How was “Balochistan” named after Balochi’s?

Pakistan’s modern province of Balochistan covers an area of 347.190 sq. km. This province covers 43.6% of the land area of Pakistan. It has 38 districts. It is home to three major ethnic groups: the Brahuis (who are considered Baloch by Baloch politicians), the Pashtuns, and the Balochs. The ancient Brahui country or state is called “Brahuistan”, Brahuis are the sons of the soil and real heirs and occupants of the land? Putting the name of Brahui country aside, the name “Balochistan” was given to a political conspiracy and interests.

The word “Balochistan” was first coined by Zaheer-ud-din Babar Mughal during 1526-30 AD for the dera jaat area of Punjab where a large number of Baloches inhabited. This is explained by Prof: Muhammad Ashraf Qaisrani on page 86 of his book. The Brahuis call their country “Mash” (mountain), and “Brahuistan”. The Presence of Brahuis in central Balochistan divided the Baloches into two bilingual groups, Sulaimani and Makrani. If these two groups meet each other, they do not understand the Balochi language of one therefore they communicate in Urdu.

The Baloch of Kachhi were under the political influence of the Kalhora rulers of Sindh before 1733 When Miyan Noor Muhammad Kalhoro martyred the famous Brahui ruler and Hero Abdullah Khan along with his 700 brave soldiers 1733. Thus the Baloch are the killers of Brahuis. When Nadir Shah Afshar ceded the Kachhi area to Muhabbat Khan Brahui (Son of Abdullah Khan), all the Baloch tribes became under the political power of the Brahui state for the first time. The eminent Brahui ruler The Great Naseer Khan Noori enlisted the Baloch in the Brahui army, He did not form any separate military brigade for them but kept the Baloch under the Brahui chiefs.

On November 13, 1839, the British captured The Brahui state and martyred the Brahui ruler Mir Mehrab Khan II along with hundreds of his associates. Then the British government started to appoint the rulers of Brahui state by his choice. From these new rulers, under fraud and conspiracy, the British government acquired the territories on a lease, including Sibi, Harnai, Pishin, Chaman, Zhob, Loralai, Mari, Bugti, Khetran, Quetta, Bolan, and others. These areas were officially renamed “British Balochistan” by the British on November 1, 1887. The British gave this name to keep the Baloch happy because at that time the British were fighting the Cold War over the occupation of hot water with Russia and Afghanistan. The Baloch were pro-Russia and Afghanistan and had close political, intellectual, and armed dealings with Russia and Afghanistan, and today they are waging an armed struggle against Pakistan at the behest of anti-Pakistan elements. Unlike them, the Brahuis were fanatics. And they were not taking any action against their Brahui state. Brahuis were also associated with the “Reshmi Rumal Movement” therefore, there was no political threat to the British from the Brahuis. Russia was using the Baloch for its own interests. The British, therefore, appeased the Baloch politically by renaming the areas leased from the Brahui ruler as “British Balochistan” in order to thwart Russia’s objectives and liberate the Baloch political and armed struggle against them. Many Britain C.I.D agents in their intelligence reports, expressed their displeasure and resentment over the naming of “British Balochistan” and suggested the name “Brahuistan” instead of this name. J. Fredrick Bane writes in his confidential report that ” In Baluchistan, the powerful, and influential element is not the Baloch at all, but the still unfathomed Brahui, from which circumstance it has even been suggested that the country ought rather be called Brahuistan”. Similarly, A.H. Keane wrote in his confidential report that “Hence the term Baluchistan, unknown in the country itself, is altogether inappropriate, though it may now be to let to substitute the expression Brahuistan as some”.

Because the Brahui were in majority and the Baloch were in minority. In the 1901 linguistic census, the number of Brahuis was 292879 and the number of Baloch was 80552. In the 1922 census, there were 2, 55,905 Brahuis and 25,281 Balochs. The 1931 census had 302415 Brahuis and 76374 Balochs. In other words, Brahuis were in the majority in all these censuses. In 1931 many political organizations were formed in the Brahui state in the name of various development terms. These included “Qalat National Party”, “Anjuman-e-Etihad Balochan” and others. In these political organizations, Brahui and Baloch were waging political struggles together. But Yousuf Aziz Magsi urged the Brahui youth political workers to wage political struggle only in the name of Baloch so that both, Brahui and Baloch can emerge as a major political force by becoming Baloch only. The Brahui political youth came to this sense. Unlike the “Anjuman-e-It had-e-Balochistan” Yousuf Aziz Magsi founded only the “Anjuman-e-It had Balochan” in Mastung in 1930. This organization gave the political thought of “Greater Balochistan” in Balochistan. In order to bring this political conspiracy to fruition, the activists of the organization created a map of “Greater Balochistan” and publicized it. All the armed and nationalist political organizations that are going on inside Balochistan today are being done to fulfill the political slogan and political interest of the same organization and use Brahui political activists for their own political gains. Since the inception of this organization, almost three Brahui generations have lost their status by sacrificing their Brahui history, culture, and national identity in the name of Baloch. Baloch politicians and writers have always and in every era, for their own political interests, come up with political slogans and historical assumptions to declare the Brahui as Baloch. In 1930, the political slogan of this political organization was that if we, the Brahuis and Baloch, do not get along the Pashtun would hold the majority and our political, economic, and linguistic statuses will consume faded. 1972 in order to prove that the Brahuis are Baloch, the slogan was used that if there is any voice of separating the Brahui from the Baloch, he should be nominated as a British agent because the British had declared Brahui and Baloch as separate nations on the basis of language. Although he is another Baloch. In 2006, the Balochs introduced another theory for Brahui political fools and to prove to them Baloch by saying Brahui is not a nation separate from itself but is only a language of the Baloch Nation. Now this slogan is echoing in the political atmosphere of Balochistan. The Baloch consider Brahuis as Baloch for their political interests but on the other hand, they hate them very much. Former Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti and BNP (M) head Sardar Akhter Mengal had a political tussle on Twitter. In Sarfraz Bugti declare Akhter Mengal as unoriginal or fake Baloch. Similarly, the Baloch of Makran hate the Brahuis and do not allow them to trade in their area along Iran’s borders.

On November 28, 1969, the president and chief of the state Agha Muhammad Yahya ended the fate of west Pakistan’s one unit, and thus under presidential order No. of 1970 province of West Pakistan (Dissolution), the four provinces of Pakistan were declared as East Pakistan, Sindh, Punjab, NWFP (now KPK) and Balochistan. During this process, all the provinces of Brahui state were officially named “Balochistan” for the first time instead of “Brahuistan”.

All the world’s prominent linguists and historians agree that Balochs are linguistically and ethnically Indo-Europeans. They set foot in the geographical parts of present-day Pakistan 800 years ago in 1200 as refugees in Makran. The Brahui language and its speakers with their own national name “Brahui” are 6000 years old. They laid the foundation of the Mehrgarh and Indus civilizations. It should have happened that the Balochs had to become Brahuis in the Brahui state but the unassuming Brahuis sacrificed their majority, historical heritage, race, culture, and conservatism because of the political conspiracy slogan and interests of the Baloch. But some Baloch nationalist writers are branding and considering the Brahui as Baloch, considering their orthodoxy, history, and linguistic states as Baloch. The Balochs, in order to declare themselves as the real heirs of Balochistan, are bringing forward unhistorical, irrational, without facts, proofs to count nationalist generation in modern Balochistan, which is emerging in the context of these fabricated writing, is heading for destruction. This generation is emerging as a tenacious tree only in the shadow of hallow political and emotional nationalism instead of doing great work in the field of science or education which is detrimental to the culture of Balochistan, Pakistan, and the nations living in it. The result is what we still see as an emotional and armed struggle.