Traditional values and modern concepts in Balochistan and the role of post-colonialism, modern education and the prevalent political discourse
A contribution to the POVERTY CONFERENCE, Sida, Stockholm, 18 October 2001
Carina Jahani, Dept. of Asian and African Languages
Uppsala University
Sweden
Note! This is a preliminary version on the paper, not to be quoted in written works. On the other hand I am thankful for comments, which can be sent to:
carina.jahani@afro.uu.se
Background
The present work wants to shed light on the sociolinguistic conditions of an ethnolinguistic minority divided by the hands of fate between several countries in the Middle East. The majority of the Baloch live in Iran and Pakistan, and it was in Pakistan from the 1950s onwards that Balochi started to be used as a written language. In the other countries where it is spoken there have so far been very few, if any, attempts at writing Balochi, or at creating a written literary tradition in the language, or using it in the educational system.
The traditional socioeconomic systems of the Baloch were mainly tribal nomadism in the northern areas and agriculture with few landownders and landless workers or slaves in the south. The Balochi society is generally described as very hierarchical. In the 18th century the Khans of Kalat (in presentday Pakistan) established a powerful state, but in the 19th century, with the expansion of the British, the Khans were forced to ally themselves with the colonial power.
In Iran the central government made several attempts in the 19th century to establish direct control from Tehran in Balochistan, but it was only in 1928 that the newly established Pahlavi monarchy was successful in doing this. This direct rule also brought a modern education system based on education in Persian to Balochistan. It was mainly the boys of tribal leaders and feudal lords who enjoyed this education from the beginning, and only in the 1980s, after the Islamic Revolution, is it common for both boys and girls to attend school.
Education brought about new political ideas, both in Iranian and Pakistani Balochistan, and when the demands for freedom from Britain grew stronger and stronger in the Indian subcontinent, sever of the Baloch educated young men started to demand freedom for the Baloch as well. The Khanate of Kalat was re-established for a short period in 1947, but it was soon incorporated into Pakistan. Many left-oriented Baloch politicians continued their struggle for independence down to the 1990s. Nowadays, however, when many Baloch have acquired education in Persian/Urdu and advanced socially and economically, the strivings are more to raise level of education, especially in Pakistan, where still a large percentage of the Baloch are illiterate.
The role of the Balochi language has changed drastically after the introduction of central administration and modern education. New language domains have been introduced in the Baloch society, and the language used in these domains are Persian/Urdu, which are also the languages a person needs to master in order to advance socially and economically. Different groups have taken different stands in the question of language. Some are ready to give up Balochi for the state languages, whereas other voices are raised for at least primary education in Balochi.
Aims and method
The present study attempts to describe language attitudes in relation to the political discourse, education and soci-economic advancement in Iranian and Pakistani Balochistan, and builds on interviews and participant observations carried out by myself both in Iranian and Pakistani Balochistan between 1986, when I first visited Balochistan, and 1997, when I paid my last visit to the area. I also rely on interviews with Baloch men and women living in Sweden but who can travel to Iran and observe the present situation and on secondary sources, such as socio-political studies of the region and official statistics. In addition to attitudes towards Balochi and other languages spoken in Balochistan, it is also important to give a thorough description of the history and socio-economic structure of the region.
The Baloch - who are they?
The early history of the Baloch is largely unknown. According to the epic tradition of the Baloch themselves, they are of Arabic origin and migrated from Aleppo in Syria after the battle of Karbala, where, despite being mainly Sunni Muslims, they fought on the side of the Shi’a Muslim imam and martyr Hussein. Even if these legends must be seriously questioned they may at least carry some truth in them. Linguistic evidence rather indicates that at least the core of the Baloch are of Indo-european origin. It is, however, totally clear that there is no such thing as "the Baloch race". Among the Baloch one finds a range of physical appearances from very fair skin to totally negroid. Thus, whatever was the ethnic origin of the Baloch from the beginning, it is obvious that they have incorporated people and groups of different origin into their ethnos.
It is possible that the original home of the Baloch was somewhere in the central Caspian region, and that they then migrated south-eastwards under pressure from Turkic peoples invading the Iranian plateau from Central Asia. Persian legendary history mentions the Baloch in connection with the province of Gilan southwest of the Caspian Sea. They are mentioned together with other tribal groups in connection with eastern and southeastern Iran (Kerman, Khorasan, Sistan, Makran) in the 9th and 10th centuries (Spooner 1989: 606). They penetrated further eastwards into Punjab and Sind, and in the 16th century they found themselves as a buffer state between Safavid Iran and Mughal India.
In the 17th century the Ahmadzay Khans of Kalat established their power over large parts of Balochistan. This Khanate was especially powerful under Mir Nasir Khan I (1747-1794), who was able to gain independence from the Afghan rulers, who reigned from Kandahar. From 1839 to 1947 this Khanate of Kalat, although still formally existing, was part of the British colonial system.
The Khans of Kalat had much lesser influence in the western parts of Balochistan, where instead the Qajar shahs ruling from Tehran tried to establish their overlordship during the 19th century. They played off local rulers against each other, but were nevertheless unsuccessful in establishing direct rule from Tehran in Balochistan. The borders between Iran and Afghanistan in Sistan as well as between Iran and the Baloch tribal territories, indirectly ruled by the British, were negotiated and decided by "Boundary Commissions" headed by the British colonial officials at the turn of the century (Sykes 1951: 361-364).
The traditional sociopolitical structure in Balochistan differs considerably between northern and southern Balochistan. In the mountainous areas, predominantly in the north, with a tribal structure of the society and where pastoral nomadism was the traditional means of living. Still, a tribal structure along patriarchal lines is still well retained both in northeastern Balochistan, where tribes like the Marri, the Bugti, the Leghari and the Buzdar are among the leading ones, and also in northwestern Balochistan. Some of the stronger tribes in Iran are the Regi, Yarmuhammadzahi, Narui, Gorgej and Gamshadzahi tribes, some of them also partly found in Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are also other important tribes in Pakistan, such as the Bizenjo, Rind, Kambarani, Mengal etc., some of which also identify themselves as Brahui.
In tribal societies a member’s first and foremost loyalty is towards his close patriline, then secondarily towards larger units of the clan or the tribe. There is no room for loyalty towards "the Baloch ethnos" within this tribal framework. In fact, prolonged blood feuds can go on, and have gone on, between two tribes both defined as Baloch in terms of language and culture. In such tribal societies, only a strong enemy from the outside will be a unifying force to cause tribal chiefs to unite and cooperate.
In the southern parts of Balochistan, the economy has been less dependent on pastoral nomadism and more geared towards agriculture. In this society the tribal structure has not been as strong as in northern Balochistan. Here the social hierarchy is very much that of large landowners, petty landowners and landless agricultural workers or even slaves. The clerics have their own position in the upper part of this hierarchy. Common crops are e.g. dates, wheat and rice. The agriculture is totally dependent on water, and water is scarce. Different methods are used in order to make use of ground water in the irrigation, and also for storing rainwater since rainfall is irregular. In the very south of Balochistan, on the Makran coast, fishing has been, and still is, an important outcome.
Due to the geographical location of Balochistan at the crossroads where the Iranian plateau meets the Indian Subcontinent, and where the Sea of Oman connects it to rather than separates it from the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa, legal and illegal trade, not only in goods but also in humans, as well as different kinds of trafficking, smuggling and raiding have been and are lucrative means of supporting oneself in Balochistan.
The Balochi language and its sociolinguistic milieu
Balochi is spoken in south-western Pakistan, south-eastern Iran, southern Afghanistan, the Gulf States and Turkmenistan. There are also communities of Baloch in East Africa and India, as well as in several countries of the West, e.g. Great Britain and the USA. It is very hard to estimate the total number of speakers of Balochi, especially since central governments do not generally stress ethnic identity in census reports, but statistics available give at hand that at least between five and eight million Baloch speak the language. Linguistically Balochi belongs to the western group of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, and is closely related to Kurdish and Persian.
The main dialect split is that between eastern, southern and western dialects. Eastern Balochi dialects are spoken in border areas to Indian languages in Punjab, Sind, and the north eastern parts of Pakistani Balochistan, and are heavily influenced by Indian languages, e.g. Sindhi and Lahnda. Southern Balochi is spoken in the southern areas of the Balochi speaking parts of Iran and Pakistan, including Karachi, as well as in the Gulf States. Western Balochi is spoken in the northern Balochi speaking area in Iran and Pakistan (except in the north east), in Afghanistan and in Turkmenistan.
The Balochi language has long been regarded as a dialect of Persian, and has not until recently been used as a written language. Balochi possesses, however, a rich oral literature of both poetry and prose. As a written language Balochi can be divided into two periods, the colonial period with British rule in India, and the period after the Independence of Pakistan. During the first period most of the existing written literature was produced as a result of British influence. The literature of this time on and in Balochi consists of grammar books and collections of oral poetry and tales, compiled in order to provide samples of the language and to make it possible for British military and civil officials to learn Balochi.
With the withdrawal of the British and the Independence of Pakistan in 1947, the Baloch themselved became increasingly concerned with the development of their language. Baloch poets, who had previously composed in Persian and Urdu started to write poetry in their mother tongue. Literary circles were founded and publication of magazines and books in Balochi got underway. This use of Balochi as a written language has mainly been limited to Pakistan, where Quetta and Karachi soon developed into the two main centres of Balochi literary activities. In Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and the Gulf States Balochi is still basically an oral language, despite sporadic attempts at writing and publication.
Balochi was more widely spoken in the 19th and early 20th centuries than nowadays. Especially in Punjab and Sind there are today many people who recognize themselves as Baloch but speak Indian languages. There are also Baloch both in the Gulf States and in East Africa who have switched over from speaking Balochi to speaking (and writing) Arabic and Swahili respectively. On the other hand, several Brahui tribes, both in Iran and Pakistan have switched over from speaking Brahui to speaking Balochi.
Education in the Balochi speaking areas is invariably in a second language, namely in Urdu/English (Pakistan), Persian (Iran and Afghanistan - if there is any education at all in present-day Afghanistan), Arabic (the Gulf States) and Turkmen/Russian (Turkmenistan). This means that Balochi is used only in certain language domains, and by most of its speakers only as a spoken, not as a written language. It also happens that e.g. Baloch from Iran use Persian among themselves for discussing subjects such as science or politics, which are taught in school or acquired through reading books in Persian and other languages. Balochi is thus a language mainly of the home and the local community. In education, administration, and in urban areas, often also at work, other languages are used.
Baloch are also to be found in the Iranian diaspora after the Islamic Revolution. Thus, a limited number of mainly well educated Baloch live in several European countries, the USA, Canada and other countries where Iranians have taken refuge.
Balochi is surrounded by languages belonging to at least five language families. In the Balochi mainland it meets other Iranian languages, Persian (Farsi and Dari) in the west and north-west, and Pashto in the north and north-east, as well as Indian languages, e.g. Punjabi, Lahnda and Sindhi in the north-east and east. All these languages belong to the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. In the Gulf States Balochi stands in contact with Arabic (Semitic) and in East Africa with Bantu languages (e.g. Swahili). In the central parts of Pakistani Balochistan the Dravidian language Brahui has lived in symbiosis with and been dominated by Balochi for centuries, and in Turkmenistan Balochi meets the Turkic language Turkmen. In the diaspora in Europe and North America, Balochi meets new languages, mainly of the Indo-European family.
Modern political thought in Balochistan
The modern era in Iran can be said to begin in 1926, the year when Reza Shah Pahlavi finally dismissed the last Qajar king and made himself Shah of Iran. He had made a military career and in the final years of Qajar rule, he was the minister of war. In view of this it is not surprising that one of his first and foremost concerns was to strengthen the army and to subdue any "rebellious elements" within the borders of Iran. For Balochistan the year 1928 would prove crucial. It was in that year that Tehran was finally able to establish direct rule in the province after a military campaign against the local Baloch rulers.
The policy of Reza Shah and his son and successor Mohammad Reza Shah was to modernise and unify the country. There were several forces within the country that were seen as potential threats to these goals. One of these forces was the tribes, who were very difficult to control from Tehran, and whose lifestyle was not considered appropriate in a modern country. Therefore Reza Shah took hard measures to settle the nomads.
Another measure was the cultural and linguistic unification of Iran. Local dress was forbidden in public places, even if this measure, just as the unveiling of women proved impossible to carry out in practice. The language of education and administration was to be solely Persian. Mojab and Hassanpoor describe this cultural and linguistic hegemony as follows: Here I am going to add a quotation from an article which I have read and found very good. Unfortunately I could not find it when I needed it, but I will get it and insert this quote by mid-next week.
These measures from Tehran, of course, caused resentment and rebellion in Iranian Balochistan. Down to the 1960s this rebellion was mostly concentrated around individual rebels, but in 1964 the Balochistan Liberation Front was formed along nationalist lines. Their goal was an independent Balochistan (Hosseinbor 2000:152-153). Around the time of the Islamic Revolution both the left wing resistance and the religious leaders in Balochistan organised themselves and raised voices for autonomy. These parties were banned shortly after the revolution, and, whereas the religious fraction merged with the Islamic Republican Party, the adherents to marxist ideologies were arrested if they had not been able to leave the country (Hosseinbor 2000: 180-181).
On the other side of the border, in British India, the attempt to shake off the British yoke had intensified. Also the Baloch organised themselves along radical and nationalis lines and demanded "a united independent Baluchistan" and "reforms in Baluchistan" (Baloch 1987: 151). In 1937 the Kalat State National Party was constituted, the goals of which were to negotiate with the British to re-establish the Kalat state as an independent state and to struggle against the so called sardari system in Balochistan. At the withdrawal of the British, in 1947, the Kalat State announced its independence, but it was soon incorporated into Pakistan (Baloch 1987: 154-155).
After the incorporation of the Kalat State into Pakistan, the approach of the Baloch towards the state has varied between strong separatism and attempts at participation. In 1970 the National Awami Parti won the election in Balochistan, and the Baloch nationalists were allowed to form a government. However, when this government was dissolved by Bhutto in 1973 and its chief ministers arrested, unrest spread in Balochistan, and a period of rebellion starte, in which the Baloch People’s Liberation Front, by Harrison described as "an exotic amalgam of Baluch nationalism and independent Marxist-Leninist thought" (Harrison 1981: 72) played an important role. The rebellion was not quietened until the Baloch political leaders were released from prison by Zia ul-Haqq.
The role of the Balochi language in the Balochi political discourse has not always been clearcut. Among the nationalists and the traditionalists the language has been an unquestioned part of the struggle for greater self-determination, be it in the form of autonomy or a totally independent political unit of Balochistan. However, for the marxist-leninists and other leftist groups the incorportation of issues related to language and culture was not to be taken for granted. Many of these groups cooperated with other ethnic groups, especially in Iran, and "insisted that these nationalities should pursue their national struggle through class struggle". They " sought to secure Balouch national rights through the victory of the working class over the bourgeoisie in Baluchistan, thus relegating the Baluch national struggle to a secondary position" (Hosseinbor 2000: 178). There is, indeed, a dilemma for those who want to combine the class struggle of "the proletariat in all lands" with nationalist strivings, where the ethnic language and culture are major arguments for self-determination.
One "red nationalist" who attempted the venture was one of the forerunners in modern Balochi poetry, Gul Khan Nasir (1914-1983). Since Balochi had by tradition hardly been used at all as a written language it was but natural that Gul Khan Nasir wrote his early poetry in Persian and Urdu. Around the time of the Independence of Pakistan, however, he started to compose also in Balochi. There may be several reasons why he gradually switched over to writing in his mother tongue, one of which certainly is the influence from another poet, Muhammad Husayn Anqa, who already had started writing poetry in Balochi for publication in some of the Urdu-language Balochi nationalist newspapers that were published in Karachi mainly in the 1930s.
The political atmosphere during the time of struggle against the British colonial power strengthened nationalist and separatist feelings not only among the Pakistanis as a whole but also among the different ethnic groups within Pakistan. It was in this atmosphere of nationalism, separatism and struggle for social and political change that Gul Khan Nasir shortly before the Independence of Pakistan was invited to a political gathering in Peshawar. There several of the speakers delivered their speeches in Pashto and there were also poems recited in Pashto. This must have made a strong impression on Gul Khan Nasir, who shortly after returning home wrote his first poem in Balochi. His forst collection of Balochi poems was published in 1952, and was followed by eight other books of Balochi poetry as well as several books in Urdu on the history and literature of the Baloch.
Traditional and modern education in Balochistan and the role of the Balochi language
The traditional education in Balochistan was the religious education, which included among other subjects the Quran and the Arabic language as well as the Persian language and its literature left no place for education in Balochi. Education was also the privilege of the sons of sardars, hakoms and other privileged families. The vast majority of the Baloch people, thus, had no education whatsoever, and still Balochistan is the part of Iran where the literacy rate is the lowest in the whole country.
In the census carried out in 1996 (Aban 1375 in the Iranian Anno Hijra Solar calendar) the literacy rate for the province Sistan and Balochistan was 57 % for persons 6 years of age and older, and divided by sex the literacy rate was 49 % for female and 65 % for male (Iran Statistical Yearbook 1377: 603). The definition of literacy was very generally stated as "all individuals who can read and write a simple text in Farsi or any other language" and even those who had studied only the first year in primary school or the equivalent were counted as literate (Iran Statistical Yearbook 1377 2000: 595).
The figures for Sistan and Balochistan may be compared to the average literacy rate in the whole country, which was 80 % in the same year, and to the province with the lowest literacy rate after Sistan and Balochistan, namely the province of Kurdistan where 68 % of the population was literate (Iran Statistical Yearbook 1377 2000: 603). Ten years earlier, in 1986 (Mehr 1365 in the Iranian Anno Hijra Solar calendar), the literacy rate in Sistan and Balochistan was 36 % compared to 61 % in the whole country (Iran Statistical Yearbook 1370 1993: 123).
Also in Pakistan, here I want to add statistics from Pakistan, but unfortunately I have not obtained this statistics yet. I have made a request both from SCB in Sweden and the Statistical Bureau in Pakistan. My hypothesis is, however, that the same low literacy rate compared to the whole country will also prove true in Pakistani Balochistan.
Modernisation is not something that takes place overnight. Just as with modern socioeconomic structures and modern political thought, modern education also was and is only gradually introduced in Balochistan. In the year 1903, shortly after the delimination of the border between Iran and British India, there were two secondary and twenty-two elementary schools in the part of Balochistan that belonged to the colonial power, whereas there were no such institutions in the Iranian part of Balochistan until decades later (Gankovsky 1971: 206). This is, of course, also why a certain number of educated and also partly de-tribalised young men emerged as spokesmen for "the Baloch cause" in Pakistan long before this happened in Iran (see above).
At the court of the Baloch Khans of Kalat in the 17th-19th century the Persian language was first the language of the administration. Persian has a long tradition as a written language and a high prestige as the language of especially a very rich poetic tradition carried on both by Iranians, Turks and e.g. Indian Moghuls. It was therefore in no way strange that also the Baloch Khans would use Persian as their official language. Later on during the colonial era English became more and more important in the British administration as well as in education. It is, however, interesting to note that the Balochi language was one in which the British civil and military officials coud pass tests, which was highly recommended and encouraged, e.g. by higher salaries and other positive incentives. In Iran, after Balochistan was put under direct rule from Tehran, the only official language used in administration and education here was Persian.
Modern education has thus only gradually been introduced in Balochistan. Just as with the traditional education, it was at first limited to a small numbers of boys from leading families, but by today the children in most parts of Balochistan, especially Iranian Balochistan, have access to education.
There was a great hesitation towards educating girls in Balochistan until just a few decades back. One of the leading Baloch literary men in Quetta, Abdullah Jan Jamaldini, once told me about the resistance he met when he decided to allow his daughters to go to school. "A delegation of the elders in my tribe paid me an official visit", he said, "trying to persuade me to withdraw my daughters from school, before the scandal was a fact." Abdullah Jan Jamaldini, however, insisted on allowing his daughers to get education, and he noted that once he had set an example, many others dared to follow. It may be interesting to note that one of the lecturers in Balochi at the University of Balochistan, Quetta, is a Baloch woman. She and her sisters started their career as speakers in the Balochi programmes in Radio Quetta, and they also did some TV programmes.
If girls were allowed to go to school in the 1960s and 1970s, both in Iran and Pakistan, it was generally the rule that they stopped after primary school. Very few went on to secondary school, and nobody ever went on further than that. However, the tide has now changed, especially in Iran, where the Islamic Revolution to a certain degree made it easier for girls to attend school without their parents fearing for their security. The schools were separated by sex after the revolution, and it was felt safer to attend a girls’ school that a mixed school. The compusory veiling also increased this feeling of security for girls and women in public places.
Today there are not only girls who graduate from secondary schools but also several Baloch girls among the students at the University of Sistan and Balochistan in Zahedan, Iran. There are facilities for these girls to live in students’ dormitories in case they have no relatives in Zahedan they can stay with during the time of their studies. The rules are fairly strict at the dormitories, and all the girls have to be back home by 9 p.m., which again makes parents less hesitant to send away their girls on their own to the provincial capital. There is also nowadays a newly founded university in Iranshahr.
With modern education came also what sociolinguistic terminology describes as new domains of language use. One of the ways of evaluating how healthy or strong a language is is to look at where in society the language is used. If a language is used in the home, at work, in education, in business, in administration, in religion, in entertainment and in the media, the language has a usage in many social domains which shows that it will continue to thrive as a language. Conversely, if, for instance, a language is only used in the home by elderly women, and for all other purposes a second language is used, then that language is weak and may even die out within a generation.
The traditional domains, where Balochi is still the unrivaled language in most parts of both Iranian and Pakistani Balochistan are family, friendship, and neighbourhood. These domains can be classified as intimate and low prestige domains, and the vocabulary and linguistic structures used in this type of language often vary considerably from the new domains, which have entered the modern society, such as education, administration, employment in the modern monetary economy, military service and last, but not least, mass media (radio, TV). In these new domains there is little or no use of Balochi. These new domains carry higher prestige than the traditional ones and are generally viewed as more formal and official. As for religion, Arabic is the language of Quranic recitation and prayer, but many mullahs preach in Balochi for the sake of comprehension. A language can generally be regarded as threatened, at least in the long-term perspective, if it has a limited use in high prestige domains.
The spread of education in Balochistan, thus, poses a real threat to the Balochi language. At present it is therefore, as "partly lack of education that is ensuring the strength of Balochi, because there are a large number of Baloch who are uneducated and have little to do with business, offices or literary activities, and thus have few domains where second languages would be used." (Farrell 2000: 20). This is, of course, not to say that education should be avoided. Quite on the contrary, most Baloch parents nowadays are in favour of educating their children, but many especially among the intellectuals mean that provisions ought to be taken for the use of Balochi in education in order to guarantee the survival of this language.
It was in fact observed in Zahedan, the provincial capital in the Iranian province of Sistan and Balochistan, that some families chose to speak Persian to their children rather than Balochi. They argued that this would prepare their children better for starting school, since the child would otherwise meet a new language that he/she was not familiar with in school, something that could hamper the learning process and put the child at a disadvantage compared with classmates who already knew Persian.
Another factor that may at least in the long run prove devastating both to the Balochi language and the culture it is a vehicle to transmit is electronic media. Especially important in this context is TV, which has a large impact in Balochistan. Many Baloch men, especially in the southern parts of Balochistan, spend at least some time of their life as guest workers in the Gulf States, from where they often purchase electronic goods, such as radio and TV sets for their family in Balochistan. It was in the 1960s that television was first introduced in the provincial capital, Zahedan. The major part of the province was not electrified at that time. In fact, the electrification of most parts of Iranian Balochistan belongs to the era of the Islamic Republic.
Television has been a major breakthrough in the introduction of Persian in Balochistan. By watching Persian programmes at an early age, often even before going to school, the children get acquainted with this language and learn to pronounce it with a Tehrani accent, something which is not true of most educated Baloch in the older generation. They generally speak Persian with a Balochi accent. One reason for that is that they were introduced to Persian at school generally by local teachers, who themselves spoke Persian with a Sistani or Balochi accent. Some informants state that they used to feel ashamed of speaking Persian at school, especially in front of Persian speaking students, who made fun of their accent.
The power of television exceeds by far the power of radio. Since it is both audial and visual, it makes a much greater impact than only audial means. The power of television in making a whole generation acquainted with a language can also clearly be seen also in Sweden, where many children in the younger generation, who grow up with American serials subtitled in Swedish, start speaking English before they are even able to read and write Swedish. Procházka also stresses the impact of television as one of the key factors behind the ongoing language shift between Arabic and Turkish among speakers of Arabic dialects in Turkey (Procházka 1999: 124).
Many Baloch, however, take a great deal of pride in their language as a bearer of their own distinct culture, and they are alarmed at the thought that Balochi may be a dead language within a couple of generations. This is one of the reasons why several Baloch intellectuals, especially in Pakistan, have raised their voices to demand mother tongue education in Balochi. This demand has been virtually impossible to make in Iran, where the conformist policy of one country, one nation, one culture and one language, has been prevailing ever since direct rule from Tehran was established over Balochistan in 1928.
In an interview with the Secretary of Education in the Provincial Government of Balochistan in May 1988, he stressed the mixed population as one of the major problems with mother tongue education in Balochistan. When such a programme was ratified and launched in 1991, it was in fact, just this issue that aroused the most suspicion. Teaching was to be provided in Urdu, Balochi, Brahui and Pashto. Balochi and Brahui were split up, rightfully most people would agree, since they are two totally different and unrelated languages, but since the Balochi and Brahui linguistic split is not accompanied by a sense of different ethnicity or distinct political goals among the speakers of the two languages, the Baloch/Brahui were suddenly alarmed at the fact that the Pashto speaking population was larger that any of these two groups, and thus the largest ethnic group in Balochistan.
There were also other reasons for the failure of the mother tongue education programme. Some of the parents, especially those who had little or no education, could not see the point in their children learning to read and write Balochi, a language that the child would have little or no use of later on, especially for obtaining a good employment and for higher studies. When the parents themselves were negative, and the government at best reluctant it was hard to make a success of the programme. There was also a lack of qualified teachers in Balochi to launch the programme in a large number of primary schools. Another important problem, to which there was no final solution among the Baloch intellectuals themselves, was how to establish a written standard for Balochi, to be taught all over Balochistan.
Shortly after the breakdown of this experiment in teaching Balochi in the primary schools of Balochistan, one of the leading intellectuals and advocators of the furtherance of Balochi as a literary vehicle expressed deep pessimism as to the future of Balochi, even in Pakistan, where it has a large number of speakers, mainly geographically concentrated. He thought that soon only a number of grandmothers would speak, love and care about their Balochi language, and that the younger generation would be too concerned with gaining a position within the Urdu speaking majority framework, that they would be ready to "sell" their language and culture for a piece of bread.
In a report from 1953, UNESCO stressed the importance of primary education in the mother tongue, by recommending "that the use of the mother tongue be extended to as late a stage in education as possible. In particular, pupils should begin their schooling through the medium of the mother tongue." The main reason for this argument is "that the shock which the young child undergoes in passing from his home to his school life is so great that everything possible should be done to soften it, particularly where modern methods of infant teaching have not yet penetrated to the school. (UNESCO 1953: 3)" Presumably any language that the child masters well at the time he or she begins school would be equally acceptable for primary education, since the main argument given here is that the child would be at a loss if he/she did not undertand what was going on in the classroom and what reading and writing is all about.
One possible explanation for the high drop-out rate for the early years of schooling, witnessed e.g. among the Baloch in the main Baloch area in Karachi, Lyari, where as many as up to 50 % of the children who ever start school drop out after a couple of years (Farrell 2000: 22), is that the children do not know Urdu well enough to follow the teaching, and the basic skills of reading, writing and doing mathematics become just a matter of memorising incomprehensible words and sentences.
In fact, memorising, where comprehension is not in focus is, indeed, typical of the pedagogical, or maybe non-pedagogical approach to learning that meets the observer in much of the educational system in e.g. Iran. Even among students in higher education the prevalent attitude is often that you learn to pass the exams, and you pass the exams to get a good job, not that you learn because you are deeply interested in the subject you study. This means that studying becomes a boring task rather than something you can really enjoy doing.
The Baloch children thus find themselves at a disadvantage when starting school, especially if they do not know Persian or Urdu well and/or attend schools where many of the students are mother tongue speakers of Persian/Urdu. They also face another obstacle due to the fact that many have illiterate or only semi-literate mothers, from whom they can get little or no help with their homework. To this may, for the Balochi in Iran, be added a sense of alienation, which is fairly strong among adherents of Sunni Islam in the Islamic Republic where Shia is the official profession. Among Sunni minorities in Iran one may, in addition to the Baloch, also mention the Kurds and the Turkmens. The Sunnites often argue that even though they know Persian well and study hard, several doors to advancement in the Iranian society are closed to them due to their religious profession.
Conclusions
It has been seen above that the Baloch are a people who are searching for their new role in a society which has radically and rapidly changed over the past few decades. All through history they have been described as headstrong and rebellious by more centralised powers who have tried to subdue them. Their self-description is generally more in terms of bravery and invincibility. Even today, both Tehran and Islamabad keep a close eye on Balochistan.
In view of this, even cultural strivings are viewed as political, or at least potentially political, and that is why the central governments have taken a repressive or at best indifferent position towards the use of Balochi, especially as a written medium, and as a vehicle for its own literature.
The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, chapter 1, article 15, allows in addition to the official language Persian, "the use of local and ethnic languages in the press and mass media is allowed. The teaching of ethnic literature in the schools, together with Persian language instruction is also permitted." This means that it is in principle permitted to publish books and newspapers in Balochi, but at present there is no such publication taking place in Iran. When it comes to teaching Balochi literature in the schools, there is, of course, no provision being made for such a subject due to the almost total lack of Balochi literature in written form.
In the same way, the constiution of Pakistan, states that "any section of citizens having a distinct language, script or culture shall have the right to preserve and promote the same and, subject to law, establish institutions for that purpose" (Constitution, Pakistan 1973: 25). Likewise, even though the national language is Urdu "without prejudice to the status of the national language, a Provincial Assembly may by law prescribe measures for the teaching, promotion and use of a provincial language in addition to the national language" (Constitution, Pakistan 1973: 118).
It is in view of these statements in the constitutions of the two countries that voices raised among the Baloch intelligensia for using Balochi as a vehicle both for oral and for written literature must be seen. In Pakistan, where the language in fact is used as a literary vehicle and where courses in it can be studied in college or as part of a university programme, the demands also include using Balochi as a means of instruction in the primary education. In Iran the first goal of using Balochi as a written language is still to be reached.
The changes in lifestyle and the contact with the modern society that has taken place in Balochistan mainly during the second half of the 20th century has opened up new opportunities for the Baloch. But it has also created a sense of alienation and frustration, stronger or weaker depending on the strength and prevalent policy of the central government. A person or a group who feel part of the political system is far less likely to be rebellious against it than a person or group who feels part of that system. In view of the recent happening of September 11, 2001, and the focus on Afghanistan that has followed, one can at least conclude and underline that, as Selig S. Harrison put it in the title of his book on Baloch nationalism, the Baloch still live "in Afghanistan’s shadow".
Bibliography
Baloch, Inayatullah
1987 The Problem of "Greater Baluchistan". A Study of Baluch Nationalism, Stuttgart.
Constitution, Iran
1980 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, translated from Persian by Hamid Algar, Berkeley.
Constitution, Pakistan
1973 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan [with commentary], ed. by Sardar Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Lahore.
Dames, Longworth
1904 The Baloch Race, London.
Farrell, Tim
2000 "Mother Tongue Education and the Health and Survival of the Balochi Language", in Language in Society - Eight Sociolinguistic Essays on Balochi, ed. by C. Jahani, Uppsala, pp. 19-32.
Fasold, Ralph
1984 The Sociolinguistics of Society (= Introduction to Sociolinguistics, I), Oxford - New York.
Gankovsky, Yurij
1971 The Peoples of Pakistan, an Ethnic History, Lahore.
Harrison, Selig S.
1981 In Afghanistan’s Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations, New York - Washington D. C.
Hosseinbor, Mohammad Hassan,
2000 Iran and its Nationalities: The Case of Baluch Nationalism, Karachi.
Iran Statistical Yearbook 1370
1993 Tehran.
Iran Statistical Yearbook 1377
2000 Tehran.
Jahani, Carina
1996-97 "Bya o baloc - The Cry of a Baloch Nationalist", in Orientalia Suecana, XLV-XLVI, pp. 81-95.
Procházka, Stephan
1999 "From Language Contact to Language to Language Death: The Example of the Arabic Spoken in Cilicia (Southern Turkey)", in Orientalia Suecana, 48, pp. 115-125.
Spooner, Brian
1989 "Baluchistan, i, Geography, history, and ethnography", in Encyclopaedia Iranica, ed. by E. Yarshater, vol. III, London - New York, pp. 598-632.
Sykes, Sir Percy
1951 A History of Persia, London.
UNESCO
1953 The use of Vernacular Languages in Education (=UNESCO Monographs on Fundamental Education, VIII).
Courtesy: jawad raisi |
