Author's note: I am of Baloch, Sindhi, Muhajir and Punjabi descent. Critics of my post are free to have their opinions, but the idea of Punjabi hegemony on my part can be ruled out due to my multiple ethnicities.
Over recent years, the cases of ethnic, tribal and provincial nationalism in Pakistan seemed to have reached a high peak.
Members within my own family are leaders of major provincial-nationalist organizations that seek greater rights for their province Sindh inside the state of Pakistan.
I myself was and still am a strong supporter of provincial equality within Pakistan. But that support has changed and my trust in many provincialist rights organizations has severely declined.
Over many years, provincial rights organizations have complained about being labeled "Indian agents." Much of their political messages and websites in Pakistan have been blocked/censored by the government and they have protested this as a violation of their freedom of expression.
But while complaining about such an accusation being given to them, I feel these provincial nationalists have done everything to earn this label, instead of fighting for a true and just cause. Let's first cover some examples of this.
During my summer holidays in Karachi back in 2005, I was sent an email by one of my parents who is a member of a Sindhi human rights organization. The email contained a speech by an Indian who attended this organization's seminar in Washington DC.
It started out with "as we all know, the state of Pakistan was carved out of Indian territory."
I didn't bother reading the rest of the email, knowing the bias it contained. It got me wondering, if this is a Sindhi cause, why does it have to involve the Indians? A few days later I another email containing an article about why Pakistan was "created."
Apparently according to this article, a group of Muslims in the British Raj could not stand the power of "Indian democracy" and so these corrupt Muslims elites opted for a separate state where they could rule over the masses like Kings and Queens.
As already explained in this article, the region of Pakistan was never a part of India, except under the Mauryan Empire which lasted about a century. Secondly, where was this so-called "Indian democracy" during the British Raj? At that time the subcontinent was under British imperial rule, so how can these supposed Muslims elites evade or fear a democracy that does not even exist?
Such claims are not just opposing points of view against the state of Pakistan, but outright lies. The worst part is that this is all being promoted by an organization which claims itself to be a defender of Sindhi rights, yet welcomes Indian propaganda itself.
It is now up to readers to decide weather the government and people of Pakistan have the right to be suspicious of such organizations or to accuse them of being "Indian agents."
It does not end with Indian support. This Sindhi organization that one of my parents helps runs claims to seek a greater audience amongst the people of Pakistan. Yet of all the interns that they recruit, I have not heard even of one hailing from any part of Pakistan.
In fact, these interns are from completely far ends of the world such as Sweden, America etc.
Then comes their alliance with Baloch organizations which seem to be so strongly pro-Afghan and pro-Indian. They also have interesting tactics of labeling any pro-Pakistani Balochis and Sindhis as "puppets of the Pakistani government" or pretending the so-called province of "Balochistan" is all Baloch ethnically speaking.
With these Baloch and Sindhi organizations working together, there is a pattern of sponsoring Indian & Afghan propaganda, blaming the ISI for everything that goes wrong in India and Afghanistan, labeling any pro-Pakistani Sindhi or Baloch a "government agent."
Interestingly they have a Kashmiri who is strangely pro-Indian and claims his people to be of Jewish origins (I do plan on discussing falsified Semitic ancestries in Pakistani populations in my other blog called History of Pakistan).
The establishment of the Durand line has also been condemned by these pro-Indian/Afghan separatists, which has been refuted in this article.
With all these things mentioned, there was even another Sindhi organization which decided not to partner with my parent and friends out of resentment for promoting Indian hegemonic agendas. This Sindhi organization supposedly departed to Pakistan in hopes of promoting provincial rights without involving pro-Indian/Afghan elements.(These people were in North America).
The organization(s) one of my parents works for even has close ties to Uighur separatists from China.
Interestingly enough, all these campaigners for provincial equality in Pakistan never work with separatists from India or Afghanistan. How far can they go convincing Pakistan and the world that they are not working on behalf of Indians and Afghans?
I'm not trying to imply that these people are indeed Indian RAW agents, though the RAW may have an indirect hand in funding and other means, but the nature of their activities is enough for them to decide how they'll be judged.
Besides that, their pro-Indian/Afghan policies are outright hypocrisy and immoral.
India and Afghanistan have treated their minorities even worse than Pakistan, so for these provincial nationalists to speak so highly of either countries indirectly advocates and tries to justify the inhumane treatment of Indian & Afghan minorities.
Of the organizations my parent (I won't mention which as I keep personal information private on the Internet) has worked for and the people they consist of, I have made two observations in provincial nationalists. This mainly applies to those from Sindh and Balochistan.
I cannot comment on other provinces as I have little knowledge of their provincial nationalists. The pro-Indian Kashmiri guy is an extremely rare case amongst his people.
Some negative things I've observed in Pakistani provincial nationalism:
Though I do not doubt that there are plenty of provincialists in Pakistan who are actually in search of human rights and greater autonomy and not acting as Indian/Afghan puppets (ie. the Sindhi group that I mentioned above which left for Pakistan), I've uncovered many things about the darker and more sinister side of Baloch and Sindhi nationalism.
Many Balochis and their political groups I've come across practice what I call Baloch fascism.
This practice is based on jingoistic, bigotry ideas and falsified beliefs that I have found through simple observance.
As examples, I've conversed with a Baloch separatist closely associated with my parent. He along with this mysterious Kashmiri play the game of blaming the ISI for everything that goes wrong in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India without any proof or evidence.
As I wrote before, it is hypocrisy for Pakistani provincialists to be defending India and Afghanistan since both countries have a worse history of treating their ethnic and religious minorities.
Some Sindhi and Baloch nationalists have defended this idea claiming they need this support.
But then this generates more hypocrisy on their part. When the Pakistani government aided religious and ethnic minorities in India and Afghanistan, these same Sindhi and Baloch nationalists have accused the Pakistani government of "meddling" in the affairs of the two countries.
Seminars and cultural events that have taken place hoist the Baloch Liberation Army flag; a flag which represents a single Baloch organization and not the people of Balochistan who have not even given their consent for this flag to represent them.
This Baloch separatist also seemed to be very enthusiastic on telling me he and his wife don't teach their children Urdu, the national language of Pakistan (which is fine by me).
But then the hypocrisy in all this is that the Baloch themselves have been imposing their language onto other ethnic groups of the province called "Balochistan" such as the Brahuis.
I have also been asked by this separatist on the legitimacy of the state of Pakistan. I was questioned weather Pakistan is a nation state to justify it's existence.
The definition of a nation state in the past might have meant one race, one culture one language.
However, today it mostly refers to a state binded by a people speaking a single language. Pakistan of course, does not fit this definition. But then the question is does the province of Balochistan?
Baloch fascism covers up many facts that I will discuss below, while highlighting only facts that suits it's cause. Baloch fascism is also mirrored by what I refer to as Sindhi Chauvinism.
Sindhi Chauvinism circles around the ideas of Sindh being the center of human civilization, Sindhi language and culture being older than all the other cultures in the region or that Punjabis and "Muhajirs" are the cause of Sindh's problems and that Sindhis have absolutely no part in it.
Again, most of Sindhi chauvinism can easily be disproved through historical and scientific facts.
Facts that Baloch fascists and Sindhi chauvinists never discuss:
The so-called land of "Balochistan" has never been home only to the Baloch people. On the subject of naming the land after an ethnic group, a fact to note is that the Iranian government refers to their Baloch province as "Sistan."
The Baloch seemed to have arrived much after other ethnic groups in "Balochistan" according to this article. Also according to the article, the Baloch displaced other ethnic groups in the land that they arrived in.
I've also personally heard of claims that Balochi extremists have been oppressing Brahuis and pressuring them into assimilation.
The linked article and claims seem to be supported with two points:
1) A Brahui once told me that many Baloch tribal leaders have been pressuring his people to declare themselves as Baloch; in other words asking them to surrender and trade their Brahui identity for Baloch identity.
2) The theories of Baloch people arriving in the region from a more western direction coincides with the fact that Balochi is a Northwestern Iranic language, placing it closer to Kurdish, a language spoken in the northwestern areas of the Middle East.
Like all other language families and their subfamilies, the Iranic languages and dialects are broken into various categories based on geography. Languages having closer spoken proximity to other languages in other geographic locations and it's origin points are termed as such.
In this case, the modern Baloch language is closer to the Iranic languages spoken in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran than it is to eastern Iranic languages such as Pashto.
With all that being mentioned, "Balochistan" is not and was not a land consisting simply of Balochis. These are key points that Baloch fascists will not discuss.
What Baloch fascists will also not discuss is that it is not Urdu that threatens the various languages of "Balochistan" but the Baloch language itself.
Urdu is still mostly spoken mostly in urbanized areas of Pakistan such as the main cities of the country and main towns of the provinces. In rural parts of Sindh, Balochistan, Kashmir, Pakhtunkhwa and perhaps even Punjab, Urdu is not used in daily life.
Even my own visits to Hyderabad showed me my relatives speaking to one another in Sindhi and hardly using any Urdu let alone English.
It is not the Punjabis nor the "Muhajirs" who have told Brahuis and other minorities in Southwestern Pakistan to trade their language and culture for Punjabi or Urdu, but rather certain Baloch supremacists who have fought vicious battles against them in the past.
Knowing the tense history between the Baloch and non-Baloch populations of the region; especially Brahuis, it is unlikely the Brahuis will submit to a separate state under Baloch domination.
The right to the territory of so-called Balochistan lies with various ethnic groups who have traditionally inhabited it, not simply just the Baloch. The Gwader port was acquired by Pakistan from Oman around 1958, which puts Baloch-centric claims on a significant portion of the coast of that province into question.
Another fact that Baloch fascists and their masters in Afghanistan and India will not mention is that Balochis constitute only around two to three percent of Pakistan's population at the most. Within that two percent, only a small handful consist of separatists.
This means there are plenty of Balochis (including close friends of mine) loyal to their country Pakistan. In fact even a friend of mine of Iranian-Baloch origin works for the ISI.
With a small handful of Baloch fascists using backing from Afghanistan and India, there is little chance of Balochistan separating from Pakistan; knowing the enormous size of the Pakistani armed forces added with their superior weapons technology to the separatist militants.
Below are thought provoking videos to those who have been sympathetic to Baloch separatism. The first reaction by many Baloch and Sindhi separatists might be that these Balochis are government puppets. But then again, these pro-Pakistan Balochis can easily point back the finger at the separatists and accuse them of being Indian/Afghan pawns:
As mentioned before, Sindhi chauvinism revolves around crazy ideas of Sindh being the cradle of civilization and Sindhi predating other languages of Pakistan. It also speaks of the victimization of Sindhi people at the hands of the evil Punjabis and their "Muhajir" puppets.
I even got an email by a Sindhi chauvinist who discussed Sindh's history periodically.
The end of his email concluded that the Sindhi language has evolved over a period of five thousand years.
Let's discuss Sindhi chauvinism starting with this rather far-fetched claim. As most educated people know, Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language, part of the Indo-European family of languages.
According to most historians and linguists, there is no evidence of Indo-European (IE) languages having a presence in the Indus Valley region as far back as five thousand years.
In fact, five thousand years ago, linguists estimate that most of the IE languages were still mostly intact meaning they were the same language before breaking off into various languages due to geographic separation between their speakers.
Also according to linguistic, historic and archeological evidence, the IE languages arrived in the Indus Valley/Pakistan around two thousand to three thousand BC, ruling out the belief that Sindhi was spoken in Sindh as far back as five thousand years.
Sindhi, like all the Indo-Iranic languages of Pakistan were brought to the country through migration.
Opponents of these theories can easily research the facts for themselves. No symbol or artifact of the Indus Valley Civilization connects to the artifacts or symbols of ancient Indo-Europeans. To better understand this, please see my History of Pakistan blog and search books on this subject such as Indo-European culture or Proto-Indo-European Language and Culture by Benjamin Fortson.
Even genetic evidence contradicts Sindhi chauvinistic beliefs of Sindhis being the exact same people of the Indus Civilization.
Sindhi chauvinists also like to spread the idea of Sindhi victimization of their people without taking the slightest bit of responsibility for it.
In 1947 Karachi and other parts of Sindh were flooded with Muslim immigrants from all over the subcontinent. The Sindhis welcomed and sheltered them. They hardly reacted nor showed concerns to the massive numbers of the immigrants.
When I was once at a Sindhi gathering at a restaurant in UAE with my parent, I heard the same cries of complaint from leaders that the Punjabis have taken over Sindh and given it to the Muhajirs.
I have heard these cries countless times before. But another Sindhi in the meeting pointed out that Sindhis did not raise any voice or opposition to Muhajir and Punjabi domination of their province; nor did they stand up to their oppressors.
Instead they welcomed them during the over flood of the Muhajirs into Sindh. Even with the rise of the MQM in the 1980s till today, there was hardly any strong reaction or resistance from the Sindhi community.
I myself have thought this for so long. Not only that, but Sindhis I've spoken to insist that Muhajir aggression must be countered with peace and love.
Is it even a wonder why Muhajirs have managed to dominate Sindhis in their own province despite being outnumbered by them?
Sindhi provincial chauvinists also don't mention the fact that Sindh also has smaller minorities such as Siriakis and Tharis.
Sure Sindhis can argue, they are not that different from themselves. But then neither are Punjabis that different. Linguistically speaking Sindhi and Punjabi are both Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages. The two peoples are almost like first cousins both having similar language, culture and traditions.
My own maternal grandmother's father was Northern Punjabi despite the fact that she was born, raised in Sindh and spoke Sindhi. Punjabi and Sindhi are both derived from the same Northwestern Sanskrit dialect.
My thoughts and opinions on provincial nationalism in Pakistan:
Firstly, if provincial rights are going to be made critical issues in Pakistani politics, the provincial nationalists themselves have to reform and be objective if they are ever to achieve their goals.
For this to happen they need a large audience amongst not just politicians but the people of Pakistan who are sympathetic to their cause.
And to achieve that they must stop working with the Indian and Afghan governments to reduce suspicion upon themselves.
Particularly Sindhis and Balochis need to also keep the fascists and chauvinists out of their organizations and also open doors to interns from all over Pakistan to work with them instead of bringing in people who have little knowledge on Pakistani history and politics.
Sindhis and Balochis also have to stop spreading biased ideas that their fascist and chauvinistic members mislead their communities into believing. Discrimination needs to come to an end- including Baloch discrimination towards Brahuis and other non-Balochis in so-called "Balochistan."
This doesn't mean I defend the armies brutal atrocities in Sindh and especially Balochistan. Nor do I advocate taking energy from Balochistan to support Punjab's needs without any benefit.
Also with the coming of solar technology and temperatures soaring in Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan the government and peoples should invest more in solar technology so more and more people have equal access to energy.
Provincial autonomy and equality is the solution to unity in Pakistan combined with Pan-Indo-Iranism. The education system must have the languages of the ethnic minorities available throughout Pakistan. Punjabi children should be allowed to study Punjabi at school as should every ethnic group in Pakistan alongside the federal language Urdu.
Brahui children should be allowed to study their own language and study Baloch and Urdu as additional options.
People who speak Urdu as a first language must then learn the main language of their province.
Overall there is also thought about the people of Pakistan as a whole. Pakistani people have much of a shared identity based on linguistic, genetic and cultural lines. Most Pakistanis descend from ancient Indo-Iranic tribes that spanned across Eurasia before settling into the Indus Valley and merging with the native population(s).
This idea can be used to forge a national Indo-Iranic identity, for most multi-lingual and multi-ethnic countries do not have common language family, unlike Pakistan.
For all this to happen, unbiased knowledge of the history and politics of Pakistan must be spread and promoted.
Only then I feel, will the issue of ethnicity and provincialism in Pakistan will finally be resolved and satisfied.
The video below covers the issue of reforming common Pakistani nationhood with a new sense of Pakistani nationalism in the form of Pan-Indo-Iranism:
Over recent years, the cases of ethnic, tribal and provincial nationalism in Pakistan seemed to have reached a high peak.
Members within my own family are leaders of major provincial-nationalist organizations that seek greater rights for their province Sindh inside the state of Pakistan.
I myself was and still am a strong supporter of provincial equality within Pakistan. But that support has changed and my trust in many provincialist rights organizations has severely declined.
Over many years, provincial rights organizations have complained about being labeled "Indian agents." Much of their political messages and websites in Pakistan have been blocked/censored by the government and they have protested this as a violation of their freedom of expression.
But while complaining about such an accusation being given to them, I feel these provincial nationalists have done everything to earn this label, instead of fighting for a true and just cause. Let's first cover some examples of this.
During my summer holidays in Karachi back in 2005, I was sent an email by one of my parents who is a member of a Sindhi human rights organization. The email contained a speech by an Indian who attended this organization's seminar in Washington DC.
It started out with "as we all know, the state of Pakistan was carved out of Indian territory."
I didn't bother reading the rest of the email, knowing the bias it contained. It got me wondering, if this is a Sindhi cause, why does it have to involve the Indians? A few days later I another email containing an article about why Pakistan was "created."
Apparently according to this article, a group of Muslims in the British Raj could not stand the power of "Indian democracy" and so these corrupt Muslims elites opted for a separate state where they could rule over the masses like Kings and Queens.
As already explained in this article, the region of Pakistan was never a part of India, except under the Mauryan Empire which lasted about a century. Secondly, where was this so-called "Indian democracy" during the British Raj? At that time the subcontinent was under British imperial rule, so how can these supposed Muslims elites evade or fear a democracy that does not even exist?
Such claims are not just opposing points of view against the state of Pakistan, but outright lies. The worst part is that this is all being promoted by an organization which claims itself to be a defender of Sindhi rights, yet welcomes Indian propaganda itself.
It is now up to readers to decide weather the government and people of Pakistan have the right to be suspicious of such organizations or to accuse them of being "Indian agents."
It does not end with Indian support. This Sindhi organization that one of my parents helps runs claims to seek a greater audience amongst the people of Pakistan. Yet of all the interns that they recruit, I have not heard even of one hailing from any part of Pakistan.
In fact, these interns are from completely far ends of the world such as Sweden, America etc.
Then comes their alliance with Baloch organizations which seem to be so strongly pro-Afghan and pro-Indian. They also have interesting tactics of labeling any pro-Pakistani Balochis and Sindhis as "puppets of the Pakistani government" or pretending the so-called province of "Balochistan" is all Baloch ethnically speaking.
With these Baloch and Sindhi organizations working together, there is a pattern of sponsoring Indian & Afghan propaganda, blaming the ISI for everything that goes wrong in India and Afghanistan, labeling any pro-Pakistani Sindhi or Baloch a "government agent."
Interestingly they have a Kashmiri who is strangely pro-Indian and claims his people to be of Jewish origins (I do plan on discussing falsified Semitic ancestries in Pakistani populations in my other blog called History of Pakistan).
The establishment of the Durand line has also been condemned by these pro-Indian/Afghan separatists, which has been refuted in this article.
With all these things mentioned, there was even another Sindhi organization which decided not to partner with my parent and friends out of resentment for promoting Indian hegemonic agendas. This Sindhi organization supposedly departed to Pakistan in hopes of promoting provincial rights without involving pro-Indian/Afghan elements.(These people were in North America).
The organization(s) one of my parents works for even has close ties to Uighur separatists from China.
Interestingly enough, all these campaigners for provincial equality in Pakistan never work with separatists from India or Afghanistan. How far can they go convincing Pakistan and the world that they are not working on behalf of Indians and Afghans?
I'm not trying to imply that these people are indeed Indian RAW agents, though the RAW may have an indirect hand in funding and other means, but the nature of their activities is enough for them to decide how they'll be judged.
Besides that, their pro-Indian/Afghan policies are outright hypocrisy and immoral.
India and Afghanistan have treated their minorities even worse than Pakistan, so for these provincial nationalists to speak so highly of either countries indirectly advocates and tries to justify the inhumane treatment of Indian & Afghan minorities.
Of the organizations my parent (I won't mention which as I keep personal information private on the Internet) has worked for and the people they consist of, I have made two observations in provincial nationalists. This mainly applies to those from Sindh and Balochistan.
I cannot comment on other provinces as I have little knowledge of their provincial nationalists. The pro-Indian Kashmiri guy is an extremely rare case amongst his people.
Some negative things I've observed in Pakistani provincial nationalism:
Though I do not doubt that there are plenty of provincialists in Pakistan who are actually in search of human rights and greater autonomy and not acting as Indian/Afghan puppets (ie. the Sindhi group that I mentioned above which left for Pakistan), I've uncovered many things about the darker and more sinister side of Baloch and Sindhi nationalism.
Many Balochis and their political groups I've come across practice what I call Baloch fascism.
This practice is based on jingoistic, bigotry ideas and falsified beliefs that I have found through simple observance.
As examples, I've conversed with a Baloch separatist closely associated with my parent. He along with this mysterious Kashmiri play the game of blaming the ISI for everything that goes wrong in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India without any proof or evidence.
As I wrote before, it is hypocrisy for Pakistani provincialists to be defending India and Afghanistan since both countries have a worse history of treating their ethnic and religious minorities.
Some Sindhi and Baloch nationalists have defended this idea claiming they need this support.
But then this generates more hypocrisy on their part. When the Pakistani government aided religious and ethnic minorities in India and Afghanistan, these same Sindhi and Baloch nationalists have accused the Pakistani government of "meddling" in the affairs of the two countries.
Seminars and cultural events that have taken place hoist the Baloch Liberation Army flag; a flag which represents a single Baloch organization and not the people of Balochistan who have not even given their consent for this flag to represent them.
This Baloch separatist also seemed to be very enthusiastic on telling me he and his wife don't teach their children Urdu, the national language of Pakistan (which is fine by me).
But then the hypocrisy in all this is that the Baloch themselves have been imposing their language onto other ethnic groups of the province called "Balochistan" such as the Brahuis.
I have also been asked by this separatist on the legitimacy of the state of Pakistan. I was questioned weather Pakistan is a nation state to justify it's existence.
The definition of a nation state in the past might have meant one race, one culture one language.
However, today it mostly refers to a state binded by a people speaking a single language. Pakistan of course, does not fit this definition. But then the question is does the province of Balochistan?
Baloch fascism covers up many facts that I will discuss below, while highlighting only facts that suits it's cause. Baloch fascism is also mirrored by what I refer to as Sindhi Chauvinism.
Sindhi Chauvinism circles around the ideas of Sindh being the center of human civilization, Sindhi language and culture being older than all the other cultures in the region or that Punjabis and "Muhajirs" are the cause of Sindh's problems and that Sindhis have absolutely no part in it.
Again, most of Sindhi chauvinism can easily be disproved through historical and scientific facts.
Facts that Baloch fascists and Sindhi chauvinists never discuss:
The so-called land of "Balochistan" has never been home only to the Baloch people. On the subject of naming the land after an ethnic group, a fact to note is that the Iranian government refers to their Baloch province as "Sistan."
The Baloch seemed to have arrived much after other ethnic groups in "Balochistan" according to this article. Also according to the article, the Baloch displaced other ethnic groups in the land that they arrived in.
I've also personally heard of claims that Balochi extremists have been oppressing Brahuis and pressuring them into assimilation.
The linked article and claims seem to be supported with two points:
1) A Brahui once told me that many Baloch tribal leaders have been pressuring his people to declare themselves as Baloch; in other words asking them to surrender and trade their Brahui identity for Baloch identity.
2) The theories of Baloch people arriving in the region from a more western direction coincides with the fact that Balochi is a Northwestern Iranic language, placing it closer to Kurdish, a language spoken in the northwestern areas of the Middle East.
Like all other language families and their subfamilies, the Iranic languages and dialects are broken into various categories based on geography. Languages having closer spoken proximity to other languages in other geographic locations and it's origin points are termed as such.
In this case, the modern Baloch language is closer to the Iranic languages spoken in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran than it is to eastern Iranic languages such as Pashto.
With all that being mentioned, "Balochistan" is not and was not a land consisting simply of Balochis. These are key points that Baloch fascists will not discuss.
What Baloch fascists will also not discuss is that it is not Urdu that threatens the various languages of "Balochistan" but the Baloch language itself.
Urdu is still mostly spoken mostly in urbanized areas of Pakistan such as the main cities of the country and main towns of the provinces. In rural parts of Sindh, Balochistan, Kashmir, Pakhtunkhwa and perhaps even Punjab, Urdu is not used in daily life.
Even my own visits to Hyderabad showed me my relatives speaking to one another in Sindhi and hardly using any Urdu let alone English.
It is not the Punjabis nor the "Muhajirs" who have told Brahuis and other minorities in Southwestern Pakistan to trade their language and culture for Punjabi or Urdu, but rather certain Baloch supremacists who have fought vicious battles against them in the past.
Knowing the tense history between the Baloch and non-Baloch populations of the region; especially Brahuis, it is unlikely the Brahuis will submit to a separate state under Baloch domination.
The right to the territory of so-called Balochistan lies with various ethnic groups who have traditionally inhabited it, not simply just the Baloch. The Gwader port was acquired by Pakistan from Oman around 1958, which puts Baloch-centric claims on a significant portion of the coast of that province into question.
Another fact that Baloch fascists and their masters in Afghanistan and India will not mention is that Balochis constitute only around two to three percent of Pakistan's population at the most. Within that two percent, only a small handful consist of separatists.
This means there are plenty of Balochis (including close friends of mine) loyal to their country Pakistan. In fact even a friend of mine of Iranian-Baloch origin works for the ISI.
With a small handful of Baloch fascists using backing from Afghanistan and India, there is little chance of Balochistan separating from Pakistan; knowing the enormous size of the Pakistani armed forces added with their superior weapons technology to the separatist militants.
Below are thought provoking videos to those who have been sympathetic to Baloch separatism. The first reaction by many Baloch and Sindhi separatists might be that these Balochis are government puppets. But then again, these pro-Pakistan Balochis can easily point back the finger at the separatists and accuse them of being Indian/Afghan pawns:
As mentioned before, Sindhi chauvinism revolves around crazy ideas of Sindh being the cradle of civilization and Sindhi predating other languages of Pakistan. It also speaks of the victimization of Sindhi people at the hands of the evil Punjabis and their "Muhajir" puppets.
I even got an email by a Sindhi chauvinist who discussed Sindh's history periodically.
The end of his email concluded that the Sindhi language has evolved over a period of five thousand years.
Let's discuss Sindhi chauvinism starting with this rather far-fetched claim. As most educated people know, Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language, part of the Indo-European family of languages.
According to most historians and linguists, there is no evidence of Indo-European (IE) languages having a presence in the Indus Valley region as far back as five thousand years.
In fact, five thousand years ago, linguists estimate that most of the IE languages were still mostly intact meaning they were the same language before breaking off into various languages due to geographic separation between their speakers.
Also according to linguistic, historic and archeological evidence, the IE languages arrived in the Indus Valley/Pakistan around two thousand to three thousand BC, ruling out the belief that Sindhi was spoken in Sindh as far back as five thousand years.
Sindhi, like all the Indo-Iranic languages of Pakistan were brought to the country through migration.
Opponents of these theories can easily research the facts for themselves. No symbol or artifact of the Indus Valley Civilization connects to the artifacts or symbols of ancient Indo-Europeans. To better understand this, please see my History of Pakistan blog and search books on this subject such as Indo-European culture or Proto-Indo-European Language and Culture by Benjamin Fortson.
Even genetic evidence contradicts Sindhi chauvinistic beliefs of Sindhis being the exact same people of the Indus Civilization.
Sindhi chauvinists also like to spread the idea of Sindhi victimization of their people without taking the slightest bit of responsibility for it.
In 1947 Karachi and other parts of Sindh were flooded with Muslim immigrants from all over the subcontinent. The Sindhis welcomed and sheltered them. They hardly reacted nor showed concerns to the massive numbers of the immigrants.
When I was once at a Sindhi gathering at a restaurant in UAE with my parent, I heard the same cries of complaint from leaders that the Punjabis have taken over Sindh and given it to the Muhajirs.
I have heard these cries countless times before. But another Sindhi in the meeting pointed out that Sindhis did not raise any voice or opposition to Muhajir and Punjabi domination of their province; nor did they stand up to their oppressors.
Instead they welcomed them during the over flood of the Muhajirs into Sindh. Even with the rise of the MQM in the 1980s till today, there was hardly any strong reaction or resistance from the Sindhi community.
I myself have thought this for so long. Not only that, but Sindhis I've spoken to insist that Muhajir aggression must be countered with peace and love.
Is it even a wonder why Muhajirs have managed to dominate Sindhis in their own province despite being outnumbered by them?
Sindhi provincial chauvinists also don't mention the fact that Sindh also has smaller minorities such as Siriakis and Tharis.
Sure Sindhis can argue, they are not that different from themselves. But then neither are Punjabis that different. Linguistically speaking Sindhi and Punjabi are both Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages. The two peoples are almost like first cousins both having similar language, culture and traditions.
My own maternal grandmother's father was Northern Punjabi despite the fact that she was born, raised in Sindh and spoke Sindhi. Punjabi and Sindhi are both derived from the same Northwestern Sanskrit dialect.
My thoughts and opinions on provincial nationalism in Pakistan:
Firstly, if provincial rights are going to be made critical issues in Pakistani politics, the provincial nationalists themselves have to reform and be objective if they are ever to achieve their goals.
For this to happen they need a large audience amongst not just politicians but the people of Pakistan who are sympathetic to their cause.
And to achieve that they must stop working with the Indian and Afghan governments to reduce suspicion upon themselves.
Particularly Sindhis and Balochis need to also keep the fascists and chauvinists out of their organizations and also open doors to interns from all over Pakistan to work with them instead of bringing in people who have little knowledge on Pakistani history and politics.
Sindhis and Balochis also have to stop spreading biased ideas that their fascist and chauvinistic members mislead their communities into believing. Discrimination needs to come to an end- including Baloch discrimination towards Brahuis and other non-Balochis in so-called "Balochistan."
This doesn't mean I defend the armies brutal atrocities in Sindh and especially Balochistan. Nor do I advocate taking energy from Balochistan to support Punjab's needs without any benefit.
Also with the coming of solar technology and temperatures soaring in Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan the government and peoples should invest more in solar technology so more and more people have equal access to energy.
Provincial autonomy and equality is the solution to unity in Pakistan combined with Pan-Indo-Iranism. The education system must have the languages of the ethnic minorities available throughout Pakistan. Punjabi children should be allowed to study Punjabi at school as should every ethnic group in Pakistan alongside the federal language Urdu.
Brahui children should be allowed to study their own language and study Baloch and Urdu as additional options.
People who speak Urdu as a first language must then learn the main language of their province.
Overall there is also thought about the people of Pakistan as a whole. Pakistani people have much of a shared identity based on linguistic, genetic and cultural lines. Most Pakistanis descend from ancient Indo-Iranic tribes that spanned across Eurasia before settling into the Indus Valley and merging with the native population(s).
This idea can be used to forge a national Indo-Iranic identity, for most multi-lingual and multi-ethnic countries do not have common language family, unlike Pakistan.
For all this to happen, unbiased knowledge of the history and politics of Pakistan must be spread and promoted.
Only then I feel, will the issue of ethnicity and provincialism in Pakistan will finally be resolved and satisfied.
The video below covers the issue of reforming common Pakistani nationhood with a new sense of Pakistani nationalism in the form of Pan-Indo-Iranism:
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