McGill Journal of Political Studies 2014 April, 2014 | страница 66

of power in their favour21” by commonly
entering into alliances with other ethnic
groups.
The Balochis are a tribal community
and the smallest ethnic group in Pakistan,
constituting less than 5% of the national
population. Balochi historians claim the
group to be ethnically linked to the Kurdish
peoples found in Syria. They are culturally
and socially distinct from the rest of Pakistan,
and have kept their language, customs and
traditions intact. They are a fiercely tightknit group of peoples who have resisted
the idea of the inclusion of the Baloch
peoples in Pakistan, instead of the creation
of a separate Balochistan22. Ever since
independence, the national government
and Baloch guerrillas have engaged in
several armed insurgencies, and a strong
separatist fervour fuels Baloch nationalism.
The defeat of a Baloch insurgency in 1973
by the Pakistani armed forces transformed
the Balochi demand from one of regional
autonomy to a stronger demand of complete
secession from Pakistan. Continued
repression and discrimination of the
Balochi peoples as an attempt to dismantle
separatist sentiment in the province of
Balochistan has led to a stronger cohesion of
the Balochi people, the emergence of a more
robust Balochi nationalism and the ignition
of a secessionist movement in the region,
similar to that which led to the formation of
Bangladesh in 197123.
The Pashtuns are also a tribal community
and make up around 15% of the population24.
They have had a similar experience to that
of the Balochis, though the Pashtuns have
enjoyed a better standing in Pakistani
society. This is one of the reasons why
Pashtun nationalism did not manifest itself
through violence. The North West Frontier
Province where the Pashtuns are settled is
more easily geographically accessible and

so “the economic benefits of Islamabad’s
programs have managed to reach the
Pashtuns far more than the Baloch25.”
While this has made the Pashtuns more
dependent economically on the capital, it
has also helped mitigate separatist attitudes
among the peoples. Like all the other ethnic
groups of Pakistan, the Pashtuns also have
their own language and traditions. Pashtun
nationalism was moulded from their
treatment under the British Empire and
“even at the time of the Partition, though
they eventually conceded, the Pashtun
leadership was wary of the imposition of
the Pakistani state, realising that the coming
government would more likely than not be
dominated by the Punjabis and Mohajirs26.”
Also unlike the Balochis, the Pashtuns do
hold prominent leadership positions in the
country given their past induction in the
British armies.27

21

Ibid., 183.
Ibid.
23
Hurst, “Pakistan’s Ethnic Divide,” 185.
24
Ibid., 186.

25

22

26

66 | McGill Journal of Political Studies 2014

“The proliferation of various
ethnic group identities and
the chafing that occurred between them in the Pakistani
state demonstrates that religion was not a strong enough
uni