A good time to remind everyone that .. in 1947, Balochistan was forcefully annexed and made Pakistani territory.
Unfortunately, this seems to be confusing Balochistan with the State of Kalat. The later was a princely state which became part of Balochistan following accession in 1948.
Balochistan under colonial rule was made up of five districts which were under the control of an Agent. The province was surrounded by tribal areas and princely states.
As a backwater of British India, there was a very low level of economic and political development in Balochistan. The area was seen by the British primarily through the prism of strategic and security concerns which meant administrative and military priorities trumped any ideas of popular participation. Electoral politics was therefore confined to the Quetta Municipality.
With this background, we may note that on 30 June 1947, members of the Shahi Jirga and the Quetta Municipality decided that Balochistan should join the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. Contrary to the quote above, therefore, Balochistan was not forcefully annexed.
The case of Kalat was rather more complex. Probably the best account of it is included in Yaqoob Khan Bangash’s book,
A Princely Affair, published in 2015. As Bangash notes, Kalat’s constitution was a strange mixture of ‘feudal’ and ‘federal’ features. The status of Kharan and Las Bela was also far from clear. These were feudatory states, which were claimed by the Khan of Kalat, Ahmed Yar Khan. However the rulers of these two states disputed Khan’s claim to suzerainty over them. Then there were the leased areas ceded to the British government by the State of Kalat. This raised the question of the legal position with respect to retrocession of these leased areas; if Kalat was a non-Indian state, Pakistan would inherit the leases. If Kalat was deemed an Indian state then the lease agreements would lapse upon independence.
Such was the uncertainty even the Foreign Secretary of the Government of India noted in 1934 that the situation was “thoroughly confused…(and) finally concluded that the constitution of Kalat State seemed to defy any definition and was fated to arise controversy among those who attempted one.”
What we can be more clear on is that Ahmed Yar Khan, mirroring the intentions of the princely rulers of Hyderabad and Travancore, did appear to have the aspiration that he could maintain Kalat as an independent state.
What proved ultimately important was the status of Kharan and Las Bela. The two states, along with Makran, which was a district in Kalat, were eventually accorded the status of separate independent states by Pakistan. This paved the way for the accession of these areas to Pakistan on 17 March 1948. Following this act, Kalat was shorn of more than half its landmass and was now landlocked. Further pressure was applied when Pakistani troops were detached to Kharan, Las Bela and Makran. There was also an incorrect news report on All-India radio that Kalat wanted to join India. Ironically, this news report was the breaking point. The Ruler of Kalat’s communique noted:
“My first reaction after hearing the news was that no time be lost to put an end to the false propaganda and to avoid and forestall the possibility of friction between the Moslem brethren in Kalat and Pakistan…It is therefore declared that from 9 p.m on March 27 - the time when I heard the false news over the air, I forewith decided to accede to Pakistan and that whatever differences not exist between Kalat and Pakistan be placed in writing before Mr Jinnah…whose decision I shall accept.”
In closing we note that the strategic importance of Kalat was recognised by an anxious Pakistan state . Even Nehru had wrote in 1946, “The fact that Kalat is a border state adds to its importance from our point of view as frontiers are always strategic areas. An independent India cannot permit foreign forces and foreign footholds such as Kalat might afford near its own territories.”
