British rulers in India to divide the sub-continent and to have a foothold in the newfound country as a counter measure to rising Soviet Communist influence in the East. Balochistan, which was a sovereign and independent state, was amalgamated into the new state under the British new scheme of territorial changes in the sub-continent in the wake of partition. Firstly a considerable portion of Baloch land was merged with Pakistan under the pretext of a controversial referendum in June 1947 and then the state of Kalat was coerced to join the new state in March 1948. The British authorities in India did always consider Balochistan as an independent and sovereign entity and never as part of the Indian subcontinent.[4] The 1854 and 1876 treaties between British government and the Khan of Kalat duly recognized Balochistan as a sovereign country outside India. In the partition plan of 3rd June 1947, both Pakistan and the British had accepted Kalat Stateв?Ts sovereignty. After the British withdrawal plan for India was announced the Viceroy of India entrusted the responsibility of deciding whether British Balochistan should join Pakistan, to the members of Shahi Jirga and members of Quetta Municipality. This decision was in contravention of all international laws, as the area called British Balochistan was leased out to British India by a treaty agreed upon by the sovereign Kalat Sate and Britain. And after British withdrawal, the area should have been handed over to Kalat State. On the objection of Khan of Kalat, the British agreed that the question of the sovereignty over the leased areas would be discussed between the representatives of Pakistan and Kalat. But with the overt assistance of British Assistant to Governor General in British Balochistan, a controversial and much manipulated referendum was held in Quetta in 29th of June 1947. It was announced that the British Balochistan has opted to join Pakistan[5]. On 4th August 1947, a tripartite agreement was signed between Pakistan, the British and Balochistan called в?~The Standstill Agreementв?T in which the sovereign status of Balochistan was accepted. The article I of this agreement stated that: в?oThe Government of Pakistan recognizes the status of Kalat as a free and independent state which has bilateral relations with the British Government, and whose rank and position is different from that of other Indian statesв?ќ. The Khan declared Balochistan independent on 12th August 1947, two days before the independence of Pakistan. The Khan affirmed his intention to build Balochistan as a prosperous sovereign country in which Baloch could retain their identity and live in accordance with their traditions. It will establish relations through treaties of friendship with neighboring states of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan as well as with India and outside world. Soon after the independence elections were held to Balochistan bi-cameral legislature and a period of tranquility and peace ensured in the country. In the mean time Pakistan began to pressurize the newly independent Kalat State to join Pakistan and an uneasy calm appeared in relations between Kalat and Pakistan. Talks between Pakistan and Kalat dragged on for fairly a long time. Pakistan continued to harass the Khan and Baloch State machinery on various pretexts. Pakistan was engaged in conspiracies and underhand tactics to compel the Khan to join Pakistan. On 26th March 1948 Pakistan army was ordered to move into Baloch coastal region of Pasni, Jiwani, and Turbat. This was the first act of aggression prior to the march on Capital Kalat by Pakistani military detachment on 1st April 1948. The Khan capitulated and on 27th March and it was announced in Pakistani capital that Khan of Kalat has agreed to merge his State with Pakistan. Under the constitution of Kalat, the Khan was not authorized to take such a basic decision. The Balochistan assembly had already rejected any suggestion of forfeiting the independence of Balochistan on any pretext. The forceful merger of Kalat State with Pakistan ended three hundred years of independent and semi-independent Baloch State from the map of the world. This was one of the epoch-making events in the history of the Baloch people and their country. The sovereign Baloch State after British withdrawal from India lasted only 227 days. The murder of Baloch State sent shock waves throughout Baloch world. A short-lived rebellion by the younger brother of the Khan was brutally crushed by Pakistan army and the leader of the uprising Prince Abdul Karim was imprisoned. Baloch have never reconciled with the idea of their country being incorporated in the religious fundamentalist state of Pakistan. Since the merger of Kalat State into Pakistan, the Pakistani authorities have been treating Balochistan as an occupied land excluding Baloch people from all structures of state establishment. They are compelled to accept an alien language of northern India as the national language. The Baloch have been economically excluded causing majority of Baloch people to live below poverty line. The natural resources of the land are being exploited on an unprecedented scale. Several military operations to quill the Baloch national uprisings since the merger have widened the gulf between Pakistan and Baloch people. In the Iranian controlled part of Balochistan, Baloch are rapidly loosing their identity. Previously Baloch dominated regions of Bandar Abbas, part of Kerman, Seistan and Zabol are the most affected areas of the assimilation efforts of Persian State. Now in all these areas Baloch are in minority, even the capital city of Zahidan does not look like a Baloch city. Baloch in Iran are completely excluded in the structures of political, social and economic powers of the country. Dissemination of Balochi culture and language is a declared act of treason against the Persian State and is dealt with brutal measures. Many army garrisons are permanently stationed in Baloch areas, Balochistan presenting a picture of army zone. Baloch areas in Pakistan are one of the federating units comprising Pakistan and named as the province of Balochistan with Quetta as the capital city. In Iran some of the Baloch areas such as western Makuran, Sarhad and Seistan were named as province of Seistan and Balochistan with Zahidan as the capital city. In Afghanistan the Baloch are concentrated in the southwestern districts of Nemroz, Farah and Helmand. In these three hosts countries Baloch people have been resisting the subjugating maneuvers of these countries from time to time with political and armed campaigns but never been succeeded. The factors for their failure to gain national independence included the division of Baloch land, the international power politics of Soviet Bloc and West and internal complexities of Baloch society and politics. Various Baloch political organizations presently striving for the right of self-determination for the Baloch nation have a united independent Balochistan as the ultimate aim of their political struggle.
Arbery, A. j. (ed.): The Legacy of Persia. London, 1953Arfa, Hassan: The Kurds-A Historical and Political Study. London, 1968.Arian: The Campaigns of Alexander: translated by Aubrey de Selincourt. New York, Penguin Classic. 1971.Baloch, Inayatullah: The Baloch question in Pakistan and the Right of Self-determinationв?T. Wolfgang Peter Zingol (Ed) Hamburg, 1983.Baloch, Mohamed Hussein Anqa: Inquilabi Baloch Tarikh, 2600 BC to 1951AD. Quetta, Gosha-e-Adab, 1974.Baloch, Muhammad Sardar Khan: The History of Baloch Race and Balochistan. Karachi, 1958.Burnes, Alexander: Travels into Bukhara and a Voyage on the Indus (vol. I) London, 1834.Burton Richard F: Sindh and the Races that Inhabit the Valley of the Indus. London, 1951.Elfenbein, J.H: the Balochi Language-A dialectology with text. Royal Society Monographs, (vol. xxvii), London, 1966.Fareedi, Noor Ahmed: Baloch Koum oar Uski Tharikh. Multan, 1968Ferrier, J.P: A Caravan Journey and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan and Balochistan. London, 1857.Firdusi: Shahnama. Translated by Arthur G Warner and Edmund Warner. London: Kegan Paul. Trench Turner &Co.Harrison, Selig S: In Afghanistanв?Ts Shadow-Baloch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations. New York, 1981.Hattu Ram: Tarikh e Balochistan, Balochi Academy, Quetta, 1973.Hosseinbor, Dr. Mohammad Hassan: Iran and its nationalities: The Case of Baloch Nationalism. Karachi, 2000.Hughes, A.W: The Country of Balochistan. London, 1877.Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Balochistan. Quetta, 1908.Jahanbani, Amanullah: Sargosasht-e-Baluchistan Va Marz Hai Aen. Teheran, 1959.Khan, Ahmed Yar: Inside Balochistan: A Political Autobiography. Karachi, Royal Book Co, 1975Macgregor, C.M: Wandering in Baluchistan. London, 1882.Marri, Mir Khuda Bakhsh:) The Baloches through the Centuries-History Vs legend. Karachi. Mason, Charles: Narrative of a Journey to Kalat. London, 1843.Pottinger, Henry: Travels in Baluchistan and Sinde. Karachi, Indus Publication, 1976.Raverty, Henry George: notes on Afghanistan and Balochistan, London, 1851.Rawlinson, George: The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World. London, 1892.Tate, G.P: The Frontiers of Balochistan-travels on the borders of Persia and Afghanistan. London, 1909.Wirsing, Robert G: the Balochis and the Pathan. London, 1981.Yate, C.E: Baluchistan. London: Central Asian Society, 1906. [1] At the end of his conquests of northern India in 325 BC, Alexander the Great marched back with his army through harsh desert wastes of southern Balochistan suffering heavily due to shortages of both food and water. Earlier, only Semiramis and Cyrus are known to have traversed these wastelands, but with devastating results.[2] The Perso-Balochi wars during Sassanian kings, Ardeshir and Chosroes Anosarvan cultivated the seeds of hatred between Persians and Baloch. According to some writers, the Anosarvanв?Ts brutal military campaigns against the Baloch are responsible for the later events when Baloch deserted the Sassanian army and sided with Arabs during the Muslim invasion of Persia in 7th century.[3] This partnership soon broke as the Afghans began to treat the Khanate as a junior partner. After a series of inconclusive battles between Baloch and Afghan States, the в?oTreaty of Kalatв?ќ was signed between the two States recognizing the sovereign status of Balochistan.[4] During British colonial rule in India, Nepal and Kalat were the only states authorized to appoint ambassadors.[5] No formal votes were taken nor were the delegates informed about the voting procedure for or against merger with newly created country of Pakistan. It was a complete deception. Surprisingly, however, soon after the simple gathering of members of Shahi Jirga, it was announced in Delhi that the British Balochistan, which included the leased areas of Kalat State, had voted for accession to Pakistan.

Balochistan before Christ (BC)

Balochistan before Christ (BC)The geological and archeological evidence show that the rainy era finished about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Since then the era of dryness and barrenness started. This so-called "dry" era which is still continuous has seen gradual decrease in rainfall associated with the rise in sea level and the degradation of the land. It is no wonder that the Balochi folklore is full of songs which celebrates the earlier years of plentifullness and rain. It seems that almost all generation of the Baloch have experienced this deterioration in their life-time. Balochistan is one of the ancient inhibited land. The history goes back to around 15,000 years ago. Whether it was initially inhibited by the Balochi tribes or some other tribes is rather unclear. Last century French archaeologists discovered a new site in Balochistan at Mehergarh (Mehregan), which is believed to be the earliest civilization in the world. It pre-dates the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The site was occupied from 7,000 B.C. to 2,000 B.C. and it is the earliest Neolithic site where "we have first evidence of domestication of animals and cereal cultivation - wheat and barely - and also the centre or craftsmanship as early as 7.000 B.C." Lapis Lazuli and sea-shells were used to make beautiful ornaments as found in large number of graves. The site later became a centre of production of beautifully painted pottery and human and animal figurines and such economical and social development helped to understand the process of formation of the urbanized civilization to the west of the Indus Valley in the 3rd millennium B.C. The site of Mehergarh which is situated at the foot of the Bolan Pass also shows good evidence of contacts through trade exchanges with Afghanistan, Central Asia and Persia (Iran). Graves found at the site show that the dead were buried in flex position Children were buried separately and not mixed with the adults. He added Grave pottery was found in all the graves including ornaments of beads of high quality craftsmanship which showed connections with fishermen of Makran Coast. There are many historical sites across Eastern Balochistan (politically part of Pakistan), Western Balochistan (politically part of Iran), and Northern Balochistan (politically part of Afghanistan). Evidence from these sites show a very clear deep rooted history of civilization. Amir Tavakol Kambozia wrote that Cupper was first discovered in Balochistan. It was transported from Balochistan to present day Iraq by water-born vessels. The names Baloch and Balochistan appears in literatures as old as 2000 years ago. However, other names have been used to describe the land of Balochistan. Old Persian literature refers to Balochistan as "Macka" or Mecka as well as Mackiya and Mackiyan. The Greek used to call it "Gedrosia" (pronounced as Gedroshia) or Gedrozia. Others used to call it Makoran or Makaran. Holdich believed that the word Makoran was originally Mahikhoran ( Fish eaters i.e. those whose staple diet was fish). Throughout centuries the word "Mahikhoran" changed into "Makoran". MarcoPolo referred to Balochistan as "Kasmakoran" or Kasmehkoran". During Sasanian era, King Ardeshir invaded Kerman and annexed it to its kingdom. He tried to do the same with Balochistan but was defeated by the Baloch. The Baloch also, from time to time, made excursions to Kerman. After the death of Ardeshir, his son, Shapoot I succeeded him. During the reign of Anosheervan, the tension between the Baloch and the Persian increased once again. Anosheervan who used to call himself Aadel (Just), planned to invade Balochistan. He gathered a very large army equipped and ready to fight. One of the greatest battle of all time took place between Anosheervan's unjust Army and the Baloch. What was the extent of the victory for either side, nobody knows. Omar, the second khalifat of Islam, who conquered Iran, sent two of his commanders to conquer Balochistan. Initially, the primary Arab armies were defeated. Once the Arab commanders learnt about the Balochistan and Beloshi people as they call it, they told their rulers that going into Balochistan is not wise for " there is scarce water, the deate palm trees are dried and dead, bandits are very brave and fearless. If you send a small Army, it will be defeated, if you send a large Army, they will die of thirst and hunger". During the first 100 years of Islam, the Baloch refused to accept Islam. However, throughout centuries they accepted Islam as the main religion.FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=" The next largest invasion of Balochistan was carried out by Joghtayeh Mogul ( son of Gangiz Khan). He defeated Sultan Jalal-odin and looted Balochistan with little mercy. Immediately after his crowning, Nader Shah Afshar dispatched more than 12,000 armed soldiers to conquer Balochistan. Initially they fought against 3000 armed men of Amir Mohabat Khan and Amir Imtiaz Khan ( sons of Abdullah Baloch). This battle took place around Minaab and Jask which are part of Balochistan. Nadershah sent more troops towards the Kalat (Capital of the State of Balochistan). Another war broke out between the Baloch and the Persian. However, the real winner this time was King Ahmad Durani of Afghanistan. The Ghajaar dynasty was toppled by the Reza Shah Pahlavi. Reza initially followed the path of his predecessors by suppressing the Baloch. Once again wars followed. Hundreds of thousands of the Baloch escaped from Balochistan. Most of them settled in Karachi and Sind. Reza Shah's war against the Baloch started from different fronts. He brought tens of thousands of troops from the north (Mashahad), north west (Kerman), Yazd, and from the west (Bander Abbass). Balochi Sardars such as Doust Mohamed Khan Baragzahei started fighting against the fully equipped army of Iran which had been modernized by their masters i.e. the British. Eventually, the British helped Reza Shah to suppress the Baloch at all cost. The Baloch were the only nation in the region to have defeated the British. Hence, the British had a particular disliking towards the Baloch. Thousands of the Baloch and scores of tribal chiefs were executed in the aftermath of the war

10th Baluch regiment

10th Baloch Regimant


Centre: 1923 RAJKOT 1946 KARACHI Class Composition:
1923Punjabi Mussalmans, Pathans, Baluchis and Brahuis1946 Punjabi Mussalmans from the Punjab (less Ambala Civil Division) including Niazi and other Pathans from the Punjab. Hazarawalas of NWFP and Mussalmans of Jammu and Kashmir State and Gilgit Agency, Dogras from the Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir State. From within the administrative borders of the NWFP of British India. NWFP states and Tribal Territory.Perhaps surprisingly, the 10th Baluch Regiment sprang from the old Bombay Army and its predecessors were freely used to sort out India's problems in and around the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Appropriately, the senior battalion originated in the 2nd (Marine) Bn of the 12th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry raised in 1820. In 1838, as the 24th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry, they stormed Aden, bringing that hotbed of pirates under the British flag. The 26th Bombay Native Infantry was raised in 1825 as the 2nd Extra Bn of Bombay Native Infantry, changing its name a year later. Sir Charles Napier raised two regiments in Karachi - the 1st and 2nd Belooch Regiments - for local service within Sind in 1844 and 1846 respectively. The term 'local' was interpreted fairly loosely when it became necessary to send the 2nd Belooch to the Persian War in 1856-57, a campaign frequently overshadowed by the events of the Great Mutiny in 1857. The 1st was in Karachi when the news of the insurrection reached the Commissioner. Sir Bartle Frere despatched them with all haste, on foot across the Sind desert in May to join the siege artillery train on its way to Delhi, the only Bombay unit to join the Delhi Field Force. The regiment was brought into the regular line for its services in Central India and it became the 27th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry in the post-Mutiny realignment. The 2nd Belooch, in the meantime, had qualified for a similar change in status for their work on the NW Frontier and became the 29th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry. In 1858, Major John Jacob raised a local battalion, soon to be known as Jacob's Rifles and they made such a reputation in and around Jacobabad that they, too, were accorded regular status, becoming the 30th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry or Jacob's Rifles in 1861. In the years which followed, the subsidiary title lapsed and does not appear to have been officially revived until 1910, by which time, the 24th, the 26th, the 27th, the 29th, and the 30th had all had one hundred added to their numbers in 1903, emerging as the 124th, the 126th, the 127th, the 129th and the 130th.A distinction shared by no other regiment was a spell in Japan by the 29th in 1864. They were summoned from Shanghai to Yokohama in September to protect Queen Victoria's British and Indian subjects. The British force remained in Japan until September the following year.FIRST WORLD WAR124th Duchess of Connaught's Baluchistan Infantry - India, Mesopotamia, Persia.2/124th (formed in 1916)- Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, India.3/124th (formed in 1917)- India, Persia, Mesopotamia.126th Baluchistan Infantry - India, Egypt, Muscat, Aden, Mosopotamia. 2/126th (formed in 1918) - India.127th Queen Mary's Own Baluch Light Infantry - India, East Africa, Persia.2/127th (formed in 1918) - India, Egypt.129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis - India, France, East Africa.2/129th (formed in 1917) - India, Mesopotamia.130th King George's Own Baluchis (Jacob's Rifles) - India, East Africa. 2/130th (formed in 1918) - India.Only the 2nd Bn of the 124th of the wartime raisings was retained after the post-war reforms.The 129th in the 3rd (Lahore) Division, was the only battalion of the regiment to serve on the Western Front, the first Indian regiment to attack the Germans, the first also on two other counts - to lose the first British officer and to earn the first Victoria Cross, this by Sepoy Khudadad Khan at Hollebeke. Wounded, he recovered to enjoy the distinction of being the first Indian soldier to receive the King Emperor's most coveted gift. Prior to 1911, Indian soldiers had not been eligible to receive the Cross.BETWEEN THE WARSThe badge chosen for the 10th Baluch Regiment in 1923 was a Roman 'Ten' within a crescent moon, a crown above and title scroll below.The line-up of battalions for the new regiment was as under:124th Duchess of Connaught's Own Baluchistan Infantry - 1st Bn 10th Baluch Regiment.126th Baluchistan Infantry - 2nd Bn 10th Baluch Regiment.127th Queen Mary's Own Baluch Light Infantry - 3rd Bn (Queen Mary's Own) 10th Baluch Regiment.129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis - 4th Bn (Duke of Connaught's Own) 10th Baluch Regiment.130th King George's Own Baluchis - 5th Bn (King George's Own) (Jacobs Rifles) 10th Baluch Regiment.2/124th Duchess of Connaught's Own Baluchistan Infantry - 10th Bn 10th Baluch Regiment.There was no Territorial battalion but the 5/10th was selected for Indianisation. It was not among the initial six infantry battalions nominated in 1923, but it featured in a supplementary list in 1933.SECOND WORLD WAR1st Battalion - India, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt.2nd Battalion - India, Malaya. Captured in Singapore in February 1942.Reformed in April 1946 from Cdr. of 9/10 Baluch.3rd Battalion - India, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Sicily, Italy. On return to India the battalion was nominated for conversion to a parachute role to join 2 Indian Airborne Division.4th Battalion - India, East Africa, Egypt, Cyprus, Italy.5th Battalion - India, Burma.6th Battalion - raised in Karachi on 1 Jan 40. India. Disbanded 1 Feb. 47.7th Battalion - raised in Benares on 10 Oct 40. India. Burma.8th Battalion - raised in Karachi on 1 Feb. 41. India, Burma. Disbanded 22 Dec 46.9th Battalion - raised in Nasirabad on 1 Feb. 41. India. Disbanded 25 Apr 46 but almost 500 went to reform the regular 2nd Bn.14th Battalion - raised in Karachi on 1 Feb. 41. India, Burma, Malaya, Siam. Disbanded 15 Sep 46.16th Battalion - raised in Karachi on 15 Oct 41. India, Burma, Malaya. Disbanded March 1946.17th Battalion - raised November 1942 by conversion of 53 Regt IAC, India, Iraq, Palestine, Greece, Libya.18th Battalion - raised originally as 25 Garrison Bn, it became an active battalion and was redesignated 18/10th. India. Disbanded May 1944.25th Garrison Battalion - raised in Karachi in July 1941. On conversion to active status, it was redesignated the 18/10th.26th Garrison Battalion - raised in Karachi in March 1942. India. Disbanded 1946.Machine Gn Battalion - raised in Karachi on 15 Apr 42. Converted to 53 Regt IAC August 1942. Redesignated 17/10th November 1942.In common with many other Indian Infantry regiments, the 10th Baluch Regiment lost its number and, at the end of 1945, became The Baluch Regiment.PARTITIONIn August 1947, the Baluch Regiment was allotted to Pakistan, the Dogra companies remaining in India and transferring to, among other regiments, The Indian Grenadiers.On transfer of power, the active battalions were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th.BATTLE HONOURSAden, Reshire, Bushire, Koosh-ab, Persia. Delhi 1857, Central India, Abyssinia, Kandahar 1880, Afghanistan 1878-80, Egypt 1882, Tel-el-Kebir, Burmah 1885-87, British East Africa 1896, British East Africa 1897-99, China 1900, Messiness 1914, Armentieres 1914, Ypres 1914-15, Gheluvelt, Festubert 1914, Givenchy 1914, Neuve Chapelle, St. Julien, France and Flanders 1914-15, Egypt 1915, Megiddo, Sharon, Palestine 1918, Aden, Kut-al-Amara 1917, Baghdad, Mesopotamia 1916-18, Persia 1915-18, NW Frontier, India 1917, Kilimanjaro, Behobeho, East Africa 1915-18, Afghanistan 1919.Gallabat, Barentu, Massawa, The Cauldron, Ruweisat Ridge, El Alamein, North Africa 1940-43, Landing in Sicily, Sicily 1943, Castel Frentano, Orsogna, Arezzo, Monte Cedrone, Citta di Castello, Monte Calvo, Gothic Line, Plan di Castello, Croce, Gemmano Ridge, San Marino, San Paulo-Monte Spacata, Monte Cavallo, Cesena, Savio Bridgehead, Casa Bettini, Idice Bridgehead, Italy 1943-45, Athens, Greece 1944-45, North Malaya, Machang, Singapore Island, Malaya 1941-42, Kuzeik, North Arkan, Point 551, Maungdaw, Shwebo, Kyaukmyaung Bridgehead, Mandalay, Capture of Meiktila, Defence of Meiktila, The Irrawaddy, Pegu 1945, Sittang 1945, Burma 1942-45BOOKS'Historical Records of the 127th Baluch Light Infantry 1845-1905' (wm Clowes, London, 1905)'The 10th Baluch Regiment - the 1st and 10th Battalions' by O A Chaldecott (Times of India Press, Bombay c. 1935)'Capital Campaigners' (3/10th Baluch) by Lieut Col W E Maxwell (Gale and Polden Ltd. Aldershot, 1948)'The Tenth Baluch Regiment in the Second World War' by W S Thatcher (Baluch Regimental Centre, Abbottabad 1980) sources: http://defencejournal.com/jun99/10th-baluch.htm

Balochistan according to British Encyclopedia

A country within the borders of British India which, like Afghanistan, derives its name from its dominant race of inhabitants. It extends from the Gomal River to the Arabian Sea and from the borders of Persia and Afghanistan to those of the Punjab and Sindh. It is divided into two main divisions, British Balochistan, which is a portion of British India under the chief commissioner, and the foreign territories under the administration or superintendence of the same officer as agent to the governor-general. The former portion, with an area of 9403 sq. m., consists principally of tracts ceded to the British government by Afghanistan under the treaty of Gandamak (1879), and formally declared to be part of British India in 1887.
The second class comprises three subdivisions, namely areas directly administered, native states and tribal areas. The directly-administered districts include areas acquired in various ways. Some portions are held on lease from the khan of Kalat; while others are tribal areas in which it has been decided for various reasons that revenue shall be taken. They inchide the whole of the Zhob and Chagai political agencies, the eastern portion of the Quetta tahsil and other tracts, among which may be mentioned the Bolan Pass, comprising 36,401 sq. m. in all. The whole of the northern boundary, with the north-eastern corner and the railway which traverses Balochistan through Quetta up to New Chaman on the Afghan-Baloch frontier, is therefore in one form or other under direct British control. The remainder of the territory (79,382 sq. m.) belongs to the native states of Kalat (including Makran and Kharan) and Las Bela. Tribal areas, in the possession of the Marri and Bugti tribes, cover 7129 sq. m.
Balochistan as a whole is a sparsely populated tract covering a larger area than any Indian province save Burma, Madras and Bengal. Three hundred miles of its mountain walls facing the Indus are south of the railway from the Indus to Quetta, and about 250 north of it. The railway with the passes and plains about it, and the dominant hills which surround Quetta, divide Balochistan into two distinct parts. North of the railway line, hedged in between Afghanistan and the plains of the Indus, stretch the long ridges of rough but picturesque highlands, which embrace the central ranges of the Suliman system (the prehistoric home of the Pathan highlander), where vegetation is often alpine, and the climate clear and bracing and subject to no great extremes of temperature.
The average breadth of this northern Pathan district is 150 m., but it narrows to less than 100 m. on the line of the Gomal, and expands to more than 200 m. on the line of the railway. Here all the main drainage either runs northwards to the Gomal, passing through the uplands that lie west of the Suliman Range; or it gathers locally in narrow lateral valleys at the back of these mountains and then bursts directly eastwards through the limestone axis of the hills, making for the Indus by the shortest transverse route. South of the railway lies a square block of territory, measuring roughly 300 m by 300, primarily the home of the Brahui and the Baloch; but within that block are included almost every conceivable phase of climate and representatives of half the great races of Asia. Here, throughout the elevated highlands of the Kalat plateau which are called Jhalawan, the drainage gathers into channels which cut deep gorges in the hills, and passes eastwards into the plains of Sindh.
Beyond and south of the hydrographical area of the Jhalawan highlands the rivers and streams of the hills either run in long straight lines to the Arabian Sea, north of Karachi, or, curving gradually westwards, they disappear in the inland swamps which form so prominent a feature in this part of south-west Asia. A narrow width of the coast districts collects its waters for discharge into the Arabian Sea direct. This section includes Makran. Balochistan thus becomes naturally divided into two districts, north and south, by an intervening space which contains the Sindh- Pishin railway. This intervening space comprises the wedge-shaped desert of Kach Gandava (Gandava), which is thrust westwards from the Indus as a deep indentation into the mountains, and, above it, the central uplands which figure on the map as "British Balochistan" -where lies Quetta. All Balochistan has now been surveyed. From the great Indus series of triangles bases have been selected at intervals which have supported minor chains of triangulation reaching into the heart of the country. These again have been connected by links of more or less regularity, so that, if the Balochistan triangulation lacks the rigid accuracy of a "first class" system, it at least supports good topography on geographical scales.
From Domandi, at the junction of the Gomal and Kundar rivers the boundary between Balochistan and Afghanistan follows the Kundar stream for about 40 m. to the south-west. It then leaves the river and diverges northwards, so as to include a section of the plain country stretching away towards Lake Ab-i-Istada, before returning to the skirts of the hills. After about 100 m. of this divergence it strikes the Kadanai River, turning the northern spurs of the Toba plateau (the base of the Kwaja Amran (Kojak) Range and winds through the open plains west of the Kojak Here, however, the boundary does not follow the river. It deserts it for the western edge of the Toba plateau (8000 ft. high at this point), till it nears the little railway station of New Chaman. It then descends to the plains, returns again to the hills 40 m. south of Chaman, and thenceforward is defined by hill ranges southwards to Nushki. The eastern boundary of this northern section of Balochistan is the "red line"at the foot of the frontier hills, which defines the border of British India. This part of Balochistan thus presents a buffer system of independent tribes between the British frontier and Afghanistan. But the independence of the Pathan people south of the Gomal is not as the independence of the Pathans (Waziris, Afridis, &c.) who live north of it. It is true that the Indian government interferes as little with the internal jurisdiction of the tribal chiefs amongst the Pathans of the Suliman Range as it does with that of the northern chiefs; but the occupation of a line of posts on the Zhob river, which flanks that range almost from end to end on the west, places the doors of communication with Afghanistan in British hands, and gives command of their hills. It thus tends to the maintenance of peace and order on the southern frontier to a degree that does not exist in the north.
The central range of the Suliman hills is the dominant feature in the geography of northern Balochistan. The central line or axis of the range lies a little east of the meridian of 700 E., and it is geologically composed of one or more great folds of the Cretaceous series. Towards the northern extremity of the range occur a group of peaks, which together form an oblong block or "massif" amongst the neighboring ridges known as "Kaisargarh" amongst the Sherani clansmen who occupy it; and as the "Takht-i-Suliman" (Solomon’s throne), generally, on the frontier, from the fact of a celebrated shrine of that name existing near its southern abutment. The massif of the Takht is a high tableland (about 8000 ft. above sea-level); bounded on its eastern and western edges by high, rugged and steep parallel ridges. The western ridge culminates on the north in the peak of Kaisargarh (11,300 ft.), and the eastern in a block, or detached headland, on the south, where rests the immortal "zirat" or shrine (11,070 ft.). This tableland is formed by a huge cap of coral limestone, estimated by Griesbach at from 4000 to 5000 ft. in thickness. At each end the tableland is rent by gorges which deepen, amidst stupendous precipices, to the channel of the Draband or "Gat" on the north, and of the Dhana on the south. These two channels carry the rush of mountain streams from the western slopes of the massif right across the axis of the mountains and through the intervening barrier of minor ridges to the plains of the Indus. The plateau is covered with a fairly thick growth of the chilghosa or "edible" pine, and a sprinkling of juniper, on the higher slopes. It was ascended and surveyed for the first time in 1883.
From the summit of the Kaisargarh peak a magnificent view is obtained which practically embraces the whole width of northern Balochistan. Westwards, looking towards Afghanistan, line upon line of broken jagged ridges and ranges, folds in the Cretaceous series overlaid by coarse sandstones and shales, follow each other in order, preserving their approximate parallelism until they touch the borders of Balochistan. Immediately on the west of the Kaisargarh there towers the Shingarli Mountain, a geological repetition of the Kaisargarh ridge, black with pines towards the summit and crowned with crags of coral limestone. Beyond it are the grey outlines of the close-packed ridges which enclose the lower reaches of the Zhob and the Kundar. As they pass away southwards this gridiron formation strikes with a gentle curve westwards, the narrow enclosed valleys widening out towards the sources of the rivers, where ages of denudation have worn down the folds and filled up the hollows with fruitful soil, until at last they touch the central water divide, the key of the whole system, on the Quetta plateau. Thus the upper parts of the Zhob valley are comparatively open and fertile, with flourishing villages, and a cultivation which has been greatly developed under British rule, and are bounded by long, sweeping, gentle spurs clothed with wild olive woods containing trees of immense size. The lower reaches of the Zhob and Kundar are hemmed in by rugged limestone walls, serrated and banded with deep clefts and gorges, a wilderness of stony desolation. Looking eastwards from the Kaisargarh, one can again count the backs of innumerable minor ridges, smaller, wrinkles or folds formed during a process of upheaval of the Suliman Mountains, at the close of a great volcanic epoch which has hardly yet ceased to give evidence of its existence.
On the outside edge, facing the Indus plains is a more strictly regular, but higher and more rugged, ridge of hills which marks the Siwaliks. The Baloch Siwaliks afford us strange glimpses into a recent geological past, when the same gigantic mammals roamed along the foot of these wild hills as once inhabited the tangled forests below the Himalaya. Between the Takht Mountain and the Siwaliks, the intervening belt of ridge and furrow has been greatly denuded by transverse drainage-a system of drainage which we now know to have existed before the formation of the hills and to have continued to cut through them as they gradually rose above the plain level. Where this intervening band is not covered by recent gravel deposits, it exhibits beds of limestone, clays and sandstone with fossils, which, in age, range from the Lower Eocene to the Miocene.
Beyond the Siwaliks, still looking eastwards, are the sand waves of the Indus plain; a yellow sea broken here and there with the shadow of village orchards and the sheen of cultivation, extending to the long black sinuous line which denotes the fringe of trees bordering the Indus. Such is the scene which Solomon is said to have invited his Indian bride to gaze upon for the last time, as they rested on the crags of the southern buttress of the Takht- where his shrine exists to this day. To that shrine thousands of pilgrims, Mohammedans and Hindus alike, resort on their yearly pilgrimages, in spite of its dangerous approach.
All this country, so far, is independent Balochistan within the jurisdiction of the Balochistan Agency, with the exception of certain clans of the Sheranis on the eastern slopes of the Takht-i-Suliman, north of the Vihowa, who are under the North-West Frontier Province administration. Wedged in between the railway and the Indus, but still north of the railway, is a curious mass of rough mountain country, which forms the southern abutment of the Suliman system. The strike of the main ridges forming that system is almost due north and south till it touches 300 N. lat. Here it assumes a westerly curve, till it points north-west, and finally merges into the broad band of mountains which hedge in the Quetta and Pishin uplands on the north and east.
At this point, as might be expected, are some of the grandest peaks and precipices in Balochistan, Khalifat on the east of Quetta, flanking the Harnai loop of the Sind-Pishin railway; Takatu to the north; Chahiltan (Chiltan) on the south-west; and the great square headed Murdar to the south-all overlook the pretty cantonment from heights which range from 10,500 to 11,500 ft. Lying in the midst of them, on an open plain formed by the high-level tributaries of the Lora (which have also raised the Pishin valley to the north), 5500 ft. above the sea, is Quetta. The mass of twisted flexures, the curved wrinkles that end the Suliman system, is occupied by true Balochis, the Marri and Bugti sections of the great Rind confederation of tribes owning an Arabic origin. There are no Pathans here. To the north of them are the Bozdars, another Rind clan; and these Rind tribes form the exception to the general rule of Pathan occupation of northern Balochistan. Amongst the Pathans, the Kakars and Dumars of Pishin, with the Mando Khel of Zhob, arc the most prominent tribal divisions.
The curved recession of the Suliman Ranges to the north-west leaves a space of flat alluvial desert to the south, which forms a sort of inlet or bay striking into the Balochistan mountain system. The point of this desert inlet receives the drainage of two local basins, the Bolan and the Nan. Both drain south-eastwards from the central Quetta-Pishin plateau and both have served for railway alignment. Being fed by tributaries which for the most part drain narrow valleys where gradual denudation has washed bare the flat-backed slopes of limestone ridges, and which consequently send down torrents of rapidly accumulating rainfall, both these central lines of water-course are liable to terrific floods.
The drainage of the Bolan and Nan finally disappears in the irrigated flats of the alluvial bay (Kach Gandava), which extends 130 m. from the Indus to Sibi at the foot of the hills, and which offers (in spite of periodic Indus floods) an opportunity for railway approach to Balochistan such as occurs nowhere else on the frontier. Kach Gandava, whilst its agricultural development has in no way receded, is now rivalled by many of the valleys of the highlands. Its climate debars it from European occupation. It is a land of dust-storms and poisonous winds; a land where the thermometer never sinks below 100 F. in summer, and drops below freezing-point in winter; where there is a deadly monotony of dust-coloured scenery for the greater part of the year, with the minimum of rain and the maximum of heat. The Quetta and Pishin plateatu to which it leads is the central dominant water-divide of Balochistan and the base of the Kandahar highway.An irregularly-shaped block of upland territory, which includes all the upper Lora tributaries, and the Toba plateau beyond them; resting on the Kwaja Amran (Kojak) Range (with an advanced loop to include the Chaman railway terminus) on the west; reaching south through Shorarud to Nushki; including the basins of the Bolan and Nan as far as Sibi to the south-east; stretching out an arm to embrace the Thai Chotiali valley on the east, and following the main water-divide between the Zhob and Lora on the north, is called British Balochistan. It is leased from Kalat, and forms a distinctive province, being brought under the ordinary forms of civil administration in British India. Beyond it, north and south, lies independent Balochistan, which is under British political control. Its administrative staff is usually composed of military officers. The degree of independence enjoyed by the various districts of Balochistan may be said to Cary in direct proportion to their distance from Quetta. No part of Balochistan is beyond the reach of the political officer, but there are many parts where he is not often seen. The climate of British Balochistan is dry and bracing-even exhilarating-but the extremes of temperature lead to the development of fever in very severe forms. On the whole it is favorable to European existence.South-west of the dividing railway lies the great block of Southern Balochistan. Within this area the drainage generally trends south and west, either to the Arabian Sea or to the central swamps of Lora and Mashkel. The Hub river, which forms the boundary west of Karachi; the Purali (the ancient Arabus), which drains the low-lying flats of Las Bela; the Hingol (the ancient Tomerus) and the Dasht, which drain Makran, are all considerable streams, draining into the Arabian Sea and forming important arteries in the network of internal communication. An exception to the general rule is found in the Mulla, which carries the floods of the Kalat highlands into the Gandava basin and forms one of the most important of the ancient highways from the Indus plains to Kandahar. The fortress of Kalat is situated about midway between the sources of the Bolan and the Mulla, near a small tributary of the Lora (the river of Pishin and Quetta), about 6800 ft. above sea-level, on the western edge of a cultivated plain in the very midst of hills. (See KALAT.) To the north are the long sweeping lines of the Sarawan ridges, enclosing narrow fertile valleys, and passing away to the south-west to the edge of the Kharan desert. East and south are the rugged bands of Jhalawan, amongst which the Mulla raises, and through which it breaks in a series of magnificent defiles in order to reach the Gandava plain. Routes which converge on Kalat from the south pass for the most part through narrow wooded valleys, enclosed between steep ridges of denuded hills, and, following the general strike of these ridges, they run from valley to valley with easy grades. Kalat is the "hub" or centre, from which radiate the Bolan, the Mulla and the southern Lora affluerts; but the Lora drains also the Pishin valley on the north; the two systems uniting in Shorawak, to lose themselves in the desert and swamps to the west of Nushki, on the road to Seistan. Sixty miles south of Kalat, and beyond the Mulla sources, commences another remarkable hydrographic system which includes all southern and south-western Balochistan. To the west lies the Kharan desert, with intermittent river channels enclosed and often lost in sand-waves ere they reach the Mashkel swamps on the far borders of Persia. To the south-west are the long sweeping valleys of Rakshan and Panjgur, which, curving northwards, likewise discharge their drainage into the Mashkel. Directly south are the beginnings of the meridional arteries, the Hub, the Purali and the Hingol, which end in the Arabian Sea, leaving a space of mountainous seaboard (Makran) south of the Panjgur and west of the Hingol, which is watered (so far as it is watered at all) by the long lateral Kej river and several smaller mountain streams. Thus southern Balochistan comprises four hydrographical sections. First is the long extension from Kalat, southwards, of that inconceivably wild highland country which faces the desert of Sind, the foot of which forms the Indian frontier. This is the land of the Brahui, and the flat wall of its frontier limestone barrier is one of the most remarkable features in the configuration of the whole line of Indian borderland. For the first 60 m. from the sea near Karachi the Flab River is the boundary of Sind, and here, across the enclosing desolation of outcropping ridges and intervening sand, a road may be found into Makran. But from the point where the boundary leaves the Hub to follow the Kirthar range not a break occurs (save one) in 150 m. of solid rock wall, rising many thousands of feet straight from the sandy plain. The one break, or gorge, which allows the Kej waters to pass, only forms a local gateway into a mass of impracticable hills. Secondly, to the west of this mountain wilderness, stretching upwards from the sea in a wedge form between the Brahui highlands and the group of towering peaks which enclose the Hingol river and abut on the sea at Malan, are the alluvial flats and delta of the Purali, forming the little province of Las Bela, the home of the Las Rajput. In this hot and thirsty corner of Balochistan, ruled by the Jam or Cham, there is a fairly wide stretch of cultivation, nourished by the alluvial detritus of the Purali and well irrigated. In a little garden the south of the modern town of Bela (the ancient Armabel) is the tomb of Sir Robert Sandeman, who spent the best part of an energetic and active life in the making of Balochistan.The boundary between Balochistan and Afghanistan, starting from Nushki, cuts across the Lora hamun, leaving the frontier post of Chagai to Balochistan, and from this point to the Malik Siah Koh it is based partly on the central mountainous water-divide already referred to, and partly runs in straight lines through the desert south of the salt swamps of the Gaud-i-Zirreh. It thus passes 50 m. to the south of the Helmund, entirely shutting off that valley and the approach to Seistan between the Helmund and the Gaud-i-Zirreh (the only approach from the east in seasons of flood) from Balochistan. But it leaves a connected line of desert route between Nushki and Seistan, which is open in all ordinary seasons, to the south, and this route has been largely developed, posts or serais having been established at intervals and wells having been dug. There is already promising khafila traffic along it and the railway has been extended from Quetta to Nushki.Geology. The mountain ranges of Balochistan consist chiefly of Cretaceous and Tertiary beds, which are thrown into a series of folds running approximately parallel to the mountain ridges. The folds are part of an extensive system arranged as if in a festoon hanging southwards between Peshawar and Mount Ararat, but with the outer folds looped up at Sibi so as to form the subsidiary festoon of the Suliman and Bugti Hills. Outside the folds lay the horizontal deposits of the Makran coast, and within them lay the stony desert of north-western Balochistan. In the broader depressions between the mountain ridges the beds are said to be but little disturbed. Besides the Cretaceous and Tertiary beds, Jurassic rocks are known to take a considerable part in the formation of the hills of British Balochistan. Triassic beds lie along the south side of the upper Zhob, and Fusulina limestone has also been found there. With, the exception of the later Tertiary beds the deposits are mostly marine. But in the upper Cretaceous and lower Tertiary, especially in north-western Balochistan, there is an extensive development of volcanic tuffs and conglomerates, which are probably contemporaneous with the Deccan Traps of India. Great masses of syenite and diorite were intruded during the Tertiary period, and within the curve of the folded belt a line of recent volcanic cones stretches from western Balochistan into eastern Persia. In Balochistan these volcanoes appear to be extinct; though the Koh-i-Tafdan, beyond the Persian frontier, still emits vapors at frequent intervals. The lavas and ashes which form these cones are mostly andesitic. Mud "volcanoes" occur upon the Makran coast, but it is doubtful whether these are in any way connected with true volcanic agencies.So far as is known, the mineral wealth of Balochistan is inconsiderable. Coal has been worked in the Tertiary beds along the Harnai route to Quetta, but the seams are thin and the quality poor. A somewhat thick and viscid form of mineral oil is met with at Khattan in the Marri country; and petroleum of excellent quality has been found in the Sherani hills and probably occurs in other portions of the Suliman Range. Sulphur has long been worked on a small scale in the Koh-i-Sultan, the largest of the volcanoes of western Balochistan.Races.-Within the Balochistan half of the desert are to be found scattered tribes of nomads, called Rekis (or desert people), the Mohamadani being the most numerous. They are probably of Arab origin. This central desert is the Kir, Kej, Katz or Kash Kaian of Arabic medieval geography and a part of the ancient Kaiani kingdom; the prefix Kej or Kach always denoting low-level flats or valleys, in contradistinction to mountains or hills. The Mohamadani nomads occupy the central mountain region, to the south of which lie the Mashkel and Kharan deserts, inhabited by a people of quite different origin, which possess something approaching to historical records. These are the Naushirwanis, a purely Persian race, who passed into Balochistan within historic times, although the exact date is uncertain. The Naushirwanis appear to be identical with the Tahuki or Tahukani who are found in Perso- Balochistan. (A place Taoce is mentioned by Nearchus, by Strabo and by Ptolemy.) They are a fine manly race of people, in many respects superior to their modern compatriots of Iran. Between the Naushirwanis of the Kharan desert and Mashkel, and the fish-eating population of the coast, enclosed in the narrow valleys of the Rakshan and Kej tributaries, or about the sources of the Hingol, are tribes’ innumerable, remnants of races which may be recognized in the works of Herodotus, or may be traced in the records of recent immigration. Equally scattered through the whole country, and almost everywhere recognizable, is the underlying Persian population (Tajik), which is sometimes represented by a locally dominant tribe, but more frequently by the agricultural slave and bondsman of the general community. Such are the Dehwars or Dehkans, and the Durzadas (Derusiaei of Herod.I. 125), who extend all through Makran, and, as slaves, are called Nakibs. The Arabs have naturally left their mark most strongly impressed on the ethnography of Balochistan. All Rind tribes claim to be of Arab origin and of Koraish extraction. As the Arabs occupied all southern Balochistan and Seistan from a very early date, and finally spread through the Sind valley, where they remained till the 12th century, their genealogical records have become much obscured and it is probable that there is not now a pure Arab in the country. It is as builders or engineers that they have established their most permanent records, Makran being full of the relics of their irrigation works constructed in times when the climatic conditions of Balochistan must have been very different from what they are now. Lower Sind also contains a great wealth of architectural remains, which may be found to the west of the Indus as well as in the delta. One particular tribe (the Kalmats), who left their name on the Makran coast and subsequently dominated Bela and Sind, west of the Indus, for a considerable period, exhibit great power of artistic design in their sepulchral monuments. The Dravidian races (Brahuis), who are chiefly represented by the Kambaranis and Mingals or Mongals (the latter are doubtless of Tatar origin), spread through southern Balochistan as well as the eastern hills, and are scattered irregularly through the mountain tracts south of Kharan. The ancient Oreitae mentioned by Arian are probably represented by the tribe of Hot, who, as original masters of the soil, are exempt from taxation. The name Brahui is (according to Bellew) but a corruption of Ba-rohi (or "hillmen") in a language derived from Sanskrit which would represent the same term by Parva-ka. So that the ?????????? (Herod. iii. 92) may be recognized as surviving in the Brahui, and in the name (Parkan) of a mountain-bred stream which is a tributary of the Hingol. Amongst other aboriginal tribes to whom reference is made by very early writers are the Boledi, who give their name to the Bolida valley, a tributary of the Kej. The Boledi were once the ruling race of southern Balochistan, which was originally called Boledistan, and it seems possible that this may be the real origin of the much-disputed name of the country generally. Bola was an Assyrian term for Bael or Bel, the god of the Phoenicians and Druids. The Boledi ruling families were in 1906 represented by but one living member, a lady, who was a government pensioner. The fast-diminishing Sajidis (Sajittae) and Saka (Sacae) are others of the more ancient races of Balochistan easily recognizable in classical geography. Most recent of all are the Gitchkis. The Gitchkis derive from a Rajput adventurer who flourished in the early part of the 17th century. They are now the dominant race in Panjgur and Kej, from whence they ousted the Boledis. For three generations they remained Hindus; since then there has arisen amongst them a strange new sect called Zikari, with exceedingly loose notions of morality. The sect, however, appears to be fast merging into orthodox Mohammedanism. A Baloch (or rather Makran) race which deserves attention is that of the Gadaras, who once gave the name Gadrosia to Southern Balochistan. According to Tate the Gadaras are now represented by Sidi half-castes-those Makrani "boys" who are so well known in the mercantile marine as stokers and firemen. It seems unlikely that this modern admixture of Asiatic and African blood represents the "Asiatic Ethiopian"of Herodotus, which was more probably a direct connection of the Himyaritic Arab builders of"bunds" and revetments who spread eastwards from Arabia. Bellew finds in the Gadara the Garuda (eagles) of Sanskrit, who were ever in opposition to the Naga (snakes) of Scythic origin. Southern Balochistan affords a most interesting field for the ethnographer. It has never yet been thoroughly explored in the interests of ethnographical science.The Baloch character is influenced by its environment as much as by its origin, so that it is impossible to select any one section of the general community as affording a satisfactory sample of popular Baloch idiosyncrasies. They are not a homogeneous race. Peoples of Arab extraction intermixed with people of Dravidian and Persian stock are all lumped together under the name of Baloch. The Marri and Bugti tribes, who occupy the most southern buttresses of the Suliman Mountains, are Rind Balochis, almost certainly of Arab extraction. They came to Sind either with the Arab conquerors or after them, and remained there mixed up with the original Hindu inhabitants. The Arab type of Baloch extends through the whole country at intervals, and includes all the finest and best of Baloch humanity. Taking the Rind Baloch as the type opposed to the Afridis Pathan, the Baloch is easier to deal with and to control than the Pathan, owing to his tribal organization and his freedom from bigoted fanaticism or blind allegiance to his priest. The Baloch is less turbulent, less treacherous, less bloodthirsty and less fanatical than the Pathan. His frame is shorter and more spare and wiry than that of his neighbour to the north, though generations have given to him too a bold and manly bearing. It would be difficult to match the stately dignity and imposing presence of a Baloch chief of the Marri or Bugti clans. His Semitic features are those of the Bedouin and he carries himself as straight and as loftily as any Arab gentleman. Frank and open in his manners, brave, very truthful, faithful to his word, temperate and enduring, and looking upon courage as the highest virtue, handsome, the true Baloch of the Derajat is a pleasant man to have dealings with. As a revenue payer he is not so satisfactory, his want of industry and the pride which looks upon manual labour as degrading making him but a poor husbandman. He is an expert rider; horse-racing is his national amusement, and the Baloch breed of horses is celebrated throughout northern India. Like the Pathan he is a bandit by tradition and descent and makes a first-rate fighting man, but he rarely enlists in the Indian army. He is nominally a Mohammedan, but is neglectful of the practices of his religion. The relations of the modern Baloch with the government of India were entirely transformed by the life work of Sir Robert Sandeman.The strategically position of Great Britain in Balochistan is a very important factor in the problem of maintaining order and good administration in the country. The ever-restless Pathan tribes of the Suhman hills are held in check by the occupation of the Zhob valley; whilst the central dominant position at Quetta safeguards the peace and security of Kalat, and of the wildest of the Baloch hills occupied by the Marris and Bugtis, no less than it bars the way to an advance upon India by way of Kandahar. Nominally all the provinces and districts of Balochistan, with the exception of the ceded territory which we call British Balochistan, are under the khan of Kalat, and all chiefs acknowledge him as their suzerain. But it may be doubted if this suzerainty was ever complete, or could be maintained at all but for the assistance of the British government. The Baloch is still essentially a robber and a raider (a trait which is common to all tribes), and the history of Balochistan is nothing but a story of successful robberies, of lawless rapine and bloodshed, for which plunder and devastation were accounted a worthy and honourable return.Extensive changes have taken place in the climatic condition of the country-changes which are some of them so recent as to be noted by surveyors who have found the remains of forests in districts now entirely desiccated. Possibly the ordinary processes of denudation and erosion, acting on those recent deposits which overlie the harder beds of the older series, may have much to say to these climatic changes, and the wanton destruction of forests may have assisted the efforts of nature; but it is difficult to understand the widespread desiccation of large areas of the Baloch highlands, where evidences of Arab irrigation works and of cultivation still attest to a once flourishing agricultural condition, without appealing to more rapidly destructive principles for the change. There is ample proof throughout the country of alterations of level within recent geologic periods; and there have even been compressions, resulting in a relative rise of the ground, over the crests of anticlinal folds, within historic record. "Proof that this compression is still going on was given on 20th December 1892, when a severe earthquake resulted from the sudden yielding of the earth’s crust along what appears to be an old line of fault, west of the Kawaja Amran range, whereby an adjustment took place indicated by a shortening of some 23/4 ft. on the railway line which crossed the fault." Nor should the evidences of active volcanic agency afforded by the mud volcanoes of the coast be overlooked. It is probably to climatic changes (whatever their origin may have been), rather than to the effects of tribal disturbances, that the Arab’s disappearance from the field of trade and agriculture must be attributed.The total area of Balochistan is 132,315 sq. m. and its population in 1901 was 914,551. The population is largely nomadic. The fact that so many as 15,000 camels have been counted in the Bolan Pass during one month of the annual Brahui migration indicates the dimensions which the movement assumes. The religion of the country is so overwhelmingly Mahommedara those out of every 100,000 inhabitants 94,403 are Mussulman, and only 4706 Hindus, while the balance is made up by Christians, Sikhs and other denominations. Out of the total number 280 in the thousand are literates. The chief languages spoken are vernaculars of Balochistan, Pushtu, Punjabi, Urdu and Sindhi. The Balochi language belongs to the Iranian branch of the Aryan subfamily of the Indo-European family. It is divided into two main dialects which are so different that speakers of, the one are almost unintelligible to speakers of the other. These two dialects are separated by the belt of Brahui and Sindhi speakers who occupy the Sarawan and Jhalawan hills, and Las Bela. Owing probably to the fact that Makran was for many generations under the rule of the Persian kings, the Balochi spoken on the west of the province, which is also called Makrani, is more largely impregnated with Persian words and expressions than the Eastern dialect, in the latter the words in use for common objects and acts are nearly all pure Balochi, the remainder of the language being borrowed from Persian, Sindhi and Punjabi. There is no indigenous literature, but many specimens of poetry exist in which heroes and brave deeds are commemorated, and a good many of these have been collected from time to time. The philological classification of the Brahui dialect has been much disputed, but the latest enquiries, conducted by Dr G. A. Grierson, have resulted in his placing it among the Dravidian languages. It is remarkable to find in Balochistan a Dravidian tongue, surrounded on all sides by Aryan languages, and with the next nearest branch of the same family located so far away as the Good hills of central India. Brahui has no literature of its own, and such knowledge as we possess of it is due to European scholars, such as Bellew, Trumpp and Caldwell. Numerically the Brahuis are the strongest race in Balochistan. They number nearly 300,000 souls. Next to them and numbering nearly 200,000 are Pathans. After this there is a drop to 80,000 mixed Balochis and less than 40,000 Lasis (Lumris) of Las Bela. There are thirteen indigenous tribes of Pathan origin, of which the Kakars are by far the most important, numbering more than 100,000 souls. They are to be found in the largest numbers in Zhob, Quetta, Pishin and Thal-Chotiali, but there are a few of them in Kalat and Chagai also. The most important Baloch tribes are the Marris, the Bugtis, the Boledis, the Domkis, the Magassis and the Rinds. Owing partly to the tribal system and partly to the leveling effect of Islam, nothing similar to the Brahmanical system of social precedent is to be found in Balochistan.History-of the early history of this portion of the Asiatic continent little or nothing is known. The poverty and natural strength of the country, combined with the ferocious habits of the natives, seem to have equally repelled the friendly visits of inquisitive strangers and the hostile incursions of invading armies. The first distinct account which we have is from Arians, who, with his usual brevity and severe veracity, narrates the march of Alexander through this region, which he calls the country of the Oreitae and Gadrosii. He gives a very accurate account of this forlorn tract, its general aridity and the necessity of obtaining water by digging in the beds of torrents; describes the food of the inhabitants as dates and fish; and adverts to the occasional occurrence of fertile spots, the abundance of aromatic and thorny shrubs and fragrant plants, and the violence of the monsoon in the western part of Makran. He notices also the impossibility of supporting a large army, and the consequent destruction of the greater part of the men and beasts which accompanied the expedition of Alexander. In the 8th century this country was traversed by an army of the Caliphate.The precise period at which the Brahuis gained the mastery cannot be accurately ascertained; but it was probably about two and a half centuries ago. The last raja of the Hindu dynasty found him compelled to call for the assistance of the mountain shepherds, with their leader, Kambar, in order to check the encroachments of a horde of depredators, headed by an Afghan chief, who infested the country and even threatened to attack the seat of government. Kambar successfully performed the service for which he had been engaged; but having in a few years quelled the robbers against whom he had been called in, and finding himself at the head of the only military tribe in the country, he formally deposed the raja and assumed the government.The history of the country after the accession of Kambar is as obscure as during the Hindu dynasty. It would appear, however, that the scepter was quietly transmitted to Abdulia Khan, the fourth in descent from Kambar, who, being an intrepid and ambitious soldier, turned his thoughts towards the conquest of Kach Gandava, then held by different petty chiefs under the authority of the nawabs of Sind.After various successes, the Kambaranis at length possessed themselves of the sovereignty of a considerable portion of that fruitful plain, including the chief town, Gandava. It was during this contest that the famous Nadir Shah advanced from Persia to the invasion of Hindustan; and while at Kandahar he dispatched several detachments into Balochistan and established his authority in that province. Abdullah Khan, however, was continued in the government of the country by Nadir’s orders; but he was soon after killed in a battle with the forces of the nawabs of Sind. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Hajji Mohammed Khan, who abandoned himself to the most tyrannical and licentious way of life and alienated his subjects by oppressive taxation. In these circumstances Nasir Khan, the second son of Abdullah Khan, who had accompanied the victorious Nadir to Delhi, and acquired the favour and confidence of that monarch, returned to Kalat and was hailed by the whole population as their deliverer. Finding that expostulation had no effect upon his brother, he one day entered his apartment and stabbed him to the heart. As soon as the tyrant was dead, Nasir Khan mounted the musnud amidst the universal joy of his subjects; and immediately transmitted a report of the events which had taken place to Nadir Shah, who was then encamped near Kandahar. The shah received the intelligence with satisfaction, and dispatched a firman, by return of the messenger, appointing Nasir Khan Beglar begi (prince of princes) of all Balochistan.
This event took place in the year 1739.Nasir Khan proved an active, politic and warlike prince. He took great pains to re-establish the internal government of all the provinces in his dominions, and improved and fortified the city of Kalat. On the death of Nadir Shah in 1747, he acknowledged the title of the king of Kabul, Ahmad Shah (Durrani). In 1758 he declared himself entirely independent; upon which Ahmad Shah dispatched a force against him under one of his ministers. The khan, however, raised an army and totally routed the Afghan army. On receiving intelligence of this discomfiture, the king himself marched with strong reinforcements, and a pitched battle was fought in which Nasir Khan was worsted. He retired in good order to Kalat; whither he was followed by the victor, who invested the place with his whole army.
The khan made a vigorous defence; and, after the royal troops had been foiled in their attempts to take the city by storm or surprise, a negotiation was proposed by the king which terminated in a treaty of peace. By this treaty it was stipulated that the king was to receive the cousin of Nasir Khan in marriage; and that the khan was to pay no tribute, but only, when called upon, to furnish troops to assist the armies, for which he was to receive an allowance in cash equal to half their pay. The khan frequently distinguished himself in the subsequent wars of Kabul; and, as a reward for his services, the king bestowed upon him several districts in perpetual and entire sovereignty. Having succeeded in quelling a dangerous rebellion headed by his cousin Behram Khan, this able prince at length died in extreme old age in the month of June 1795, leaving three sons and five daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Mahmud Khan, then a boy of about fourteen years. During the reign of this prince, who has been described as a very humane and indolent man, the country was distracted by sanguinary broils; the governors of several provinces and districts withdrew their allegiance; and the dominions of the khans of Kalat gradually so diminished that they now comprehend only a small portion of the provinces formerly subject to Nasir Khan.
In 1839, when the British army advanced through the Bolan Pass towards Afghanistan, the conduct of Mehrab Khan, the ruler of Balochistan, was considered so treacherous and dangerous as to require "the exaction of retribution from that chieftain," and "the execution of such arrangements as would establish future security in that quarter." General Willshire was accordingly detached from the army of the Indus with 1050 men to assault Kalat. A gate was knocked in by the field-pieces, and the town and citadel were stormed in a few minutes. Above 400 Balochs were slain, among them Mehrah Khan himself; and 2000 prisoners were taken. Subsequent inquiries have, however, proved that the treachery towards the British was not on the part of Mehrab Khan, but on that of his vizier, Mahommeci Hussein, and certain chiefs with whom he was in league, and at whose instigation the British convoys were plundered in their passage through Kach Gandava and in the Bolan Pass. The treacherous however, made our too credulous political officers believe that Mehrab Khan was to blame; his object being to bring his master to ruin and to obtain for himself all power in the state, knowing that Mehrab’s successor was only a child. How far he succeeded in his object history has shown. In the following year Kalat changed hands, the governor established by the British, together with a feeble garrison, being overpowered. At the close of the same year it was reoccupied by the British under General Nott. In 1841 Nasir Khan II. The youthful son of the slain Mehrab Khan was recognized by the British, who soon after evacuated the country.
From the conquest of Sind by the British troops under the command of General Sir Charles Napier in 1843 up to 1854 no diplomatic intercourse occurred worthy of note between the British and Baloch states. In the latter year, however, under the governor-generalship of the marquess of Dalhousie, General John Jacob, C.B., at the time political superintendent and commandant on the Sind frontier, was deputed to arrange and conclude a treaty between the Kalat state, then under the chieftainship of Nasir Khan and the British government. This treaty was executed on the 14th of May 1854 and was to the following effect: - "That the former offensive and defensive treaty, concluded in 1841 by Major Outram between the British government and Nasir Khan 11., chief of Kalat, was to be annulled."That Nasir Khan II, his heirs and successors, bound themselves to oppose to the utmost all the enemies of the British government, and in all cases to act in subordinate co-operation with that government, and to enter into no negotiations with other states without its consent."That should it be deemed necessary to station British troops in any part of the territory of Kalat, they shall occupy such positions as may be thought advisable by the British authorities."That the Baloch chief was to prevent all plundering on the part of his subjects within or in the neighborhood of British territory."That he was further to protect all merchants passing through his territory, and only to exact from them a transit duty, fixed by schedule attached to the treaty; and that, on condition of a faithful performance of these duties, he was to receive from the British government an annual subsidy of Rs.50,000 (~5000)."The provisions of the above treaty were most loyally performed by Nasir Khan up to the time of his death in 1856. He was succeeded by his brother, Mir Khodadad Khan, when a youth of twelve years of age, who, however, did not obtain his position before he had put down by force a rebellion on the part of his turbulent chiefs, who had first elected him, but, not receiving what they considered an adequate reward from his treasury, sought to depose him in favour of his cousin Sher dil Khan. In the latter part of 1857, the Indian rebellion being at its height and the city of Delhi still in the hands of the rebels, a British officer (Major Henry Green) was deputed, on the part of the British government, to reside as political agent with the Khan at Kalat and to assist him by his advice in maintaining control over his turbulent tribes. This duty was successfully performed until 1863, when, during the temporary absence of Major Malcolm Green, the then political agent, Kliodadad Khan was, at the instigation of some of his principal chiefs, attacked while out riding by his cousin, Sher dil Khan, and severely wounded. Khodadad fled in safety to a residence close to the British border, and Sher dil Khan was elected and proclaimed Khan. His rule was, however, a vizier, short one, for early in 1864, when proceeding to Kalat, he was murdered in the Gandava Pass; and Khodadad was again elected chief by the very men who had only the previous year caused his overthrow, and who had lately been accomplices to the murder of his cousin. After the above events Khodadad maintained his precarious position with great difficulty; but owing to his inability to govern his unruly subjects without material assistance from the British government, which they were not disposed to give, his country gradually fell into the greatest anarchy; and, consequently, some of the provisions of the treaty of 1854 having been broken, diplomatic relations were discontinued with the Kalat state after the end of 1874.After this the chiefs of Las and Wad, the Marris and Bugtis, Kej and Makran all threw off their allegiance and anarchy became so widespread that the British government again interfered. The treaty of 1854 was renewed in 1876 by Lord Lytton (under Sandeman’s advice), and the khan received substantial aid from the government in the form of an annual subsidy of a lakh of rupees, instead of the Rs. 50,000 previously assigned to him. The treaty of 1854 was a treaty of alliance offensive and defensive. The treaty of 1876 renewed these terms, but utterly changed the policy of non-intervention which was maintained by the former, by the recognition of the sardars as well as the khan, and by the appointment of the British government as referee in cases of dispute between them. British troops were to be located in the khan’s country; Quetta was founded; telegraphs and railways were projected; roads were made; and the reign of law and order established. The nebulous claims of Afghanistan to Sibi and Pishin were disposed of by the treaty of Gandamak in the spring of 1879, and the final consolidation of the existing form of Kalat administration was effected by Sandeman’s expedition to Kharan in 1883, and the reconciliation of Azad Khan, the great Naushirwani chief, with the khan of Kalat. British Balochistan was incorporated with British India by the resolution of 1st November 1887, and divided into two districts-Quetta-Pishin and Thai Chotiali-to be administered by a deputy-commissioner and a regular staff.In 1890 and 1891 were carried out that series of politico-military expeditions which resulted in the occupation of the Zhob valley, the foundation of the central cantonment of Fort Sandeman, and the extension of a line of outposts which, commencing at Quetta, may be said to rest on Wana north of the Gomal. The effect of these expeditions, and of this extension of military occupation, has been to reduce the independent Pathan tribes of the Suliman Mountains to effective order, and to put a stop to border raiding on the Indus plains south of the Gomal. In 1893 serious differences arose between the khan of Kalat and Sir James Browne, who succeeded Sir Robert Sandeman as agent to the governor-general in Balochistan, arising out of Mir Khodadad Khan’s outrageous conduct in the management of his own court, and the treatment of his officials. Finally, the khan was deposed, and his son Mir Mahmud Khan succeeded in November 1893. Since then the most important change in Baloch administration has been the perpetual lease and transfer of management to British agency of the Nushki district and Niabat, with all rights, jurisdiction and administrative power, in lieu of a perpetual rent of Rs.9000 per annum. This was affected in July 1899. This secures the direct control of the great highway to Seistan which has been opened to khafila and railway traffic.The revenues of the khan of Kalat consist partly of subsidies and partly of agricultural revenue, the total value being about Rs.500, 000 per annum. Since 1882 he has received Rs.25, 000 as government rent for the Quetta district, besides Rs.30, 000 in lieu of transit duties in the Bolan; this has been increased lately by Rs.9000 as already stated. In 1899 the total imports of Kalat were valued at Rs. 700,000, and the exports at Rs.505, 000.AUTH0RITIES.-The Seistan Boundary Report of 1873 by Sir F. Goldsmid; Floyer, Unexplored Balochistan (London, 1882); T. Thornton, Life of Sandeman (London, 1896); G. P. Tate, Kalat, a Memoir (Calcutta, 1896); Sir T. Holdich, " Ethnographic and Historical Notes on Makran," Calcutta, I892 (Survey Report); "Antiquities, Ethnography, &c., of Las Bela and Makran," Calcutta, 1894 (Survey Report); "Ancient and Medieval Makran," vol. vu. R.G.S. Journal (1896); "Perso-Baloch Boundary," vol. ix. R.G.S. Journal (1897); M’Mahon, "The Southern Borderland of Afghanistan," vol. x. Journal R.G.S. (1897). Notes on Sir R. Sandeman s tours in Balochistan will be found in vols. v., xii. Xiii. and xiv. Of the R.G.S. Proceedings; Popular Poetry of the Balochis, by M. Longworth-Dames (2 voIs., Roy. As. Soc. 1907). (T. H. H).