Opinion Provinces of a debate

First,the province of Balochistan (set up only in 1970 by the Yahya regime) is not a Baloch-dominated province,not even demographically. In the four districts of Balochistan abutting the North-West Frontier Province,Waziristan and Afghanistan,Pushto-speaking Pathans constitute the overwhelming majority,ranging from nearly 99 per cent non-Balochi speaking inhabitants in Zhob to over 88 per cent in Loralai,Pishin and Quetta,while Lasbela,abutting Karachi,is overwhelmingly Sindhi-speaking. Besides,the Makrani dialect is so distinct from Balochi as to be regarded as virtually a separate language in Makran while the Balochi spoken in Chagai,on the border with Iranian Balochistan,is an Iranian version of Balochi that very few other Baloch would follow. Besides,Brahui rather than Balochi is the language of the Baloch heartland. Thus,the principal enemy of Balochi linguistic nationalism is that,by definition,Pushto and Sindhi speakers are excluded from its ambit,although between them they constitute much of the population of the province.

Linguistic differences have in turn spawned cultural differences that Baloch nationalism does little to reconcile. Akbar Mustikhan,principal financier of the Grand Old Man of Baloch nationalism,Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo,puts it colourfully in his tract,The Baluch and Pakistan: Jinnah to Zia: “Baloch has less of God in his creed and less of devil in his character,unlike the Pathan!” Bizenjo himself,when governor of Balochistan during a brief democratic interregnum in Bhutto’s day,had this to say: “Maulvi representation is limited to the Pushto-speaking areas. We Baloch are very different to the Pathans in this. I am yet to meet a Baloch Pir. We can never be fanatical about religion.”

These linguistic and cultural differences are aggravated by the differential history between British Balochistan and the areas left under subsidiary alliances. British Balochistan spoke not Balochi but Pushto (except in the two tehsils of Nushki and Nasirabad). Pakistan Balochistan is a linguistic and cultural hybrid aggravated by internecine rivalries between its 27 major tribes.

Economic differences reinforce the linguistic-cultural heterogeneity of the province. Whereas the Pushto-dominated areas comprise lush,fertile valleys where fruit farming is the main occupation,so arid is most of Balochistan province that only 3 million acres of a total land area of over 134,000 square miles is cultivated. Consequently,while Pushto-speaking Balochistan is largely settled agriculture,non-Pushto-speaking Balochistan is largely a nomadic,pastoral economy based on the rearing of sheep,goats and camels. Inevitably,tribal social practices prevail in Balochi Balochistan while Pushto Balochistan is largely feudal.

Moreover,the 20th century came early to Pushto-speaking British Balochistan with the Bolan-Chaman and Quetta-Zahidan railways,followed by coal and associated industrialisation. Balochi Balochistan was almost entirely excluded from such modernisation while coastal Balochistan developed an outward orientation with its fishing harbours and ports for external trade. And in Lasbela,the magnet of the Hub Chowk across the river from Karachi has heralded the beginnings of a manufacturing economy.

These diversities have spawned political factionalism — which,ever since August 14,1947,have been the bane of any attempt at forging unity among the viciously contending Baloch factions. In bringing Balochistan into Pakistan,Jinnah brilliantly played off Baloch against Baloch,first holding a tribal jirga where 51 of the 55 tribal Sirdars voted for integration with Pakistan,and when,a few months later,the Khan of Kalat raised the banner of secession,breaking the back of that revolt by according equal status to the Nawabs of Makran and Kharan and the Jam Saheb of Lasbela who gladly pledged their loyalty to fledgling Pakistan in return for being treated the equal of the Khan. In Chagai district,the massive copper and sulphur mines at Saindak and the world-renowned onyx mines have given successive Sirdars of Chagai a quite different political orientation to the pastoral Sirdars of the inner heartland,even as the discovery of Sui gas has given to Bugti politics an orientation more often than not at odds with the other Sirdars,notably the Mengals and the Marris (not to mention the continuing differences between the Marris and the Mengals). Sometimes,the metaphor of tribal differences harks back to the Rind-Lashari wars of the 17th and 18th centuries. And another deleterious consequence of the largely linguistic orientation of Baloch nationalism is that instead of consolidating itself within Pakistan,it looks beyond: the World Baloch Organisation,founded by Ataullah Mengal in London in the ’70s,aims to unite the Baloch of Pakistan with the Baloch of Afghanistan,Iran,Iraq,Syria and even the Central Asian Republics!

Thus the heroic uprisings of Baloch nationalists against the Pakistan government over the past half-century have mostly been undermined by rival Baloch leaders aligning themselves at crucial moments of the struggle with the ruling establishment. Baloch martyrs who command our respect (Nauroze Khan Zehri and Sher Mohammed — “General Sheroff” as Bhutto dubbed him for his pro-Moscow views — of the late ’50s; Zafar Khan Zarakzai and Aslam Gichki of the mid-70s; Aga Suleiman Dawood and Akbar Bugti of this decade) were quickly abandoned by their fellow-Baloch leaders as soon as the Pakistan government opened its doors,however temporarily,to democratically elected Baloch civil political leaders. Indeed,Abdus Samad Achakzai,the “Balochistan Gandhi”,was assassinated by none other than his brother Baloch,Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti — who,in turn,was to die in a cave at the hands of Musharraf’s armed forces (clutching to the end my book,Confessions of a Secular Fundamentalist). And during the moments of quiescence,when democracy is given a faint chance,the federal government pits Baloch against Baloch with consummate ease,negating the common fury at the merciless use of armed force to crush every vestige of revolt.

What would India gain by infiltrating this maelstrom? We would not even know where to begin or whom to support. It is for the Baloch and the Baloch alone to make their destiny and for Pakistan,not us,to ensure its integrity. No outside force,certainly not India,stands a chance of influencing the outcome. That is why the “dossier” allegedly given by Pakistan to Britain and the US several years ago has evoked only quiet sniggering. And that is perhaps the reason why India was given no dossier. India has neither interfered in Balochistan,nor should India ever do so.

The writer was a Union minister from 2004 to 2009 express@expressindia.com