Baluch Youths and the Baluch Liberation Movement - Part 1

Articles :

By Dr Shahswar K
The future of any nation always falls into the hands of its present generation. Each consecutive generation is the interconnecting link between the past and the future. In turn every generation is the product of the collective experience of their ancestors. The current generation in Baluchistan has bestowed the historical inheritance of previous generations. Transmission of all the experience, knowledge, good and bad to the next generation is involuntary consequence of one’s place of birth. One’s birthplace is entirely accidental. The offspring, somehow, instinctively slot in their heritage as if it is an identity of their own creation. Each generation is an end result of a different time. The necessities and requirements of their time demand different moral, social, political, legal, cultural and economic structures. This is because history indiscriminately tends to put forward different challenges in front of each newcomer while preserving its unique, striking continuity. Corresponding to the reality of time each passing generation also leaves their exclusive historical footprint on the repository of their history.

No child can decide the social, cultural, economic, political and legal conditions in which he or she is born. These conditions are pre-determined. Baluch children in Baluchistan cannot choose the place and the conditions in which they wish to be born. These conditions are prearranged and do not develop out of their conscious will and desire. Children everywhere are lumbered with a pre-set of a given repository legacy. They are presented with a toolkit that contains the tools, skills, knowledge and experience to survive in their distinctive environment. This baggage is the most vital source of maintaining and taking forward their unique way of life.

At its core every ancestral heritage carries a dynamic catalyst constituent. This is a form of building block that nurtures the embryo of further social, cultural, political, technological and economic transformation. We bequeath from our ancestors an encyclopaedia of knowledge and skills that feed our time-machine of progress. But there are always two sides to this story. On one hand if we use what we inherit delicately and wisely, our heritage can pave the way to greater prosperity, harmony, equality, tolerance and liberty. In contrast, if historical baggage is accepted uncritically it will remain hollow. Under these circumstances a stagnated society will be amenable to widening poverty, cruelty, bigotry, intolerance and subjugation.

Each social and national setting contains both these potential elements. Under suitable conditions both sides can be nurtured. At all times these two elements coexist side by side. It is the domination of one over the other that will either make or break a nation. The needs of all types of dictatorship will not advance beyond the degenerative elements of our heritage. For this reason under all types of political and religious dictatorship; the humane, democratic, dynamic and progressive elements will stagnate. The retreat would be considerably greater when a nation is under illegal occupation. If the occupying states happened to be comprised of criminal and fundamentalist interests the outcome would tantamount to catastrophe. These states deliberately target the youth of the nation under their illegal occupation. They design and forge a tag of bondage and hang it on the neck of every child that is born in the conquered nation.

In order to create a sense of legitimacy to expropriation of other nations’ land much of the occupying states’ plan is to impose a false history, culture, language, moral, aesthetic and social values. The invaders deliberately wish to discard and forget about the pre-occupation era as soon as they can. By denying completely the inheritance of the subjugated nation they grossly exaggerate their claim of being in charge of every facet of life of the nation under their occupation. To posit subjugation and yet expect vitality and development of one’s national heritage is self-contradictory. Such purposive actions under the yoke of colonialism, in the course of time, will substitute deception with truth. Ignorance replaces knowledge. Tyranny overshadows liberty. Stagnation and poverty surpass progress and development in a way that conforms to the desires and needs of the occupying states. The colonial system entices compulsive fraudsters into a cartel of conspiracy and gives them infinite power to manipulate, distort and control the conquered nation.

It should be born in mind that by a systematic plan of brainwashing the youth of subjugated nation, the occupying states then will inject the venom of timidity and submission. In this way they try to turn the youth of the subjugated nation into an instrument of self-destruction. They force them to deny their history, culture, language, music, art, moral, aesthetic and social values. Hence, they pave the way for total dependency to their oppressive rule. These dependencies come in form of economic, political, legal and also religious dependency. Combination of systematic deception, dependency, unrestrained cruelty and fear will destroy the actual potential, energy, motives, incentives, desire and the impetus for change and improvement.

To be continued ..

Dr Shahswar K is a Baloch political and Human Rights activist, and the co-ordinator of International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons in United Kingdom. He is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at London Metropolitan University, UK. He is the author of "Money and its Origins".