3

A Glance at Balochi Oral Poetry: Problems and Prospects*

by Sabir Badalkhan

Balochistan, or the land of the Baloch, is generally

understood to comprise an area of ca. 647,000 square kilometres1. It

covers 347,190 square kilometres in Western Pakistan (Awan

1985:5), some 200,000 square kilometres in south-eastern Iran and

some 100,000 square kilometres in western Afghanistan (Spooner

1983:93-94). Its exact boundaries are undetermined. Overall it

occupies the southeastern part of the Iranian plateau from the

Kirman desert east of Bam and the Bashagird mountains to the

western borders of Sind and the Punjab (Frye 1960:1005).

Geographically it is part of the Iranian plateau, and culturally and

physically it is a compact entity. Politically, however, it is divided

up today among Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.

The land of Balochistan is, for the most part, harsh, mostly

uncultivable desert and mountainous terrain. It is a land of sharp

contrast, of intense heat and cold, and of sudden and abnormal

changes of temperature. It lies outside the monsoon area and its

rainfall is irregular and scanty. Average annual rainfall does not

exceed four inches per year and there is no perennial river to support

cultivation or permanent settlement.

Balochi, the language of the Baloch, is a member of the

Western Iranian group of languages, and has affinities with both

4

representatives of Western Middle Iranian: Middle Persian and

Parthian. It has, however, a marked individuality of its own, and

differs from both of these languages in important respects

(Elfenbein 1989:633). Among the modern Iranian languages it is

closely related to Kurdish (ibid. 635).

No ethnolinguistic data are available about the exact number

of Balochi speakers2. There is a vast discrepancy between various

estimates of the Baloch population, which stands at between 5 to 18

million worldwide3. No accurate figures are available for any of the

regions inhabited by the Baloch. A comparison of various facts and

figures points to a moderate number of Balochi speakers in the

world, between 8 to 10 million: 7 million in Pakistan (4 million in

Balochistan, 2 million in Sind, and one million in the Punjab); 1.5

million in Iran; 500,000 in Afghanistan; 500,000 in the Gulf States

and East Africa4, and 38,000 to 40,000 in Turkmenistan.

The literacy ratio among the Baloch is low even today. 10.32

per cent was recorded in 1981 against the 26.2 per cent for Pakistan

(Akhtar 1990:9-10). The official data, released later on, show that

the literacy ratio in Pakistan has increased from 26.2 per cent in

1981 to 30.1 per cent5 in 1988, while in Balochistan it has remained

unchanged at 10.32 per cent (Akhtar 1990:377; see also the English

daily The Nation, Karachi, January 1st, 1989). This figure most

probably includes those who can read and write their names only

(cf. Akhtar 1990:443). The result of my own inquiries and studies

show that the literacy ratio among Baloch males in Balochistan is no

greater than 3 per cent and among the female population is between

1 to 2 per thousand6 (for further details on the argument see

Badalkhan 1992).

The geographical position and climatic conditions of

Balochistan on the one hand, and constant invasions and

interventions by foreign powers7 on the other hand influenced the

Baloch way of life to a great extent. The history of the Baloch

remained a history of conflicts, wars and migrations. War became

the affair of every day life and when not fighting with outsiders they

fought bloody feuds with each other for decades, which mostly

ended only with the dispersion or mass migration of one of the

parties involved. The inter-tribal hostilities generally arose over

disputes concerning herds of sheep, pasture lands, possession of

springs, marriages, injury caused to one’s bahot 8, on the violation

5

of tribal borders and by raiding and counter-raiding, and in due

course, quarrels among individuals would become the business of

the entire tribe, and thus vendetta became one of the basic socio-

political institutions in Baloch life (M. S. K. Baluch 1977:48).

Everyday conflicts and migrations forced the people to adopt a

turbulent but simple life. From a poem composed by Balach Gorgej,

an 18th century hero and himself a far famed poet, we see the basic

picture of the heroic age of Balochistan and its needs:

kohənt bəločani kəlat,

həmrahIš berahẽ gərənt,

bUrzẽ həši-Iš gwatgIr ənt,

apIš bəhokẽ čəmməg ənt,

kodIš pišši kondəl ənt,

nIštẽ jahIš kərkawəg ənt,

bopIš dəgari təhtəg ənt,

borIš sIpedẽ čəbbəw ənt,

bəččIš gIčenẽ gondəl ənt,

zamatIš šIllẽ hənjər ənt,

bratIš təlarẽ Ispər ənt,

arip məzən təppẽ lUd ənt

"The mountains are the Baloch forts

Their companions the trackless cliffs

The lofty heights are (their) gwatgIr

Their water are the flowing springs

Their cups are made of dwarf-palm leaves9

their sitting places are thorny bushes

Their mattresses are bedsteads on the ground.

Their mounts are white leather sandals

Their sons are chosen arrows

their sons-in-law are pointed daggers

Their brothers are solid-rock spears

Their venerable (fathers) great-wounding scimitars"

(Elfenbein 1990:345; see also M. S. K. Baluch 1977:404-410;

Dames 1907:45).

"In societies -- writes Lord -- where writing is unknown, or

6

where it is limited to a professional scribe whose duty is that of

writing letters and keeping accounts, or where it is the possession of

a small minority, such as clerics or a wealthy class (though often

this latter group prefers to have its writing done by a servant), the art

of narration flourishes, provided that the culture is in other respects

of a sort to foster the singing of tales. If the way of life of a people

furnishes subjects for story and affords occasion for the telling, this

art will be fostered" (Lord 1960:20; see also Goody 1968:12-20).

The isolation of their country and nature did not provide the

Baloch with the possibilities of developing a written literary

tradition, which needs both a peaceful life and a settled mind. Here

only oral literature and its allied art of music could develop.

"Perhaps the most remarkable cultural characteristic of the

Baloch is their rich literary heritage and continuing strong literary

traditions", writes Elfenbein. "In every village there can be found

someone -- often several people -- who can recite classical folk

ballads at great length. Stories and fables are also legion, and nearly

everyone knows a few" (Elfenbein 1966:1-2).

There are poems to mark any occasion of Baloch life:

genealogical poems (dəptər šεr) to warm the gatherings of elders

and keep the history of the ethnic group well-versed and preserve it

intact; heroic songs (jəngi or rindi šεr) to celebrate a victory or raise

the morale after a defeat or prepare the mind of the people for a

future conflict; romantic poems (Iški šεr) to eulogise the beauty of a

beloved one or venture of an earlier Baloch hero who had risked his

life and that of his people/tribe to wrest a beloved one from a distant

country; religious poems (pεgUmbəri šεr) to venerate the holy

prophet and his companions; didactic poems (pənti šεr) to educate

the young people according to the traditions of the community;

satirical poems (šIgani šεr) to check or expose one's doings; etc.

There are sIpət (praise songs in couplets) to celebrate the

birth of a child; lɔli (lullaby) to swing a cradle and praise a child;

nazenk, praise songs in couplets sung by a mother or a sister, a

sincere prayer for the health, long life and prosperity of a child; lado

and halo10, marriage songs, sung by women in chorus, to express the

bravery, horsemanship, chivalry and swordsmanship of the

bridegroom and the beauty and chastity of the bride; sɔt (short

improvised poems having a content ranging from love matters to the

praise of bride and bridegroom) mostly sung by professional singers

7

(sɔti) with or without the accompaniment of a chorus; zəhirok

(songs of homesickness, separation from lovers, parents and family)

to express the innermost feelings of nostalgia and deep sorrow; εhi

and liko11 (camel drivers' songs identical to zəhirok); əmba

(fishermen's songs) to labour collectively and minimise the burden

of work; dastanəg (short love poems prevalent among the Mari-

Bugti tribes) to sing the vicissitudes of love affairs; and finally, motk

(dirge) to mourn for a departed soul12. Apart from these few genres

mentioned above there are several other types of songs: work songs

of shepherds; songs for grinding grain, collecting dates, milking

animals, washing clothes at a spring/pond; songs and music (gwati,

malId, šεpərja, šeki, dəmmal etc.) for casting off evil spirits;

čowgan, sIpətt, bεt, zIgr to offer prayers, etc. which make part and

parcel of everyday Baloch life.

It would not be an exaggeration to claim that the Baloch are

a nation with high esteem for poets, and poetry is certainly one of

their principal cultural achievements. It occupies a large and

important place in Baloch culture, interest in it is universal, and skill

in it is something everyone covets and many possess. The Baloch

poetic heritage is a living force intimately connected with the

vicissitudes of everyday life. It is the chief vehicle of their self-

expression and self-preservation (Rooman 1967:1).

Poetry has always been part of the Baloch life. We see the

Baloch nomads singing their way on long journeys, and weaving

poems which celebrate their racial/tribal superiority, tribal feuds,

record of racial and tribal genealogy, landscape of the country,

longing for rains, thundering clouds and roaring torrents, greenery

after rainfall, the image of the best beloved, the remnants of a

forsaken camp or the struggles of some bloody feud, etc.

We must not forget, however, that the population of

Balochistan did not consist exclusively of nomads, as is often

portrayed by many non-Baloch authors. There were densely-

populated centres like Kech, Sami, Shahrak, Tump, Mand, Pahra,

Parod, Kasarkand, Panjgur, Mashkey, Khuzdar, Kalat, Mastung,

Dadar, Sibi, Gandawa and many others, where the people were

settled and were engaged in agriculture. Sedentary and nomadic

people were dependent on each other and there was some degree of

commodity exchange between them, although mostly on voluntary

basis. All these centres had their cultural activities and people still

8

recount that there had been much singing and merry making in these

places all around the year. We find the sedentary Baloch singing the

glory of past days of the Baloch rule, peace and prosperity in their

homeland, the vicissitudes of their daily life, and so on. In fact, it

was the sedentary Baloch who created and patronised the best

poetry and helped the poetic tradition to prosper. We notice this

during the Rind-Lashar period when the Baloch had settled in Sibi,

Kachi and Gandawa areas and from there they started their

fratricidal wars, which resulted with the end of the Baloch rule in

that land, but which also produced an extremely rich and a fine

finished oral literature, in which every genre is represented (G. F.

Baloch n.d.:21). This period is known as the "classical age" (M. S.

K. Baluch 1977:70) of Balochi literature. Similar literary activities

existed in other parts of Balochistan. Agricultural centres like Kech

(modern Turbat), Panjgur, Kalat, Mastung, Pahra and many other

parts of Balochistan developed a rich literary tradition, helped it to

flourish, provided patronage to minstrels in the courts of rulers and

town chiefs and so on. Local traditions confirm that at Turbat kəlat

(fort) and under the čInal (poplar) tree of Turbat, a meeting place for

men, there were gatherings round the year, and musicians, minstrels

and artists from all over Balochistan came to perform there13.

Poetry was also patronised and minstrels supported during

the Khanate of Balochistan (1666-1948). Many Khan rulers had

their court poets and rezwar šaIr14, who in addition to the

preservation of poetry, also acted as the keepers of the historical

annals and genealogical records of the tribe (A. Y. K. Baloch

1975:63;66; cf. Al-Kadri 1976:281). Furthermore, many Khans

were themselves poets and some of them also played musical

instruments (M. S. K. Baluch 1958:199;181).

It is almost impossible to fix with any certainty the

beginning of Balochi poetry. "Human remembrance', writes Haurt,

'unless set down on a brick, or stone, or paper, is a very short-lived

thing, and the memory of bygone days soon fades away" (1966:7).

We do not have any written material left by the Baloch in

ancient times since writing was not known to them. However, there

are very few references regarding their cultural life here and there.

We hear from the source of Čač-nāma that when the king Chach of

Sind passed through Makran en route to Kirman in the year 635-636

AD to settle its boundaries he built a fort at Kannazbur, somewhere

9

in the neighbourhood of Panjgur, and caused a naubat15 of

instruments to be played in the fort morning and evening (Holdich

1894:8). We are also informed by oral tradition that during the rule

of Mir Chakar the fort at Sibi had a naubat, and dəmama or big

drums were played in the fort twice a day16: wəšši dəmamae jətõ,

yəkk begəhe yəkk bangəhe, i.e. dəmama (the largest drum of a

nəwbat; cf. Day 1891:96) of happiness were played, once in the

evening and once in the morning. Poets and songsters from Makran,

Sind and other regions visited the court frequently (M. S. K. Baluch

1958:171). Similar activities existed in other parts of Balochistan as

well. But since oral poetry is mostly impersonal and does not bear

any stamp of its composer, it is not easy to give it any date. There

exist hundreds of marriage songs, work songs, romantic songs,

songs of separation, lamentations, game-songs, which make up the

bulk of Balochi oral poetry but do not convey any information about

the composer or the date of composition.

The samples of epic narrative poetry as a fine finished art are

available only from the Rind-Lashar period (15th century). We

know for sure that by the 15th century poetry was developed as the

choicest art and means of expression among the Baloch.

Considering the language and technique of the 15th century poetry

and the important role it played in the everyday life of the Baloch,

many Baloch writers are of the opinion that the art of poetry was

practised much earlier than that date17.

We learn through oral tradition that from the 15th century

onwards there were poets and minstrels who composed and sang

poems for the purpose of entertainment and in order to preserve the

record of the ethnic group. The poet was the oracle, orator, and

historian of the people, for the poet was expected and agreed to be

well versed in the art of genealogy and traditions (M. S. K. Baluch

1977:68). Poetry was said to be the "public register" (dəptər) of

Baloch community (A. Y. K. Baluch 1975:64). Every tribe and zone

had its poets (Rooman 1967:12) and a tribe or town without a poet

and a minstrel was considered as being without a voice. Every poet

had one or more minstrels (M. S. K. Baluch 1977:68) and an

entourage of admirers who learnt his poems by heart and sang or

recited them in the tribal assembly. Poem reciting was one of the

choicest arts and the source of self-preservation. Poets were Baloch

of upper social class who composed poems about the doings of the

10

tribes, wars fought against rival tribes, migrations made from

different regions and kept the genealogy of the tribe in general and

that of the chief in particular. The poet was the voice of the people,

and the minstrel was his means of publicity.

Poets and minstrels were important both in war and peace. In

time of peace they sang the glory of past days and during the time of

war they heartened their side by singing the songs of their great past

and composed new songs on new encounters. They were necessary

to keep the record of the people on all times but their necessity was

felt more during times of war. The poet's job was to observe the

fighting men and then to compose poems about the doings of the

day. Being an upper class Baloch himself he was also obliged to

fight on the side of his tribe and people. While his sword played its

best part on the field, his tongue too performed its glorious part off

the field on the literary stage. Hard on the field, his poems also

unfolded hard facts (M. S. K. Baluch 1977:68). A Baloch poet was

the recorder of daily happenings and so he was not expected to

exaggerate18 or deviate from the facts. The poems were intended to

be sung in the assembly of the poet's group and that of the rival

group who were witnesses of the facts, so it was considered

important that the poet recounted the truth19 (Rooman 1967:12), as

lying or exaggerating was not deemed fit for a true Baloch.

A minstrel, in the past days, was from a low caste20, and it is

worth noting that according the traditional code of life a Baloch

should not raise his hand against a member of inferior castes. So he

could easily go to the enemy camps and sing sarcastic or taunting

poems to them. The same thing was done by the rival camp's

minstrels. After every encounter or important event, poets from any

tribal area composed poems and gave them to their minstrels who

would go and sing them in the assemblies (cf. Barker and Mengal

1969/i:264). If a person showed bravery, he was praised, but if a

person behaved cowardly, he would have no place to escape21. A

Baloch poet was always conscious about the historical importance

of his role and he tried to be as close as possible to the facts. His

poetry was regarded as a repository of facts and treated seriously by

the Baloch of the time and the later generations. It is an important

link among the people who are kept intact and united through a

common tradition. It expresses the common interest of the whole

people.

11

The blossoming of Balochi poetry and musical culture was

linked to the rise of the Rind-Lashar power at Sibi22 and Gandawa.

Sibi became the capital of the second Baloch confederacy23 and Mir

Chakar the sole ruler of the land24. The 15th and 16th centuries were

also the heroic age of Balochistan. This age produced the finest

extant poetry in the Balochi language. Sardar Khan Baluch writes

the following about the Rinds of the time: "Every Rind noble of

name [...] was a swordsman, horse-rider, an excellent poet, and

furnished with all qualities of generosity and manly grace and

gravity. True to the tradition of their blood, the Rinds loved poetry

and music [...] Every tribe had its poets, and the voice of the poet

was the voice of the people. Poetry was the medium of expression

and not a mental luxury for the classes and masses. The Baluchis

measured intelligence by poetry, and the poet was deemed the

historian and demi-saint of the tribe. Just as the sword and the spear

decided the fate of the battle, so the satirical verses of the rival poets

gave life and currency to the ideal and integrity of their tribes, both

in peace and war" (M. S. K. Baluch 1977:77-78).

Balochi literature did not gain any attention from the outside

world until the European (mainly British) interest was focused on it

in the 19th century. Probably the first European mention of any

Balochi poetry and singing was made by Henry Pottinger, who,

while travelling between Bela and Khuzdar on 30 January 1810, met

some wandering musicians who played for him during the night. He

states:

"We halted on a high spot in the bed of the river, and the

Belooches having quickly collected an immense pile of wood, we

sat round a blazing fire the greater part of the night, while three or

four Sookrees, or wandering musicians, who had come with the

Bezunjas, entertained us by singing the exploits of their different

chiefs, accompanying their songs with the most frantic and

unmeaning gestures; some of the songs and music were, however,

soft and harmonious enough, except when the audience chimed in

with the performers, which was, for my taste, too often the case.

A clear picture of the savage life of the Bezunjas, and many

other Balooche tribes, cannot well be portrayed than by this scene:

all outward distinction and respect for chiefs were at that moment

thrown aside; at intervals they, as well as their people, in the height

of their enthusiasm, snatched the setars25 (a three stringed

12

instrument, from seh, three, and tar, wire) or musical instruments

from the hands of the Sookrees, and sang, in "descant wild," their

favourite airs, gradually working themselves, by ridiculous and

violent action, into a state of absolute frenzy: the din then became

universal and quite stunning, and the auditory continued to applaud

and join in chorus with the singers until they were so completely

exhausted that they could exert themselves no longer; the

instruments were then laid hold of by others, and thus they were

regularly passed round the circle" (Pottinger 1816:28-29).

Systematic work on Balochi oral poetry did not, however,

start until the second half of the 19th century. In 1840 R. Leech

included some specimens of Balochi poetry in his 'Sketch of the

Balochi Language' published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of

Bengal. "Unfortunately', writes Dames, 'owing to misprints and

misspellings, these poems have been found very hard to decipher,

and contributed little to our knowledge of the subject" (Dames

1907/i:xiii). In 1877 Sir R. Burton gave the translations (but not the

original texts) of three poems, of which "one was borrowed word for

word from Leech without acknowledgement, and another was an

extended version of Isa and Bari, also given by Leech" (Dames

1907/i:xiii). In 1881, R. B. Hetu Ram published some poems in his

book entitled Baloči-nāma (in Urdu). He gave information about the

existence of a vast body of oral songs among the Baloch. He states:

"Songs constitute the literature of the Biloches. The Biloches

possess old songs which their poets composed long ago. From these

songs the ancestry and the fighting, the country and the bravery,

giving and taking, sheltering of refugees and seeking of fame, and

all other Biloch customs, are illustrated. Such of the Biloch as are

clever and men of mark themselves compose songs. Biloches who

are men of influence learn songs, and from them they become

acquainted with their ancestry and their customs [...] Biloches derive

great pleasure from hearing these songs and give large gratuities to

the minstrels (domb) [...]. Heroes of former times, who acquired

reputation in war, have their names still recalled in songs [...]" (Hetu

Ram-Douie 1898:71-72).

In the British Library (formerly the British Museum Library)

in London there are three mss. written on request of British officials.

Two of them, Oriental 2439 (dated 1873), and Oriental 2921 (dated

1885) contain little Balochi. The main text in both cases is in

13

Persian, the usual written language of the literate Baloch of that

time. The third ms., Oriental 2404826, believed to be the oldest of the

three -- perhaps written ca. 1820 at the request of H. H. Wilson (see

Elfenbein 1989:643) -- came to the British Library in 1861, from the

widow of H. H. Wilson (1786-1869), former Professor of Sanskrit at

the University of London27.

Furthermore, it is also believed that many of the leading and

literate Baloch kept 'public registers'28 called dəptər, in which they

wrote down poems according to their own taste on important events

and genealogies.

The Baluchistan District Gazetteer volume on Makran

(published in 1906-1907) states:

"A considerable body of literature exists in Western Baluchi

and many of the leading men keep books, known as daftar, in which

their favourite ballads are recorded in the Persian character. Among

the more famous of those poems may be mentioned that recounting

the Rind migration; two poems giving details of the various rulers of

Kech-Makran, one of them being composed by Allu son of Zarin

Kosag; a ballad by Ghulam Ali describing Malik Dinar Gichki's

fight with Taki Khan, Nadir Shah's general; another by Hothman

Kalmati describing the fight between Hamal-e-Jihand and the

Portuguese; and lastly a poem describing a fight at Lashkaran Kaur

in Panjgur between Mir Mohim Khan Nausherwani and Mir

Goharam Gichki of Panjgur on one side, and the brothers Lal Khan

and Zangi, Brahuis of Nushki, on the other" (Gazetteer/Makran

1986:81-82).

On Kharan, the Gazetteer runs as follows:

"As in Makran, Baluchi ballads are common and popular

(also in Kharan). Among the best known being the ballad relating

the fight of the Rakhshanis with border raiders at Har-e-Nawar, that

of Malik Dinar Mirwadi with the Nausherwanis, that of Malik

Dosten Nausherwani with Mir Zarrak Brahui at Badukushta near

Anjira, and the battle of the Nausherwanis with Nadir Shah's troops

at Kallag" (Gazetteer/Kharan 1986:63).

It is believed that these mss. were not preserved and most of

them have been lost in the course of time (N. Gichki 1986:20).

In any case it is quite certain that no systematic attempts

were made to collect and reduce to writing any sizeable part of

Balochi literature until Longworth Dames started collecting it in an

14

systematic way in 1875. He continued doing so until his retirement

in 189629. He published A Sketch of the Northern Balochi Language

in 1881 (Calcutta) and A Text book of the Balochi Language in 1891

(Lahore). Both books contained specimens of Balochi poems. After

Dames' retirement, T. J. L. Mayer started collecting Balochi poems

and he published a fair collection of them in India in the years 1900-

1903. It is clear from the statement of Dames that he used the

material of Mayer with his permission. He writes: “Mr. Mayer has

kindly permitted me to make use of these materials, and I have

given them in full where I had no other versions of the same poems.

Where I had versions taken down by myself (or in two cases derived

from Leech) I have collated them, and have often been able to frame

in this way a more satisfactory text than could be derived from any

one version” (Dames 1907/i:xiv). The result of his researches were

published in a two volume set (I: English translations; II: Balochi

texts) entitled Popular Poetry of the Baloches, issued in London

simultaneously by the Folklore Society and the Royal Asiatic

Society in 1907. With its 180 pages of Balochi text in Roman

characters the collection was at the time the largest ever assembled

quantity of Balochi oral poetry. Dames reprinted (with

acknowledgements) many of the poems collected by L. Leech,

Mayer and Hetū Rām in his Baloči-nāma30; he also reprinted all the

poems of his Text-book of the Balochi Language (Dames 1891),

sometimes with revised versions. The first volume contains 26

pages of introductory notes dealing with the sources, origin and

character of Balochi poetry, classification, forms of verse, methods

of singing, antiquity of heroic poems, etc.; the second contains an

account of the language of Balochi poetry (Dames 1907/ii:180-

191)31.

Among others, an interesting account also comes from S.

Matheson who spent five years among the Bugti tribe during late

1950s. She writes in connection with the musical tradition of the

Baloch that "the Baluchis have always been noted musicians and

poets, drawing their inspiration from nature to describe everything

from epic battles to tender love-affairs. There are songs for every

occasion, to celebrate a good harvest, a battle victory, a wedding,

birth and death, and generally the songs are sung by professionals

called Doms or Loris, paid minstrels who were - and often still are -

attached to the retinue of a chieftain or wealthy headmen. These

15

Doms use the dhambiro and the sarinda and train young boys as

professional dancers and singers"(Matheson 1967:167).

She further says: "I could have sat on all day, listening

spellbound to these old warriors' tales recounted with tremendous

dramatic impact, wild gestures and flashing eyes and accompanied

by appreciative cries from the audience [...] I felt as though I was

back in medieval times, when history was kept alive by the bards

and court-minstrels handed down by word of mouth. Bugtis

remember every detail of past battles for the same reason, and these

stories are recounted over and over again, so that they become an

integral and vividly depicted part of every tribesman's life"' (ibid.

110-111).

The second half of the twentieth century is marked by the

awakening of the Baloch. Several political and literary organizations

were set up by the Baloch inside and outside Balochistan. Some of

the literary organizations were Bəloči həlkəy ədəb, founded in 1949,

Bəloči bəzməy ədəb, 1950-51, Bəloči zUbanε sərčəmməg, 1951 and

the Balochi Academy, Karachi. The Academy was founded in 1958

and its founding members were Jumma Khan, Sher Mahmad Mari,

Akbar Barakzai, Murad Sahir, Mahmad Beg Begul, and others32.

The Academy, in a few years’ time, published MIstag, an anthology

of poems, in 1958, Zəhgbələd, a nursery book in Balochi, Baloči

adab ki tārix (in Urdu), and šəpgIrok (S. Hashmi 1986:285). In

February 1951 the first Balochi literary magazine, Oman, started its

publications from Karachi under the joint editorship of Mawlwi

Mahmad Husain and Hakim Ahmad (Janmahmad 1989:135). The

magazine was brought out by the Baloch Educational Society

formed in Karachi in 1948 to promote the Balochi language and

culture and also voice Baloch political and social grievances (ibid.).

The Balochi Academy, Quetta was founded in 1962 (M. S.

K. Baluch 1982-83:5) by M. S. K. Baluch, Bashir Ahmad Baloch,

Malik Mahmad Ramzan and a number of other Baloch enthusiasts.

In 1969, the Balochi Academy, Quetta, published the first volume of

RUptəgẽ lal, an anthology of collected poems from the stock of old

poetry (21 poems were included), prepared by Ghaus Bakhsh Sabir;

Volume II (107 pp.) and IV (126 pp.) were prepared by Pir Mahmad

Zubairani and published by the Academy in 1970 and 1971,

respectively; RUptəgẽ lal 3 was prepared by M. Y. Gichki and was

published in 1971; RUptəgẽ lal 4 was prepared by M. M. Buzdar and

16

M. I. Buzdar and was published in 1973 (with poems of eight

Buzdar poets of the 19th and 20th centuries). Among the poets

included, the majority were mosque-read literates and mystic poets

whose language is very much affected by Siraiki and Punjabi

vocabularies. Sher Mahmad Mari published Baloči kəhnen šaIri

(Balochi Academy, Quetta) in 1970; it contains 27 old historical

poems of 18 well-known poets with an extensive commentary; but

alas being printed in Sindhi script, it has too many errors and

misprints (Elfenbein 1985:162, n. 2) and is illegible in many cases.

Of the poems included in S. M. Mari's work six are found in Dames

(1907) and two in Hayat Mari (1987). B. A. Baloch published Šəp

čIrag, the collection of Mulla Fazil's (19th century poet) poetry, in

1968 by the Academy. The same author succeeded in obtaining

some poems about the cycle of Lalla-Granaz from a folk singer

named Abdul Rahman Abbas, and the book Lalla Granaz,

containing 7 poems and an introduction, was published by the

Academy in 1970. Some poems by the 19th century poet, Jam

Durrak, the poet laureate at the court of Mir Nasir Khan Nuri, the

Khan-i Azam (r. 1749-1795), were also published by the same

author in a book entitled DUrrčen. Mitha Khan Mari collected some

poems by the Mari mystic poet, Tokali Mast (1831-1896), and his

book, Tokəli Məst, was published by the Academy in 1969. It

contains a detailed discussion on the life and poetry of Tokali Mast.

The same author collected a few poems by Rahm Ali Mari, the tribal

poet of the Mari tribe, in a book entitled Rəhməli Məri (published by

the Academy in 1978). G. B. Sabir collected 17 poems on Islamic

wars and the Academy published them under the title of Zəhm ZemIr

(no date of publication is given). In 1970 Q. N. M. Dehqani and Ata

Shad published Jwansal, the collected poems of Jwansal Bugti (a

19th-20th century poet). In 1979 the Academy published another

anthology of the poetry of Jwansal, also entitled Jwansal, prepared

by Gulzar Khan Mari. This anthology included 40 poems by

Jwansal33 and 26 poems by his brother Mawlawi Mahmad. In 1970

M. M. Buzdar collected some poems of the mystic poet Chigha

Buzdar in a book entitled Čəggaε gUftar. In 1976 M. Y. Gichki

published Gonap, an anthology of Zargir Hasan Kichi's poems (also

an Academy publication). The book contains an interesting

introduction on the life of the poet. In 1987 B. A. Baloch published

a small collection of Mulla Qasim's poems, entitled Pəhkẽ əšrəfi.

17

The book contains a 19 page commentary on Qasim's poetry and 13

poems are included in this collection. G. B. Sabir also compiled

some folk songs and the Academy published them in 1971 under the

title of Dεhi o dastanəg. The book comprises 101 pages and

contains an introductory note on this genre of folk-songs. Besides

the poetry, the Academy has also published about nine collections of

folktales. In 1987 the Balochi Academy published the collected

poems of M. Hayat Mari under the title of Garẽ gohər. The book

contains poems of 17 poets and detailed introductory notes about the

poets and the backgrounds to the episodes. After the books of

Dames (1907) and Sher Mahmad Mari (1970), this is the best

collection published so far. Some poems published in this anthology

have already been published in Dames, Sher Mahmad Mari and

others, but since the oral poetry is never recited exactly in the same

way, this collection enriches our stock with different versions. If, in

future, someone tries to make a comparative study, this material will

prove very useful. Apart from these publications, very noteworthy

and probably the best work is the commented anthology by M. S. K.

Baluch. His A Literary History of the Baluchis, in two volumes so

far (a third was announced years ago), was published by the Balochi

Academy (1977 and 1984). The first volume gives 43 poems with

English translation and useful information about the events, as well

as the life and the time of the poets. The author divides Balochi

poetry into three different literary periods and the first volume

covers the period he calls 'the classical period - 1450-1650 A.D.'

The second volume covers the Khanate Period - 1650-1880.

In this volume the author discusses the life and poetry of famous

Baloch poets who had composed poems in Balochi and/or in

Persian. In the last chapter, miscellaneous folk songs, ballads, satires

and other poems of love, by unnamed poets, are given. This volume,

too, gives Balochi texts with their English translations. The author

promises that the third volume is under pen and will soon be printed

(1984: preface). In both volumes (1977, 1984) the author has given

a good English translation and avoided the mistakes and errors that

can be found in the translations of non-Baloch scholars (e.g. Leech,

Mayer, Dames, Elfenbein), but his texts are not free from misprints34

(the text of second volume is comparatively better than that of the

first).

The Balochi Academy has also published the first volume of

18

the anthology of Malik Dinar Mirwadi's (ca. 1850-1923), entitled

Zəri nod, and compiled by Yusuf Gichki. Gichki claims to have

received the ms. from the poet. He promises to publish the rest of

Mirwadi's poems in a second volume. In the present volume Gichki

discusses in detail the life and poetry of the poet and gives only 46

poems (the book has 437 pages in total). Gichki claims to have

obtained also the anthology of Dinar's father, Mir Abdul Karim

Mirwadi, and he promises that it will also be published at a later

date.

All these collections concern oral literature from Pakistani

Balochistan, and no similar production does exist, as far as I know,

for the Iranian (but cf. Šebaxš 1994:155-203 [= Chapter 9]) and the

Afghani areas. However, the poems collected by I. I. Zarubin among

the Baloch living in Turkmenistan and published in the Thirties

(Zarubin 1930:664-674 texts and Russian translations) are also of

great literary value and interest. [Work on that material has been

resumed recently by A. L. Grünberg and his school, cf. Rzehak 1998

− ed.].

Josef Elfenbein has recently published a valuable collection

of poems coming from different Balochi dialects; the book is

entitled An Anthology of Classical and Modern Balochi Literature

(it was published by Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden in 1990).

Chapter three is dedicated to "classical poetry by known poets

(18th-19th centuries)", and in chapter four "traditional ballads from

the classical heritage" are given. The texts are given in Roman

characters with English translations; but, unfortunately, neither the

text nor the translation are free from errors and misprints. Most of

the poems have already been published ("most of the texts come

from written sources [...] published in the years 1956-1986 by

groups of enthusiasts", see Introduction).

A Course in Baluchi (two volumes, Montreal 1969),

prepared by A. K. Mengal and M. A. R. Barker, is one of the best

works ever written on Balochi (and Balochi literature). Unit twenty-

nine of the book is devoted to a 'brief sampling of classical Balochi

poetry' (Barker-Mengal 1969/ii:263-349), and seven old poems and

three samples of folk songs are given and commented there.

Apart from this published material on Balochi oral poetry

and prose, there are further hitherto unpublished collections which

are also worthy of mention. Among them one interesting collection

19

was made by Sayyad Hashmi (at one stage he worked jointly with

A. S. Amiri). They have prepared a valuable collection but its final

version was not published and is thus not available to scholars35.

Similarly, from the publications of Gulkhan Nasir on Balochi poetry

(e.g. 1976, 1979a, 1979b) it seems that he had also collected a good

number of poems36. Sylvia Matheson also writes that she had

recorded a number of poems "at weddings or the numerous sajji

picnics which were always accompanied by singing and dancing"

(Matheson 1967:166) during her lengthy stay among the Bugtis.

However, no further information is available to me about the

whereabouts of her collected poems. Hayat Mari in his book Garẽ

gohər also says that he had other poems taken from the poetry of

Eastern and Western Baloch (1987:10), and that he would publish

them at a later date.

As for my personal research, I have made several study tours

in the late 1980s to collect oral poems and information about the

tradition of minstrelsy and its allied art. During these tours I have

been able to collect a good number of poems - my material is

available on notebooks and tapes. I have also been able to meet and

interview the majority of the living minstrels37 except for those in

Iran. In 1990 I made an unsuccessful trip to Iranian Balochistan to

interview the minstrels there. I was able to meet only Mulla

Kamalan, one of the most famous minstrels. But he was very afraid

about the reaction of the Iranian authorities who had warned him to

not sing any more and declined to give me any useful information in

spite of all the recommendations which he had received from the

influential Baloch elites to help me before I went there. From a very

brief discussion with him I learnt that his repertoire remains very

rich and he is one among the greatest living authorities on the

Baloch minstrelsy tradition. He has a son who is keenly interested in

old Balochi poetry from whom I obtained a considerable amount of

useful information about the involvement of his family in the

activities of singing. But none of them were ready to recite any

poem to me or give any interview, in fear that the Iranian authorities

learned about that.

Balochi oral literature is still a living art and in many parts of

Balochistan it is still composed, recited and sung. Among nomadic

and semi-nomadic tribes and isolated villages where the money

from the Gulf countries has not reached yet and VCRs and Indian

20

movies are not widespread, oral literature is the only source of

entertainment38. It is quite usual to find people gathered in front of a

tent or around a fire to listen to the songs and stories narrating the

exploits of early Baloch in general or that of their tribes in

particular. The children of a village will still very often gather

together every night in the house of an aged person -- mostly a

woman -- and listen to stories until late at night.

Oral tradition is more practised in certain areas than others.

For examples, in the Mari area there are still oral poetry singing and

reciting gatherings and competitions. Misri Khan Mari (b. 1950), the

headmaster of Kohlu High School told me during a meeting in 1990

that there are very often oral poetry reciting competitions where

everyone among the participants is supposed to recite a poem. For

this reason, every single Mari tries to memorise at least one poem.

Misri Khan, on his part, had a very rich repertoire and he told me

that he knows some thirty to forty long poems. I recorded for two

hours from his recitation and he said he had not reached even the

introductory part of his repertoire (it is to be mentioned that he

himself does not compose poems and all of his repertoire is

memorised from the recitation of others). He and other Mari

informants told me that oral poetry in the Mari area is still so

popular that not even the slightest event goes past without a poem

being composed on that. If the oral poetry of the Mari region alone

were collected, it would extend to several thousand poems, I was

told by Misri Khan, and all other Mari informants agreed with him.

Not even one hundredth of this valuable material has been collected

so far, I was told. When I asked Misri Khan why he did not write

down the poems he knew, he told me: "For whom shall I write them,

Maris do not read and as for others, we think but a little".

Surat Khan Mari, himself a writer, told me that Mari women

know more poems than men. He said that if he is faced with any

difficulty about the meaning of a word or a line of a poem, or a

missing part of a poem, he asks his wife and she helps him out.

Another of my Mari informants, Dr. Shah Mahmad Mari, an

Assistant Professor of Pathology at Bolan Medical College, Quetta,

who is also interested in oral tradition, told me that the eldest person

in every Mari family is duty-bound to memorise some classical

Balochi poems and stories by heart in order to recite them to the

children of his family. Being the eldest in his family, he told me, he

21

was bound to recite poems and tell stories about the early Baloch

exploits, their migrations, the wars fought by them and the like to

the children of his family (oral communication, Quetta, Summer

1989) 39.

Attending a jirga (tribal assembly), called by the Bugti and

Mari tribal chiefs to settle a dispute between them in May 1983,

David Dodwell, a British journalist of the Financial Times

(London), wrote on the 26th of May 1983: "The warrior traditions of

these semi-nomadic tribes, inhabiting some of the most inhospitable

desert terrains in the world, have barely changed over 2000 years.

As they sat each evening around brushwood fires, listening to

minstrels and poets recounting tales of heroism and romance, they

could have been part of the Arabian Nights -- except for the

Kalashnikovs cradled in their laps" (quoted in Awan 1985:315).

Brigadier (rtd.) M. Usman Hasan, who had commanded the

army operation against the Baloch insurgents in the Mari area

during the Z. A. Bhutto regime (1971-77), tells about the persistent

importance of poetry among the Maris: "The status of poets is very

high; the text of a poem is believed to be revealed to him in a dream

and he expounds it in the morning; it is believed to be a gift of God

[...] The tradition is that when the men go to fight against the army

of Pakistan their sisters and wives tie the turbans on their heads,

their weapons on their shoulders and leave them with songs. They

sing the songs of earlier Baloch heroes and braves who had fought

against foreign powers. In their songs the women-folk say that if

their men return victorious they celebrate and are proud of them,

but, if they die in the battle, they will give birth to other children

similar to them to die for the country [...] If a man runs away from

the fight then he is greeted with the worst satires" (Hasan 1976:90-

92; the English translation from the Urdu text is mine).

Fondness for poetry and its role in society is not less among

the Bugtis, the neighbours of the Maris. When I visited the Dera-

Bugti region in 1990 I was not surprised to find that poetry was

liked, practised, composed and recited in the assembly of men.

However, when I expressed my desire to record oral poems the only

person who came forward was Karim Bakhsh, aged ca. 90, the

possessor of a surprisingly rich repertoire, and Karamhan, aged ca.

54, the best performer of oral poems I met in that part of

Balochistan during my visits, but when someone advanced and

22

started reciting a poem, all the men present there took part in the

recitation and helped each other in remembering lines or suggesting

certain poems to recite, and so on. I did not find a single man who

did not know some poems or fragments of some poems. Very often

there were heated discussions and arguments and counter-arguments

about the authenticity of a poem, the position of a line in a poem or

a name of a place or a person. When one person started reciting a

poem all the others joined in and it continued for hours and hours.

Every newcomer contributed his part or complicated the already

existing complication. Teenage boys also took part in arguments and

it seemed that every one was eager to be heard or show that he was

not behind the others in the field of oral poems. I stayed there four

days and almost all the people I met knew some poems, mostly from

the old poetry of the 15th to 19th centuries, and most of them could

play some musical instruments -- mostly the flute (nəl/nəd) or jew's-

harp (čəng). The repertoires of Karim Bakhsh and Karamhan were

surprisingly rich. Karim Bakhsh told me that he had accompanied

Nawab Mehrab Khan, the late chief of the Bugti tribe, on his

journeys and after every dinner, he told me, there had been poetry

singing/reciting until late at night or sometimes until the next

morning. He told me that his repertoire was enough to recite poems

for twelve nights without repeating any poem twice, but I could not

verify it as he was very aged and sick when I met and interviewed

him in Dera Bugti in 1990. Karamhan was by himself a living

record of Baloch literary history.

The oral tradition in Dasht Makran is also a living art, and in

this part of Balochistan it is still practised and appreciated. I visited

Dasht in the autumn of 1989 and again in 1990. In both visits I met

pəhləwans and other aged persons who recited poems to me. Many

of them were able to recite poems of considerably great length. In a

village called Tolagi, I spent a whole night recording poems from

different persons and the next day, when I was preparing for

departure to Turbat, I was followed on motorcycles by amateur

pəhləwans, music players of pəhləwans, and common persons who

all wanted me to record poems from their repertoires. None of them

was a poet himself. However, lack of time prevented me from

extending my stay. I experienced the same thing everywhere I went

in Dasht.

During my tour of Autumn 1991 in the Chagai district I

23

noticed the same fondness for, and diffusion of, oral poetry

everywhere I went, but there I noticed a vast gap between the

younger and the older generation. While young people in the Mari-

Bugti areas and in Dasht are still interested in their tradition, the

youth of the Chagai District are almost indifferent to their tradition.

There I did not meet any young person who could recite a poem to

me or was even interested in doing so. The process of acculturation

is very fast in this region. In restaurants, cafeterias, buses and

cassette shops one can listen to only Pashto and Urdu songs and

music. Nevertheless, the older generation has retained their

tradition. I noticed that bəločiət (the sense of being a Baloch) was

very strong. Here also I met several persons who knew a great

number of poems. This area has produced very well-known poets

and pəhləwans. In every small village there are several persons who

can recite poems from the famous cycles of the Rind-Lashar period,

Balach Gorgej's exploits, Hammal's fights against the Portuguese,

and about the latest events, such as the Baloch struggle against the

Pakistani forces, about the local tribal feuds, poems about

genealogies and the like. One day in Nushki where I was the guest

of a friend of mine, he had invited a famous reciter of the area, Fakir

Shahdost. Fakir was reciting poems in a melodic voice and the room

was packed with persons. At about midnight an aged person entered

the house and after a short while he told us that a number of persons

were sitting behind the house listening to Fakir. He said it was very

cold outside so he had decided to come inside. He and several other

elderly persons told me that a few years back there had always been

poetry reciting and singing contests, but now radios and VCRs had

almost completely destroyed the local culture.

Besides the places mentioned above, it must be added that

oral poetry is still a living art in most areas of Balochistan, although

it is dying fast40. There is no hope of protecting it from extinction.

There are no institutions to protect or preserve the cultural values of

the Baloch in any of the countries where they live41. There is no

funding for any cultural show. For example, in Pakistan, Baloch

singers have always protested that they are not given any space in

Pakistani mass media. There are three radio stations in Balochistan42

but they do not devote as much as three hours per day to Baloch

culture. Radio Pakistan, Quetta, broadcasts 30 hours a day, but

Balochi gets only 6:30 hours (B. A. Baloch 1989:63) including the

24

time devoted to religious and political subjects. Radio Pakistan,

Khuzdar, broadcasts six hours a day but Balochi gets only half an

hour, and this 30 minute broadcast is dedicated to religious, political

and similar subjects. Radio Pakistan also broadcasts 5.10 hours of

programmes from its Turbat station and Balochi gets only two

hours. During these two hour programmes the musical programme

gets only half an hour or a little more43. Baloch singers complain

that they are never called for performance recording by the radio

and television authorities of Balochistan. Abdul Rashid, a Baloch

singer, in an interview to the monthly Labzank complains that Radio

Pakistan, Quetta, pays them only twelve Rupees per minute for

recording Balochi songs (1991:59). Another complaint by Baloch

singers is that when the radio and TV authorities call them they are

not allowed to bring their Baloch music players (Baloči, Editorial,

May 1988, p. 5) and since the musicians of the radio and TV are

non-Baloch the piece they record often does not reach acceptable

standards. The situation with modern singers is somewhat better, but

pəhləwans are abandoned mercilessly. Pəhləwan Saleh Mahmad

Gorgej requested to me to ask the station director of Radio Pakistan,

Quetta, to give him a chance to record some classical epics. I asked

the then station director, but he was compelled to decline my request

for lack of funds44. Saleh Mahmad died on September 1991 and I

still feel upset when I remember his appeal and my helplessness.

Pəhləwan Mazar told me that Radio Pakistan, Quetta, asked him to

go and record some songs from the old stock of the Balochi poetry

but they did not want to pay his fare and he could not afford a ticket

to Quetta, so, for many years, he was prevented from recording a

single programme. Abdulaziz, a famous folk-singer from Karachi,

said during an interview that the radio and television are the main

sources of popularity for artists. He said he had once sung a Balochi

song in the television and on another occasion he had gone to

Khuzdar for a performance. "Everyone came to me and told me that

my performance in TV was perfect", he added. This is indicative of

the large audience such programmes can command.

On the one hand there is this discrimination against the

Baloch artists and performers, and on the other hand there is the

invasion of video films and audio cassettes. Tape recorders and

VCRs are now available everywhere and Indian films and songs

provide the people of Balochistan with wonderful cheap

25

entertainment45. Indian films are famous because they are performed

in the Hindustani language, which differs only slightly from Urdu,

the official language and the lingua franca of Pakistan. During my

tours of Balochistan I tried to find out how far these films and songs

have penetrated inside the Baloch society. For this purpose I took an

area of about 200 kms from Hoshab to Mand and studied how many

villages had public VCRs. I did not find a single village without one

or more public VCR centres showing Indian movies. The entry

ticket for a single show was three to five Rupees (a packet of

cigarettes cost between 20 and 30 Rupees then). Towns like Ball

Nigwar may be taken as examples: there the only High School in the

area had only 281 students in 1990, with an area population of

30,000, and there were 28 primary schools with only one Middle

and one High School. The town itself has a population of around

10,000 people, and there were only 11 students for the first class of

primary school, 23 for the second class and 13 for the third class.

There were only 9 students for the 10th class -- the outcome of 28

primary schools. Ball Nigwar is the headquarters of a Sub-Tehsil,

but there is no bookshop, and no newspaper arrives that far. A shop

owner told me that he had ordered ten copies of an Urdu daily,

called Intixāb - the most popular daily in the Baloch areas - but none

of the copies was sold, so he stopped getting it. There were,

however, four public VCR centres, each one showing two movies a

day. Admission was five Rupees - twice the price of a newspaper46.

Basham, the famous pəhləwan of the area, told me that Lata and

Kishore, famous Indian singers, have taken away his traditional

audience from him.

As for recording and preserving the available oral literature

for the coming generations, we must admit that the picture is a very

gloomy one. There is neither an institute nor any individual, as far

as I know, that is doing any proper work to record and save the

valuable treasures of Balochi literature. There are tens of Baloch

literary organisations everywhere in Balochistan47, but none of them

is involved in collecting oral literature. These are organisations

formed by so-called poets who meet once a week or every fortnight,

and recite and listen to one another's poems.

The Balochi Academy at Quetta is the only institution which

has published a number of useful anthologies as mentioned earlier.

But the problem for the Academy is that it does not receive enough

26

funds from the Government. All its office bearers are working on a

voluntary basis, and the funding received from the Government is

not enough even to rent a proper building48. It is known as the

“nomad Academy”, since, for financial reasons, it is compelled to

change its premises every now and then. It cannot afford to send

researchers into the field to collect material and information.

At the Pakistan level, there is an institute in Islamabad, the

Pakistan Lok Virsa (the Institute of Pakistan Folk Heritage); but the

activities of this Institute are limited to the Punjab only. I visited the

Institute in late 1991, and I remarked that the atmosphere was rather

unscholarly. The Institute had published only two Urdu translations

of previously published Balochi books, and there were only two or

three Balochi cassettes obtained from the Radio Pakistan's library.

Moreover, the Institute had no plans for the near future regarding

any field work in Balochistan, as I learnt from the Institute officials.

After examining all the possibilities of saving the Balochi

oral literature from complete extinction, there is no space left for

optimism - the time is too un-heroic, radio transistors, video and

audio cassette players are too widespread, and the Baloch seem to

lack the political force as well as the cultural consciousness and

sensibility to keep their culture intact.

Notes * The present paper was prepared as a preliminary introduction to the study of

Balochi oral poetry, when I was preparing my doctoral dissertation (PhD level) at

the Dept. of Asian Studies, University “L’Orientale”, Naples [then denominated

Istituto Universitario Orientale], under the guidance of Prof. Adriano V. Rossi;

the thesis was submitted and approved for the degree of PhD in 1994 by a

committee of examiners nominated by the Italian Minister for University and

Scientific Research [now MIUR]. Subsequent research on the same or related

matter has been done with different grants allowed by MIUR for Projects directed

by Prof. Rossi. The transcription for Balochi is the current scientific one, with an

intended phonemic opposition between /ε/ and /e/, /ɔ/ and /o/; the (simplified)

transcription of Urdu attempts to avoid diacritic marks.

1. Some Baloch writers claim that the total area of Baloch region in the three

countries be approximately 340,000 square miles, or ca. 870,000 square

27

kilometres (see M. S. K. Baluch 1958: proem; K. B. B. M. Baluch 1974:2; I.

Baloch 1987:19).

2. There are several other peoples who are Baloch by origin but do not speak

Balochi as their first language; being part of the nationality, they are called

anyway ‘Baloch’ by their community and by their neighbours. In this article my

aim is to discuss Balochi oral poetry so I limit myself only to Balochi speakers.

3. For instance Elfenbein (1989:350-351) puts the number ca. 3,740,000

(2,250,000 in Pakistan, 750,000 in Iran, 200,000 in Afghanistan, 500,000 in the

Arabian Peninsula, and 40,000 in the Marv oasis in Turkmenistan); Orywal

(1985:41) gives a total of 6.5 million (5 million in Pakistan, ca. 600,000 in Iran,

100,000 in Afghanistan, ca. 400,000 for migrant workers in the Gulf states and

East Africa, and ca. 13,000 in Turkmenistan). In Neil and Valerie Carleton’s

opinion, "Baluchi is the mothertongue of perhaps about 5 million ethnic Baluch

[...] The city of Karachi contains an estimated one million Baluch, the largest such

concentration of Baluch anywhere in the world" (Carleton and Carleton 1987:1).

Contrary to these minimal figures, we have the figures of local writers, which

range from 10 to 20 million. M. K. B. B. M. Baloch (1974:15-24) has discussed in

detail the problems concerning the figures, suggesting in conclusion a number of

15 to 16 million as the total Baloch population. I. Baloch, a high authority of

Balochistan studies, gives between 10 to 20 million (1983:188); and Quddus

(1990:14) puts the number at 16 million.

4. Baloch are found living in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the neighbouring

countries of Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi. M. K. Khan from Mombasa writes that

"wherever they settle in East Africa they tend to live closely together, preserving

as far as possible their customs, traditions and language" (1991:6-7).

5. According to a survey conducted by the UNESCO, the literacy rate in Pakistan

was said to be only 10 per cent in late 1980s (quoted in the English daily Dawn,

Karachi, April 3rd, 1990).

6. The literacy rate among the women of Kharan district is only one per thousand,

writes the magazine of the Organisation of Pakistan Census (Ham log, July-

December 1989, p. 55). Not counting Quetta and the Pashtun belt of north-eastern

Balochistan, one finds that this is true for the whole of Balochistan. Co-education

is not allowed and there are no girl-schools anywhere in the Baloch areas except

for district headquarters where the attendance is very low. Taking into account

only those who have passed primary education, I am afraid that the literacy ratio

of 1 per thousand for female is difficult to achieve.

A difference between the literacy standards, in my opinion, should be

made for the people living under different conditions - those who start schooling

in their own languages and those in foreign languages. In the former case, one can

be called a literate if he only learns to read and write, while, in the latter case, one

28

has to learn a foreign language as well as the basics of reading and writing. It is to

be reminded that Urdu is the medium of instruction in the schools of Pakistan and

one is bound to learn it before he is able to read and write. Under these

circumstances I have taken only those who have passed primary schools as literate

and such people, in my observations, are not more than 3 per cent among male

and 2 per thousand among the female population.

7. Since ancient times Balochistan has commanded many of the high roads from

Arab, Persian, Turkic and Central Asian lands to the Indian subcontinent.

Achaemenian, Macedonian, Arab, Ghaznavid, Mongol, Mughal, Afsharid have

sojourned in it and after a brief sojourn passed on, leaving hardly any traces

behind (for detail see M. S. K. Baluch 1958:50-75).

8. bahot is a person who takes refuge to another person. In Baloch history a

number of inter-tribal clashes were caused by bahot injury. Among them is the

famous 30 year Rind-Lashar war in which the latter's men had caused injury to the

camel herd of Gohar, the bahot of Mir Chakar, then the chief of the Baloch tribal

confederacy. Another important war of refugees was that fought between the

Bulaidi and Gorgej tribes which lasted for more than half a century. Dozens of

person were killed during various encounters and it culminated with the mass

migration of the Bulaidi tribe to the Punjab and Sind. Gorgej tribe is also

dispersed from Iranian Makran to Sind and on the other hand to Afghanistan.

There are many further episodes but perhaps the most naive one is the one

between Bulfati and Kalmati Baloch tribes, the war known as baga ε jəng (the

War of Lizard). The tradition is that the Kalmati and Bulfati tribes were living in

neighbourhood. One day some children of the Kalmati tribe chased a lizard in an

open air to kill it. The lizard ran and crept into the tent of a neighbouring Bulfati

noble, named Omar. The wife of Omar asked the children to not kill the lizard

because it had taken refuge inside her tent. The children did not listen to her and

entered the tent and killed the lizard. When Omar came in the evening he found

his wife distressed and enraged. She narrated the story of the day and avowed:

'until you take the revenge of the lizard you are my brother and I am your sister'.

The enraged Omar entered into a neighbouring Kalmati tent and killed a man

there. This feud soon became the business of both the tribes, causing the death of

several hundred persons from both sides. Several poems narrate the attacks and

counter-attacks of the adverse tribes (M. S. K. Baluch 1977:474-479; Dames

1907/i:17-20; A. Kopchi 1990:26-28).

9. Elfenbein's translation is 'Their cauldrons piš-(filled) trenches' (1990:345).

10. It is to be mentioned that different stages of a wedding/circumcision ceremony

have different songs. For instance the songs sung during the preparation of

wedding attire or pUččbUrri (fixing of clothes) are different from that when henna

is being put on the palms of bridegroom and bride. The ceremony is divided into

several stages and every single stage has a different halɔ and/or la ɔ.

29

11. For further details on la ɔ see Coletti 1981.

12. It is not out of place here to mention that different songs have different types

of singers. The differentiation is based on the musical accompaniment (sUroz and

dəmbura versus dohl and surna or nəl), the style of transmission (memorised

versus improvised) and the content and structure of the poem (šεr versus sɔt or

dastanəg or zəhirok etc.). The most accepted term for the singer of a šεr is

pəhləwan (lit. singer or performer of a heroic deed). He sings with the

accompaniment of a sUroz (a fiddle with a horse-string bow), and one or two

dəmburəgs (a two or three stringed lute type instrument with no frets). One

dəmburəg is played by the pəhləwan himself, which has usually two strings,

another three stringed dəmburəg is played by his aid, called pənjəgi, and a third

person plays the sUroz. There is no class restriction for a pəhləwan in modern

times, but a sɔti (singer of a sɔt) on the other hand is traditionally from a low

caste, and very often a woman. Musical instruments accompanied to a sɔti include

double-headed drums, sUrna (oboe), bεnjo etc. A sɔti improvises while singing. A

dastanəg singer is accompanied by a nə (reed pipe) player. They are usually true

blood Baloch. zəhirok, likɔ and εhi are solo songs. They are sung with the

accompaniment of a sUroz player or with no musical accompaniment. There is yet

another type of singers known as gwəšInda. They sing short songs on various

topics. This has probably emerged from the tradition of sɔtis. These can be from

any social background. Their musical instruments include bεnjo, harmonium,

UkkUr (small drums), etc. In some cases they are also accompanied by a sUroz

player, especially in modern times when the use of sUroz is re-emerging as a

traditional Baloch musical instrument.

13. It is said that once a traveller passing from Turbat had spent some time under

this tree. While leaving he had forgotten his sword there but had continued his

journey. After a year or so, he had happened to revisit the place and had found his

sword at the same place and same position which had proved that during all that

period gathering under the tree had not been discontinued. Every person had

thought that the sword belonged to a person setting before. The traveller, we are

told, had composed a lengthy poem of several hundred verses mentioning all other

places and at the end saying that none of them was equal to the čInal (poplar tree)

of Kech. A few verses run as follows:

hit o kəsərkənd o bUgan, Hit, Kasarkand, and Bugan,

sərbaz gõ bag o niwəgã, Sarbaz with its orchards and fruits,

parod gõ hatunnẽ jənã, Parod with its beautiful ladies,

rask gõ tih o təmbərã, Rask with its slaves,

piššIn gõ zərrẽ təhtəgã, Pishshen with its bronze gates,

baho gõ sUhrẽ gUnbUdã, Baho with its golden domes,

mənd gõ pəll o padəgã, Mand with its boundary walls,

30

kəppər gõ nod o sεləhã, Kappar with its morning clouds and famous scenes,

gwadər gõ kəkk o məngU , Gwadar with its fleas and bugs,

kečε čInalε mətt nə bã, Are no equal to the poplar tree of Kech.

(Hit, Kasarkand, Bugan, Sarbaz, Parod, Rask, Pishshen and Baho are towns in

Iranian Makran; Mand, Kappar, Gwadar are towns in Pakistan, while Kech was

the former name of the present day town Turbat).

14. A court poet could be from any tribe or social background, e.g. Jam Durrak of

the famous Domki tribe was the court poet of Khan Nasir Khan, the Great, who

ruled Balochistan during 1748-1795. A rezwar šaIr, on the other hand, was

usually from a low caste family and was totally dependent on the tribe or the chief

politically and economically. It is, however, to be mentioned that in certain cases

there were rezwar šaIr who were Baloch of high social class, e.g. Rahm Ali Mari

of the Shaheja sub-tribe of the Mari tribe was the 18-19th centuries rezwar šaIr of

the Mari tribe (for details see M. K. Mari 1978).

15. Nəwbat was also an institution of Indian music called so from the name of the

largest drum associated with it. "In the time of the Moghul Empire [...] the

Nahabet was held in great esteem, and the Emperor Akbar himself was even a

performer. There were then in the palace Nakkera Khaneh some eighteen large

Nahabets, twenty smaller kettledrums (Nakkeras), four Dohl, four Kurna or lagre

trumpets, nine Surnais or pipes similar to the Nagasara, and their accompanying

drones two S'ring or horns, and three pairs of cymbals of large size, besides

several Nafirs (a small kind of trumpet, similar to the Tuturi); and in those days

the performances of the Nahabet occupied a prominent place in the daily palace

routine" (Day 1891:96).

16. During Mir Chakar's time the population of Sibi is believed to had exceeded

100,000 people (Harrison 1980:13; Matheson 1967:9; M. S. K. Baluch 1958:171)

and to have had 10,000 rapčis -- musicians, singers, story-tellers and cup-bearers

to entertain the people (Matheson 1975:9; M. S. K. Baluch 1958:170-171).

17. M. S. K. Baluch (1977:67) writes that "judging from the elaborate form and

technical perfection of old poetry it may be said of these splendid poems, that

they are production of fine finished art, which could not have been produced until

poetical art had been practised long before the hegemony of Rind dynasty, which

is taken as the classical period" (see also G. K. Nasir 1979a:32-33; A. J. Jamaldini

1988:12).

18. A certain type of liberty was practised by the poet, though he was believed to

present the true picture of the facts. In very few cases we find the late 19th

century Mulla poets deviating from the old tradition. For example a poem was

composed on the Gok Prosh war, fought between the Baloch and British forces

which occurred in 1898. In this fight Sardar Mehrab Khan escaped from the battle

31

field and left Baloch Khan and his companions alone to fight the British army

(Janmahmad 1989:166), but the poet has eulogised both with the same tone (cf. G.

K. Nasir 1979a:299ff.).

19. A similar trend has been noted among the Greeks. Bowra writes: "The Greeks

have shown a tendency to be truthful and accurate in their heroic poems about

contemporary events, no doubt their tragoudia are often sung in camps by men

who have themselves taken part in the events of which they sing. So far their

account can be tested by external evidence, they do not stray far from historical

facts" (1952:511-12).

20. Among eastern Baloch the singer of epic poems are Dombs (Dames

1907/i:xxxiv) and Lodis, the hereditary minstrels of Indian origin (cf. Basham

1954:514-515; Dames 1902:253); “they are attached as bards to Baloch tribes, but

are not, and do not pretend to be, of Baloch blood themselves” (Dames 1904:17).

The role of Domb/Lodi is very important in Baloch traditional society during the

time of war and peace. During the time of war they function as the Red Cross of

modern times. Because of their low caste state they are not attacked and injured so

they enter in the battle field and take away wounded persons of their tribe; keep

the contact of the family and the warring tribes by going to and fro; they take the

news of war and warn their tribe and so on (cf. H. Mari 1987:47-48). In the time

of peace, besides playing music, singing and dancing, they do all the works on the

occasions of wedding/circumcision ceremonies, religious and other feasts; they

entertain and serve guests of their masters, etc. They are thought to be the

property of the tribe and they distribute the tribe among themselves. In other

parts of Balochistan , the singers of epic poetry are called pəhləwan. They were in

past times basically from low caste people, but now this difference is no more

really observed and 90% of the living pəhləwans, as far as I know, are common

Baloch. They are very respected and their status is very high (Field 1959:65).

21. Baloch literary history is replete with examples where a hero received wounds

and a slave of him put him on a horse's back and whipped the horse out of the

battle field. His wife learnt that her husband has returned alone from the

battleground; so she composed piercing poems and sent them to her husband

saying that he has escaped from the fight so she would not consider him her

husband any more but only as her father and brother i.e. unilateral divorce. See

e.g. Lalla o Granaz. Lalla's party is killed to a single person and he receives deep

wounds and becomes unconscious. His servant mounts him on the horse and

whips the horse which takes him to the house of his parents. When the news

reaches to Granaz, she composes a poem, calls a minstrel, and sends it to Lalla,

saying: "Till recently I extolled thine bravery amongst my close friends; (I

thought) I would receive the news that thou had died fighting like a lion alongwith

the undaunted youths; [...] Lalla, thy comrades told me, (that) Lalla deserted the

battlefield; (that thou) toiled strenuously on the stirrups of the Mal (horse)

untiringly flogged the horse, kept the horse running with strokes of the heels of

32

shoes; [...] Thou, Lalla, will be (hereafter) like a father and a brother to my golden

ornaments till the day of peace and the Day of doom (pəhr mən bəstət pesəri

ročaã, gõ wəti jani dəzgwəharəkkã, kεt təi šeri kuštInε əhwal, gõ səri wərnayã

Ilangenã [...] ləlla təi həmrahã məna gwəštəg, ləlla čə jəngε parəwa jIstəg, zore

pə məllε dorəwã datəg, ase čə čabUkkε səra rItkəg, gõ kudiã bore šorentəg, gõ

kudiã o mozəgi padã [...] ləlla məni sUhrani pIt o bratε, dã səlwatε o məhšərε

roča)". Lalla, in reply, composes a poem and sends it to Granaz. He says: "The

pearl-like perfumed one, give patient hearing [...] I have not shown idleness in my

actions, hereunto [...] It seemed as if the black steed and I were sailing amidst the

thick of the enemy ranks, I employed my seven weapons of war against the foe;

my nitid sword broke, I had only the hilt in my hand, the Khurasani shield was

blown to bits by the stroke of swords; the Seistani helmet broke as under; fourteen

piercing arrows peirced my body [...] My dark-skinned slave dismounted me and

whipped my horse to run away. My brothers carried me on a stretcher from the

field to my house [...] O Granaz, the logs of wood of tamarisk tree are better than

thee; they are brought from distant places by the flooded streams, They are superb

as being burnt during sweet assemblies [...] If I do not die this time and survive

from mortal wounds, I shall not be like cold water to the bloody foes; if stones

melt inside deep wells, then men might forget revenge; neither stones melt inside

deep wells, nor can revenge vanish from the hearts of men (goš kən o dUrrẽ nok

zəbadani, mən nə kUrtəg susti əmUll tani, [...] jəllIt o ožnagIt mən o syaha, həpt

səlaha kI sar məna bittəg, gohərε tegε bUn məni dəstẽ, Ispərõ čUn čUn Int

hUrasani, mã səra žənd Int hol sistani, čardəh čərrokẽ tir məni janẽ, [...] gIptəg

məna syah-sočẽ gUlamua, gIpte məna dozwahi sər o baskã, bratã pə bεtəl bUrtəg

ət loga, [...] əz toε granaz kUnt gIh ənt gəzzi, harIš čə durẽ janIbã karənt [...] gõ

mən o dərdã sUčənt pasã [...] əga nə mUrtã o če kəla čUttã, mən pə hunigã ap nə

bã sartẽ, durbUnẽ čatã sIng əgã rez ənt, kenəg čə mərdani dIla kInzənt, nε sIng rez

ənt mã dur bUnẽ čatã, o nε kenəg čə mərdani dIla kInzənt, [...]"), cf. M. S. K.

Baluch 1977:411-429; see also Bashir Ahmad 1970).

22. Something of Sibi’s past grandeur still comes to life once a year during the

ten-day festival organised by the Government of Balochistan held every February;

and sports, cattle show, horse and camel races and musical performances are

arranged. During the Rind-Lashar period it attracted minstrels, musicians,

dancers, sportsmen, athletes and cattle breeders from all over Balochistan, Sind

and the Punjab. Now, alas, the traditional musicians and minstrels are replaced by

Pakistan Television’s pop-singers from Lahore and Islamabad.

23. The first Baloch confederacy, according to I. Baloch (1986:3), was formed by

Jalal Han during the 12th

century and its capital was Bampur. The second and

more important Baloch confederacy was formed in the 15th

century, and

comprised the total land of the Baloch as occupied by them to this date; it was

given the name of ‘Balochistan’ by the Commander of Mir Chakar Rind’s army,

Mir Bibarg Rind (I. Baloch 1984:4; M. S. K. Baluch 1977:131). We can not say

for sure whether he was the one who gave this name to the newly unified country

33

of the Baloch or this name was already in use. However, in the poems attributed

to him the word ‘Balochistan’ occurs more than once (M. S. K. Baluch

1977:168,170; S. M. Mari 1970:43; Badalkhan 1990:7).

24. A poem, said to be composed by Haibetan, the Chief of the Mirali tribe, who

lived during the 15th

century (see M. S. K. Baluch 1977:318ff.), mentions that

Balochistan was divided into various regions and every region had its local ruler:

“Kambar was the ruler of Kech, Miran the ruler of Dadar (cf. M. S. K. Baluch

1958:184), Omar the ruler of Nali zone, Ali Hot that of Bela, and Mir Chakar was

the ruler of Sibi and the ‘sardar of the whole Baloch country’ ” (S. M. Mari

1970:7; Elfenbein 1990:362-365 has reproduced the poem but his translation, in

most cases, does not correspond to the original text).

25. It has, most probably, been a dəmburəg which has mostly three strings. I have

not heard of playing any other instrument called sItar in Balochistan.

26. For the English translation of the ms. see Elfenbein 1983.

27. S. Hashmi claims to have seen in 1954 at Sandeman Library, Quetta, a good

number of Balochi mss. written in Roman characters by English orientalists. But

all these manuscripts were lost when he revisited the Library in 1965 (Hashmi

1986:242). A. S. Amiri, who had accompanied Hashmi during his visit to Quetta,

confirms his statement and adds: “We were told that there were a lot of Balochi

mss. written in Eastern Balochi but people have borrowed them from the library

and not returned them back – all this had happened after the creation of Pakistan”

(1990:16; the English translation from Balochi is mine).

28. Abdul Qadir Shahwani says that the Baloch Nawabs and upper class people

used to keep in their houses mss. but after the merger of Balochistan into Pakistan

they (the Baloch) destroyed them for fear of a Pakistani repression (1978:17), for

keeping mss. in Balochi meant having Baloch separatist sentiments. A. K. Mengal

claims that many Baloch are still in possess of manuscripts, but neither they show

them to anybody nor get them published (1980:ii).

29. Dames’ research was, unfortunately, limited only to a small area of the Baloch

land where “less than 4 per cent of the total Baloch population inhabit” (Elfenbein

1985:162). Dames seemed to be aware of this problem; he wrote in 1902: “The

branch of the race with which I am concerned is that inhabiting the mountain

country west of the Indus Valley, and spreading into the plains of the country

known as the Derajat, and especially those tribes which still retain the use of the

Balochi language. I must confess that my collections of materials were made

originally mainly for purposes of philology, and only indirectly for reasons more

strictly connected with folklore” (Dames 1902:252). It seems that Dames had

either not tried to record the vast body of oral poetry from that area or he did not

have time or other resources, for we note that his collection does not contain

34

poems of some of the very famous poets of the Mari-Bugti areas.

30. Published at Lahore in Urdu in 1881. It was translated into English by J. M. C.

Douie and published in Calcutta in 1885, but the English translation does not

contain poems.

31. Unfortunately, the text and its translation is nowhere free from errors and

misprints. Only quite exceptionally, writes Elfenbein, can Dames’ texts and their

translations be matched satisfactorily (1985:159). Elfenbein states further (1985:

163): “The sort of corruption we see in the texts of Popular Poetry seems to stem

mainly from a careful transcription taken down apparently verbatim and then

puzzled out later, for the final results vary quite haphazardly from a very narrow

transcription. … As for the translation, he must have asked for a general idea

only and hoped that he would be able to piece together the details on his own

later: I cannot believe that he ever checked some of his texts or translation again

with his original informants”. A few Baloch writers have attempted to reproduce

the text and correct the errors but with no great success (see e.g. Baloch n.d.). S.

Hashmi writes that he had transliterated the book into Perso-Arabic characters

(Hashmi 1986:242) but his transliteration was not published and nothing can be

said about it at the present stage.

32. Elfenbein has reported the date of the foundation of the Balochi Academy

Karachi at 1956 (Elfenbein 1989:642), while the date given by Sayyad Hashmi

and other Baloch scholars is 1958 (Hashmi 1986:285).

33. Matheson states to have recorded some poems from the recitation of Jwansal

himself. She writes: “I met one of the most remarkable living Baluch poets, Jawan

Sal Bugti, a tall, dignified old shepherd well into his eighties, whose fame had

spread far outside the boundaries of tribal territory. With his white ringlets and

snowy beard, his fierce-eyed, dark-ringleted sons by his side [...] this old man was

gentle and unwarlike. Completely uneducated, he was, unusually for a Bugti,

extremely religious and had spent his entire life as a shepherd, finding his

inspiration as he wandered the desert with his goats and sheep. His long

compositions were entirely religious and his ‘diwan’ or collection included over

one hundred and fifty of his own compositions, some of them with more than

three hundred and fifty verses, a fact I wasn’t aware of when I began recording in

the khudal of mud and brush, crowded with curious and admiring spectators”

(1967:166).

34. The reason for misprints is that the typists and calligraphers employed by the

Balochi Academy are non-Baloch so they often do not know what they are typing

or writing on papers. The Balochi Academy, Quetta has repeatedly been criticised

for its carelessness concerning the Balochi texts of the books they publish (see for

example Gichki 1992:9; Sarbazi 1992:161-165).

35

35. I am thankful to A. S. Amiri for providing me the photocopies of some of the

material, even though many pages reproduced through xeroxing are very poorly

handwritten and in most cases are illegible. Amiri told me that the original texts

are kept in Sayyad Hashmi Academy, Karachi or with the family of Sayyad

Hashmi, but I could not trace them.

36. See for example Balochistan ki kahani shairon ki zabani (Quetta, 1976);

Balochi razmia shairi (Quetta, 1979a); Balochi ishqia shairi (Quetta, 1979b).

These works contain extensive discussions on Balochi oral poetry and about the

life and time of Baloch poets.

I was informed in Mand that Gulkhan Nasir was given there some mss.

in which Balochi poems were written including a large number of poems by

Mulla Fazil Rind, a 19th

century topmost famous poet from Mand. I could not

obtain any information about these mss., but Gohar Malik, the daughter of

Gulkhan Nasir, writes that most of the papers kept in their home were taken away

by the police during the frequent raids because of the political activities of her

father (Malik 1990:65). Mir A. K. Mengal, during an interview in 1989, told me

that some of the poems collected by Gulkhan Nasir are still safe, but I could not

see them.

37. I have a great sorrow to mention that two of my best informants and topmost

famous minstrels, Saleh Mahmad Gorgej (d. 1991) and Ali Mahmad Sadbadi (d.

1992) have expired in the meantime. I had the opportunity to interview both of

them during my earlier visits. I had also recorded a good number of poems from

their rich repertoire but they knew such a great treasure of Balochi oral poetry and

information concerning the minstrelsy tradition that there was still much to do

with them.

38. There is only one television station in Balochistan which is in Quetta and it

does not cover beyond Quetta and its peripheries. Pakistan TV telecastes daily

news in Balochi and a 20 minutes musical programme once a week in Balochi

from its Quetta station. The Editor of Balochi, Quetta, blames that Balochi

programme producers at Pakistan TV, Quetta are non-Baloch, and when a Baloch

singer is invited, he is not allowed to bring his Baloch musicians – he is asked to

sing with the accompaniment of non-Baloch music players employed by the TV.

The Editor claims that the Baloch in Pakistan are like beggars and concludes an

editorial note on this subject with the famous English idiom: “The beggars have

no choice” (monthly Balochi, May 1988, Editorial). Recently a TV booster was

installed in Sibi but its telecast is limited to Sibi and its surroundings.

39. An interesting situation has been noted among the Baloch tribes living in the

area of Dasht-Goran in Kalat District. According to Y. Gichki, author of three

anthologies of Balochi oral poetry, when a male child is born the men of the

village/camp sing heroic songs from the old stock of Balochi poetry for seven

nights. If, for any reason, this is not possible, an aged person is invited who recites

36

seven heroic poems near the new born baby. It is thought to be the first lesson to

the baby who is expected to behave according to the tradition maintained by his

elders (oral communication; Habb, August 1989).

40. Mr and Mrs Jarrige, the well known French archaeologists, have been working

in Balochistan since 1964. I met Mrs C. Jarrige in Paris in 1990. She recounted

her experiences about the fast dying oral tradition in Balochistan. She said that

until about 1974 there were always visiting minstrels and local music players who

played music and sang epics almost every night until late. But about mid 1970s

they suddenly found that there was no minstrel nor any traditional singer. In their

place new radio transistor radios had arrived and people had started gathering

around them. She said it was a shocking and surprising change that in such a short

period such a great and sudden change had occurred. Only a single year earlier,

she said, the people were so attached to their oral tradition and heroic epics that it

was unimaginable to think that they could remain without it.

41. Pakistan radio and television corporations, according to Janmahmad, are

engaged in a malicious distortion of the Balochi language (Janmahmad 1989:250).

Baloch intellectuals and writers have very often objected to programmes by both

corporations. Significant was a statement signed by 15 intellectuals, including

poets and writers, expressing their disapproval of the programmes sponsored by

Pakistan television. They called the programmes “ridiculous” and “an insult to

Balochi culture and language”. They maintained that “what is usually presented in

the name of the Baloch is an insult to the Balochi language and literature” (ibid.;

for the statement see Jang, Quetta, January 29, 1979).

42. There are also some other countries from where Balochi programmes are

broadcasted daily. Radio Iran’s station at Zahedan broadcasts a 60 minutes

programme in Balochi on medium wave from 14.30 to 15.30 GMT but they

broadcast mostly religious talks; Radio Baghdad, Iraq used to broadcast a 60

minutes programme at 17.00 to 18.00 hrs. GMT; the programme was concentrated

on political propaganda mostly against the USA. Radio Afghanistan, Kabul used

to broadcast daily 2.45 hrs. programme in Balochi; during the communist regime

it was directed against the Pakistan government and the Islamic mujahidin based

in Pakistan. After the recent developments I have not been able to monitor it.

Radio All India broadcasts 45 minutes (15.15 – 16.00 GMT) Balochi programmes

from its New Delhi station in which Balochi songs and Indian film songs are

broadcast.

43. The following details of radio programmes have been prepared with the help

of Hamid Shakir Baloch, producer of Balochi programmes, PBC, Turbat and Arif

M. Bakhsh. I express my gratitude to both of them.

44. See monthly Manzil, January 1989, pp. 58-64, which has published an

interview of the Director in which he has discussed about the lack of funding for

37

Balochi programmes.

45. Indian musical influence is worth noting in other neighbouring countries as

well. Fujii, treating the music of Afghanistan, writes: “In recent years there has

been remarkable commercialisation of Indian music through motion pictures,

records, and broadcasting; and Indian traditional music and popular songs have

urged into Afghanistan like tidal waves. Over 40 percent of music heard in

Afghanistan is Indian, and people crowd into theatres showing Indian films. The

popular music of India and themes from Indian movies are deeply ingrained in the

young generation” (Fujii 1980:24). “A similar phenomenon can be observed also

in Nepal. Where commercialised popular songs and movie themes of India are

also invading even small villages of Himalayas. The spread of transistor radio is

certainly accelerating this development” (ibid. 25). The Baloch workers in the

United Arab Emirates, Sultanate of Oman, Doha Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait have

influenced the society back home very much. While out of Balochistan they find

entertainment with the Indian motion pictures which are widespread in all these

countries, and when they come home on leaves their preferred gifts include video

and audio cassette players, television sets and the like.

46. These data were collected in early 1991.

47. The most active literary organisations functioning among the Baloch are the

following: Baloch Writers’ Club, Karachi; Baloch Cultural, Dramatic, Literary

Forum, Karachi; Bəloči ləbzanki diwan, Karachi; Ilum Publications, Karachi;

Bəloči ədəbi bor , Karachi; Lyari ədəbi o zemIli məjlIs, Karachi; Baloch

Promotive, Golimar, Karachi; Baloch Publications, Chakiwada, Karachi; Kalakot

ədəbi sosaiti, Durralen, Karachi; Lyari saz o zemIli məjlIs, Durralen, Karachi;

Bəloči ədəbi jUhdkar, Bahrain; Baloch Club, Bahrain; Bəloč kUməkkar diwan,

Doha Qatar; Ləwzcedəg, Quetta; PazUl ləbzanki məjlIs, Mand; Sayyad Hashmi

Academy, Karachi; Azat Jamaldini Academy, Karachi; Səyyəd ləbzanki məjlIs,

United Arab Emirates; Almahand Club, Muscat, Oman; Ləbzanki čagIrd, Turbat;

Ləbzanki gIhbudi gəll, Turbat; Izzat Academy, Panjgur; Wərna ləbzanki gəll,

Gwadar; Shabab Music Club, Gwadar; Mulla Fazul Academy, Turbat, Tump,

Nasirabad; Ləbzanki karwan, Turbat, Ganz, Salala (Oman); NIhIng ləbzanki

məjlIs, Tump; Shahar Club, Shetagar; Ləbzanki məjlIs, Sami; Baba-e Balochistan

Arts Society, Pishshukan; Səngət ləbzanki məjlIs, Turbat; Raskoh ədəbi məjlIs,

Nushki; Bəloči ədəbi məjlIs, Bulaida; etc. Besides these literary and cultural

organizations, there are several literary magazines being published in Balochi.

48. The Balochi Academy, Quetta received a nominal grant of Rs. 25,000 per year

during the late 1970s, stated Hashmi (1986:286). The situation is not changed

much, as far as I know.

38

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