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Balochistan (region)
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Balochistan or Baluchistan is an arid region located in the Iranian Plateau in Southwest Asia and South Asia, between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. The area is named after the numerous Baloch (or Baluch, Balouch, Balooch, Balush, Balosh, Baloosh, Baloush) tribes, an Iranian people, who moved into the area from the west around A.D. 1000. All natives are considered Balochi even if they do not speak the Balochi language; Pashto, Persian, and Brahui languages are also spoken in the region.
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Encyclopedia
Balochistan or Baluchistan is an arid region located in the Iranian Plateau in Southwest Asia and South Asia, between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. The area is named after the numerous Baloch (or Baluch, Balouch, Balooch, Balush, Balosh, Baloosh, Baloush) tribes, an Iranian people, who moved into the area from the west around A.D. 1000. All natives are considered Balochi even if they do not speak the Balochi language; Pashto, Persian, and Brahui languages are also spoken in the region. The southern part of Balochistan is known as Makran. Now it is recognised by UNPO as an Un-represented Nation.
Landscape
Balochistan's landscape is composed of barren, rugged mountains and fertile land. During the summer, some regions of Balochistan are the hottest. Most of the land is barren, particurarly in the Iranian and Afghan side of the region, and it is generally sparsely populated. In the south (Makran) lies the desert through which Alexander the Great passed with great difficulty.
History
The original inhabitants of ancient Baluchistan were the native people, speaking languages related to Munda languages. The Dravidians are thought to have migrated from the Iranian plateau and settled in Baluchistan and the Indus valley around 4000 BC. The Brahui living in Baluchistan still speak a Dravidian language, thought to be a remnant from this earlier susbtrate. The Indo-European Indo-Aryan peoples, and other Indo-Iranian peoples, migrated from what is now Afghanistan and surrounding areas starting around 2000 BC, and settled in all regions of Pakistan. Later, these Aryan groups would become the Pakhtuns and the various Nuristani, Dardic, and other tribes that currently populate the region. Before the arrival of the Baloch, the region was populated by the Brahui people.. Nearly all of Baluchistan, and what is today the country of Pakistan, was ruled by the Persian Achaemenid dynasty for over two hundred years beginning in 540 BC. In 326 BC, Alexander the Great defeated the Hindu king Puru (Porus, Paurava) at the Hydaspes near Jhelum and annexed the area to his Hellenistic empire. After Alexander's death and a brief period of Seleucid control, Baluchistan was part of the Persian empire.
From the 1st century to the 3rd century AD, the region was ruled by the Paratarajas (lit. "Parata Kings"), a dynasty of Indo-Scythian or Indo-Parthian kings. The dynasty of the Paratas is thought to be identical with the Paradas of the Mahabharata, the Puranas and other Indian sources.
They are essentially known through their coins, which typically exhibit the bust of the ruler on the obverse, with long hair within a headband), and a swastika within a Brahmi legend on the reverse (usually silver coins) or Kharoshthi (usually copper coins). The coins can mainly be found in the Loralai area of modern Pakistan.
Herodotus in 650 BC describes the Paraitakenoi as a tribe ruled by Deiokes, a Persian king, in northwestern Persia (History I.101). Arrian describes how Alexander the Great encountered the Pareitakai in Bactria and Sogdiana, and had them conquered by Craterus (Anabasis Alexandrou IV). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century AD) describes the territory of the Paradon beyond the Ommanitic region, on the coast of modern Baluchistan.
During the Arab conquest of the Persian empire in the 8th century, Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world and many settled in Baluchistan and its tributary state until the rise of the Mughals. Numerous Baloch tribes, an Iranian people, moved into the area from the west in the 11th century to escape the Seljuk Turks. Western Baluchistan was conquered by Iran in the 19th century, and its boundary was fixed in 1872. Omani influence waned in the east and Oman's last possession, Gwadar, was bought by Pakistan in 1958. In 1998, Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan.
Greater Baluchistan
Baloch nationalists see the unification of their people in an independent “Greater Balochistan” as a historical right. The Baloch national resistance movement dates back to the late 1940s, when Balochistan was invaded by Pakistan. In the current geopolitical context, the separatist movement is in the process of being hijacked by foreign powers. British intelligence is allegedly providing covert support to Balochistan separatists (which from the outset that have been repressed by Pakistan's military).
Famous people of Baluchistan
Baluchistan Autonomous Movements
Mir Abdul Qayyum Qambrani
Baluchistan Political Parties
See also
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