Legal Alien
By Seema Hassan
I lived in these surroundings since my birth, but despite the truth that I belong to this land and my ancestors are buried under these grounds I never felt a part of it. My blood, the pure Baloch blood, had never accepted to be called Sindhi. I am a Baloch, born and brought up in Sindh. I have my ties here. I had all my friends and acquaintance from different backgrounds. They were Sindhi, Urdu, Punjabi and Siraiki but not Baloch.
The languages I learnt were Sindhi, Siraiki, Urdu, English and Punjabi but failed to learn my own mother tongue. Though since my childhood, I felt bad about not being able to converse in my own mother tongue which was Balochi. Whenever I proudly claimed to be a Baloch, the opposite person’s 1st question was “Ah so do you speak Balochi”? And I always felt bad about not knowing the language at all.
Later as I grew older I started realizing that no matter I spent my whole life here and my forefathers were inhabitants of this land, I somehow never accepted and never called myself a Sindhi. Because I wasn’t one! I realized that we had totally different customs, traditions and values than that of Sindhis. We were two separate nations having totally different ideologies. I would like to quote Allama Iqbal’s two nation theory which he presented in case of Hindus and Muslims during independence. But I believe it goes for Baloch and Sindhi nations as well.
The Baloch living in Sindh are much suppressed, they do not posses the same rights as Sindhis. They live here as second citizens. Though they have been given freedom to vote, to work and get admissions in schools and colleges, they are still treated as Balochs no matter they have lived there for generations.
The Baloch children have become confused with their dual nationalities. They are more of a Sindhi-Balochi mixture to whom I call “legal aliens”. We are not accepted by our Baloch friends because we don’t speak Balochi and at the same time we are not welcomed by our Sindhi friends because we are not like them, we are Balochs. I ask myself where we stand. We are no ones.
I request whoever read this column please if you are living outside your mother land, your Baluchistan please make sure you speak to your children in your mother tongue. Don’t feel ashamed of teaching them your language first rather than teaching them English or Urdu. Please do not increase the number of confused Baloch-Sindhi-Urdu mixture. Our language is very sweet, as sweet as honey. So please do not finish our language. I would only say that please be proud of being whoever you are. A Baloch in my case.
great article, we the baloch living in sindh are called as baroch, that is another example of discriminated attitude of sindhis, although baloch comprise almost 85% of rural sindh population but we are unable to rise our voice for the baloch brothers next door.
I am a bit confused after reading this article. I think this article is not entirely true. I live in Karachi, and I have seen discrimination, but not by sindhi’s, off course there will always be people in any community who will discriminate against any body and any thing.. There are big names in Sindh that are Baloch, Jatoi, Mazari, lashari, Magsi, Talpur’s, to name just a few. I know not one but many who own hundreds of acres of land in rural Sindh, while they live in Karachi. Most of the Sindhi women in Sindh now prefer wearing Balochi dresses. Now the case about not raising their voice for the beleaguered Baloch of Balochistan, if we are 85 % of a population, then it would be foolish to complain about the rest of the 15% not raising their voices for us. Our problems go to bed with us every night and live and thrive among us, and the solutions to those problems sit next to us in our own dens.. Lets start by looking at some big names in both Sindh and Balochistan before we accuse any body else. i think that will be a better start…
Irfan you are right. There could be discrimination to some extent after all Baloch and sindhis are not altogether same people however the words” The Baloch living in Sindh and much suppressed” is entirely incorrect. The Baloch ans Sindhis have lived togather for centuries and I think there is more friendship than animosity amongst them.
Yes Irfan is right. This is totally incorrect in this aspect “THE Baloch Living in Sindh are much suppressed”. Please i request to all my baloch we have very much relations with sindhies and they really own us.
But in sense of Mother Language I will agree to Seema Hassan that one must teach mother tongue firest to his children than sindhi,urdu, sariki and punjabi.
Balochi mae wati shahdint Zubanint.
Balochi Sabz Baat.
Mother tongue is very important as a tool for communication and cultural identity but than I know lots of Baloch who are unable to speak Balochi, it is not something to be ashamed of as long as you have the blood and love for the land it doesn’t matter which language u can speak.
My cleaner being a Christian speaks Balochi fluently but than we would not normally count him as a Baloch or will we?
@ Irfan, if you go to any whereu u in interior sindh, if you speak balochi, then you labelled as “Makarani”, not far from karachi you can find “baloch tombs”, near memon goth in gadap town area of karachi, those tombs are of the people killed in Kalmati-Jokhia war. till this day their is sense of discrimination between jokhia and baloch of that area, as you know larkana now days is famous for its bhutto tribe, but the same land of where bhutto family inhabits is granted by then nawab of chandio (chandio is part of greater hooth tribe of baloch) to the grandmother of khudha buksh bhutto.
Baloch are 85 % of rural population is baloch but the tragedy is that baloch of sindh are forced sindhs. the intellectuals of sindh forced them by their writings as sindhis.
Kalhoro-Talpur collections of war is also an example.