Balochistan () is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southwestern region of the country, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by land area but is also the least populated. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-east, Punjab to the east, and Sindh to the southeast; shares international borders with Iran to the west and Afghanistan to the north; and is bound by the Arabian Sea to the south. Balochistan is an extensive plateau of rough terrain divided into basins by ranges of significant height and ruggedness. It has a large deep-sea port, Gwadar Port, lying in the Arabian Sea.
Although it constitutes approximately 44% of Pakistan's land area, only 5% of it is arable, and it is noted for an extremely dry desert climate. The agriculture and livestock make up about 47% of Balochistan's economy.
Etymology The name "Balochistan" means "the land of the Baloch people". The meaning of the ethnonym "Baloch" (also spelt Baluch) is unclear. Until the times of Arab conquests in the 7th century CE, Baloch people lived in Kerman in present-day Iran. They started migrating eastwards into Makran in what would later came to be known as Balochistan by the time of Seljuks in the 11th century.
History
Ancient
Much of present-day Balochistan province occupies the southeastern most portion of the Iranian plateau. The Kach Gandava Plain in the northeast was the setting for the earliest known farming settlements in the pre-Indus Valley Civilisation era, the earliest of which was Mehrgarh, dated around 7000 BCE.
Although an indigenous population existed during the Bronze Age and under the empire of Alexander the Great, the Baloch people themselves did not appear in the region until the 14th century CE. From the first millennium BCE onwards, the region was divided into several provinces of the Achaemenid Empire, namely Maka, which certainly corresponded to Makran, and Zarang. The Greek authors during the time of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE described the region as the inhospitable Gedrosian desert, with scarce vegetation and water. Alexander crossed the Gedrosian desert after returning from Indian subcontinent. According to the ancient Greek writers, the population of Gedrosia consisted of Indian ethnic groups like the Arbies and Oreitae, and Iranian Myci; as well as Ichthyophagi ("Fish-eaters"), sometimes identified with the modern Med people. Seleucus I Nicator was forced to cede Gedrosia along with other northwestern regions to the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta in 302 BCE.
The next significant information about Makran comes from the Sasanian period. A king of Makran paid homage to Sasanian Shah Narseh (r. 293 – 303) upon his accession. Sasanians divided the region into several units, including Makran, Tugran (modern Kalat), Paradan (probably modern Kharan) and Hind. Tugran was well-populated by people speaking a non-Iranian language, possibly the Brahui people of today. The Brahuis, whose language belong to Dravidian family, are considered the remnants of the earliest people of the region. During the Sasanian period Makran and Qayqan (present-day Kalat) had a substantial population of Zuṭṭ or Jat dromedary-men, many of whom were resettled by Sasanians in the southern regions (present-day Iraq) in the times of Bahram V (r. 420 – 438).
Makran was under a dynasty of Hindu Rais who had a capital at Aror in Sindh before the Muslim conquests. It was captured by Persians during the reign of Rai Siharas II, but Chach of Aror recovered Makran in 631 CE. According to the Chachnama, Chach went with his army and marked the border of his kingdom with Kerman by planting date-trees along the banks of a small stream, and branded the following words there, "This is the boundary as established in the days of Chach, son of Salaji, son of Basij, King of Sind, when it came into his possession." The exact border thus marked is uncertain, although according to André Wink it was probably beyond Tiz. A large population of Makran was Buddhist before Muslim conquests, as mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang.
Medieval The early Arab geographers regarded Makran a part of al-Sind. An Arab army invaded Makran in 644 during the tenure of caliph Omar (r. 634 – 644). It defeated the king of Sind and marched almost until the Indus River, but after hearing the reports of poor economic conditions and water scarcity in the region, the caliph ordered the troops to not cross the river. The territory of Qayqan in Sind was first conquered by Muslims during the reign of caliph Ali in 659, but in 667 the Muslim governor Abdullah ibn Sawar al-Abdi was killed in a rebellion and Qayqan was lost. According to the 9th century geographical treatise Futuh al-Buldan, the people of Qayqan were Zuṭṭ. In the following centuries the region attracted a large number of Kharijites. A Kharijite breakaway state was established under the Arab Ma'danid dynasty in Makran in the 9th century, whose rulers adopted the Sanskrit title of maharaj.
In the 11th century the Ghaznavids brought much of Makran under their control. Over the next three centuries the foreign influence over Makran weakened and the region again became relatively autonomous. The Italian traveller Marco Polo mentioned the existence of an independent Muslim state in Kij-Makran in the 13th century, describing it as the last kingdom in India. According to Marco Polo, the ruler of Makran was known as malek. Food was abundantly produced and the people were involved in trade as well as agriculture.
Baloch migrations Baloch people are first mentioned in the historical sources at Kerman, in the 10th century CE. Although Baloch presence was already noted in Makran by 11th century, large-scale Baloch migrations occurred only by the turn of 14th century. Evidence of migrations comes from Baloch epic poetry as well as Mughal sources. According to Baloch folklore, Mir Jalal Khan led forty-four Baloch tribes from Persia during the migration. The descent of five major Baloch tribal divisions, namely Rind, Lashar, Jatoi, Hoth and Korai, is traditionally traced from him. The folklore does not mention several prominent tribes of today, which according to the anthropologist Brian Spooner suggests that either they are branches of the aforementioned tribes, or were not assimilated into the Baloch yet.
Pre-modern During the era of Baloch chief and folk hero Mir Chakar Rind, another large wave of Baloch people moved to the Punjab Plain in the 15th century. The epic poetry of the period gives much details regarding the intertribal Rind-Lashari War. In 1620, Kij-Makran was taken over by the Buledi tribe, which later came to rule all of Makran. Buledis were followers of Zikrism, a Mahdist sect, as were the Gichkis, who ousted them in 1740. The Brahui Qambrani dynasty established the Khanate of Kalat towards the end of 17th-century in the Kalat highlands. The Khan of Kalat Abdullah Khan died fighting against the Kalhora Amirs of Sindh in 1731. His successor, Muhabat Khan was awarded the Kach Gandava Plains, then ruled by the Sindhi Kalhora dynasty, by Nader Shah during the later's invasion of Mughal Empire in 1739 as blood compensation for the death of Abdullah Khan. Mir Nasir Khan I, the greatest Khan of Kalat, expanded his rule over all of Balochistan. He established a standing army recruited from the tribes of Sarawan and Jhalawan, and an administrative machinery. He pledged allegiance to Ahmad Shah Durrani, who granted him Quetta in 1751. Nasir Khan undertook nine campaigns against Gichkis of Makran, forcing them to recognise his suzerainty, as well as against the rulers of Kharan and Lasbela. The Khanate declined after his death in 1795.
Colonial
In 1876, Baluchistan became one of the presidencies and provinces of British India, when Robert Sandeman negotiated the Treaty of Kalat, which brought the Khan of Kalat's territories, as well as the princely states of Makran, Kharan, and Las Bela, under British protection, even though they retained internal independence. After facing defeat in the Second Afghan War, the Afghan Emir ceded the districts of Quetta, Pishin, Harnai, and Sibi to the British under the terms of Treaty of Gandamak in May 1879. On 1 April 1883, the British took control of the Bolan Pass, south-east of Quetta, from the Khan of Kalat. In 1887, small additional areas of Balochistan were declared British territory. Two devastating earthquakes occurred in Balochistan during British colonial rule: the 1935 Quetta earthquake, which devastated Quetta, and the 1945 Balochistan earthquake with its epicentre in the Makran region.
In British India, Baluchistan consisted of a Chief Commissioner's province and princely states (including Kalat, Makran, Las Bela, and Kharan) that became a part of Pakistan. During the time of the Indian independence movement, three pro-Congress parties were still active in Balochistan's politics apart from Balochistan's Muslim League, including the Anjuman-i-Watan Baluchistan, which opposed partition of British India. The province's Shahi Jirga (the grand council of tribal elders) and the non-official members of the Quetta Municipality, according to the Pakistani version, agreed to join Pakistan unanimously on 29 June 1947; however, the political scientist Salman Rafi Sheikh states that the Shahi Jirga was stripped of its members from the Kalat State before the vote. The then-president of the Balochistan Muslim League, Qazi Muhammad Isa, informed Muhammad Ali Jinnah that "Shahi Jirga in no way represents the popular wishes of the masses" and that members of the Kalat State were "excluded from voting; only representatives from the British part of the province voted including the leased areas of Quetta, Nasirabad Tehsil, Nushki and Bolan Agency." Following the referendum, on 22 June 1947 the Khan of Kalat Ahmad Yar Khan received a letter from members of the Shahi Jirga, as well as sardars from the leased areas of Baluchistan, stating that they, "as a part of the Baloch nation, were a part of the Kalat state too" and that if the question of Baluchistan's accession to Pakistan arise, "they should be deemed part of the Kalat state rather than (British) Balochistan". This has brought into question whether an actual vote took place, says Sheikh.
After independence Lasbela, whose ruler belonged to the Jamote family, was first of the four princely states to accede to Pakistan on 7 March 1948. It was followed by accession of Makran and Kharan on 17 March; the accession of all three was accepted by the Pakistani government on the same day. According to Dushka H. Saiyid, Ahmad Yar Khan lost all of his bargaining chips with the accession of Kharan, Las Bela, and Makran, leaving Kalat as a land-locked island. Salman Rafi Sheikh largely concurs with Saiyid's assessment: multiple other Kalat sardars were preparing to accede to Pakistan and Ahmad Yar Khan would have hardly any territory left, if he did not accede. Initially aspiring for independence, the Khan of Kalat finally acceded to Pakistan on 27 March 1948 following a period of negotiations with Pakistan. The signing of the Instrument of Accession by Ahmad Yar Khan led his brother, Prince Abdul Karim, to revolt against his brother's decision due to their family rift in July 1948. The Prince indulged in terrorist activities without any assistance from others. Princes Agha Abdul Karim Baloch and Muhammad Rahim refused to lay down arms, leading the Dosht-e Jhalawan in unconventional attacks on the army until 1950. Baluchistan States Union was established in 1952 with Khan of Kalat as its head. Jinnah and his successors allowed Yar Khan to retain his title until the province's dissolution in 1955 into West Pakistan.