Ethnic group that lives in the border region where Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan meet.
The Baluchis are members of Baluchi-speaking tribes inhabiting the Pakistani provinces of Baluchistan and coastal Makran, adjoining southwestern Afghanistan, and southeastern Iran. Detribalized Baluchis have been migrating to the United Arab Emirates and Oman since at least the 1950s. Baluchi, an Indo-Iranian language, has five million speakers; the majority live in Pakistan. Traditionally Baluchis were nomadic sheep and goat herders and camel breeders; during the nineteenth century some became sedentary farmers (growing dates, almonds, apricots, and wheat) or fishers. The Baluchi tribal organization is hierarchical, with four social classes (aristocracy, nomads, farmers, and slaves); most tribes are led by a tribal chief (sardar) but sociopolitical organization is variable. Most Baluchis are Sunni Muslim. The area known as Pakistani Baluchistan was conquered by the British in 1887. In Iran and Pakistan, Baluchis have been migrating to nonBaluchi urban areas in search of employment since the 1950s. Most of the small Baluchi population of Afghanistan fled to Iran and Pakistan as refugees during the 1980s.
Bibliography
Salzman, Philip Carl. Black Tents of Baluchistan. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.
— CHARLES C. KOLB
