Barrohistan or Balluchistan ?

By Naveed Tajammal

The Barrohi of Kalat had been keen rivals of the Kalhora of Khuda-abad ,for influence and power from the Muhgal and in the subsequent struggle between Mughal-Safavid  over Qandhar Province, after its fall in 1649 AD to the Safavid’s. Here what most forget is, that the Administrative boundaries as given in the Ain e Akbari  had ceased, as laid in the old administrative setup after the fall, as an ongoing war resulted for re-possession of Qandhar.

The boundaries were more or less the same that on which the Durand line later was made, as is evident from the records, it was only after the Fall of Dehli in 1739.

Nadir Shah, keeping in view the rivalry between the two i.e The Barrohi and Kalhora, and using the old principle of Divide and Rule, so divided  the Eastern parts of his newly acquired regions in portions, which technically later landed in the lap of Ahmed Shah Abdali. All grants given remained, as long as the tribute was timely sent, a failure brought in a plundering army, from the west.

The onslaught of the British in the region came with various treaties. First was signed between the Kalhora and the British in 1758 AD, commencing with the establishment of English Factories in Thatta & Shah-Bunder the sea port. Later with Kalat from 1839 AD onwards.

Subject to ”performs good service’ etc.the British created geographic boundaries, to meet their own strategic, administrative and economic requirements. The present cry of the immigrant Balluchi, for a state, in the lands where they came  as nomads, and that only in the recent past is ludicrous. It is from Iran and Afghanistan, that they should seek redress of their grievances and certainly not from the host who gave them refuge in the days of their wanderings.

From the Napoleonic era to the Czarist Russia, for its access to the warm waters, a series of buffer areas were created, it was in continuation of which emerged the entity called Afghanistan, made from the old Khurassan and so we lost our Wakhan, for the creation of an hedge between the Czar and the Crown of the British Empire. Earlier it had been the same concept which resulted in the Kashmir Hindu Dogra state in 1846 AD.

A reference to my earlier article on the subject can interest a reader interested in more details:

pakpotpourri2.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/the-lost-territory-of-pakistan-the-wakhan-corridor-2/

The objective of the British was to block all the Gates which lead into their Empire from its north north west, north west and the west. The empty quarters of west were ideal where the newly created Aristocracy of Sardars well endowed with liberal grants and privileges and perks would be the hindrance to any invading force.

It is sad that after 1947 the Writ of the State was never imposed and old fabric never revived, the poor Barrohi, the old masters of the regional politics, left rudderless, have joined the new Balluchi confederacy of tribes and lack of insight in their own past, has made them merge into an entity which has no past, compared,to their own Mehrgarh being(7500BC),and their old Language a testimony, a shining example right in front of them.

The writer has 28 years of experience in historical investigative journalism.

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