Khanate of Kalat

The Khanate of Kalat was the first unified polity to emerge in the history of Balochistan.^[2] It took birth from the confederacy of nomadic Brahui tribes native to Brahuistan in 1666 which under Mir Ahmad Khan I declared independence from the Mughal suzerainty^[2] and slowly absorbed the Baloch principalities in the region.

According to Brahui traditions, Kalat was ruled by a Hindu ruler named Sewa when they first conquered it.^[7] Historically, the regions surrounding Kalat were part of the Mughal province of Kandahar during 17th century. During the reign of Shah Jahan, Mughal expansion reached its high point, and caused the emergence for the first time a strong, unified "Brahui Confederacy" or the Khanate of Kalat.^[2]

The first ruler of the Brahui Confederacy was Mir Ahmad Khan I (r.1666–1695). He was strong enough to capture Quetta, Mastung, and Pishin from the Mughal governor at Kandahar.^[2] He spent his life fighting the Afghans and Kalhoras of Sindh, and became an ally of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.^[8] During the reign of his successor, Mir Samandar Khan (r.1697–1714), a Safavid army under Tahmasb Beg invaded western Balochistan. Safavids were defeated, and Tahmasb was killed. Samandar Khan was rewarded by Mughals with the gift of port of Karachi.^[8][9]

Under Mir Abdullah Khan I (r.1714–34), the state expanded from Upper Sindh and Kandahar to Persia till the port of Bandar Abbas.^[8][2] He was later killed while fighting against allied army of Hussain Hotak of Hotak dynasty and Kalhoras in 1734. His son and successor, Mir Mehrab Khan (r.1734–1749), was given the region of Kacchi, then under Kalhoras, by Nader Shah as blood compensation of his father.^[8]

The Khanate reached its peak during the reign of Mir Nasir Khan I (r.1749–94), who had unified the Kalat region and conquered cities of Khash, Bampur, Qasr-e Qand and Zahedan in the Iranian Balochistan.^[2][5] Since 1748, Kalat was a vassal state of Durrani Empire, and assisted in the campaigns of Ahmad Shah such as in the Durrani Campaign to Khorasan. However, in 1758 Mir Nasir Khan I revolted against Ahmad Shah. The Afghans were dispatched under Shah Wali Khan to Kalat, but were defeated. As a result, Ahmad Shah marched himself with an army and defeated the Baluch armies in battle.

Ahmad Shah laid siege to Kalat for over 40 days, and attempted to storm it, however it was unsuccessful. In the ensuing 1758 treaty of Kalat, the exact agreements are disputed. Some sources state that the Khanate of Kalat attained a sovereign status.^{[10][11][12][13]} According to some other accounts, Mir Nasir Khan had recognized suzerainty of Ahmad Shah, who guaranteed non-interference in the matters of Kalat.^{[14][8][15][16][17]} Nevertheless, Kalat did not pay any tribute to Durrani Empire thereafter, and provided military contingents in exchange of money only.^[8] Following the collapse of the Durranis, any trace of Afghan influence over Kalat ended after the death of Sher Dil Khan, the ruler of the Principality of Qandahar, in 1826.^[18][19][20]

Mir Nasir Khan, known to the Brahuis as "The Great",^[4] undertook 25 military campaigns during his reign, and forced the Talpur dynasty of Sindh to pay tribute.^[8] He was the first Khan of Kalat to establish a centralized bureaucracy and issue own currency.^[21] He established the office of Grand Vizier to look after the affairs of the state, as well as a standing army. He had also established diplomatic relations with Ottoman Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Sultanate of Oman.^[22] In 1784, he gave refuge to the future Sultan of Oman, Sultan bin Ahmad, and gifted him the port of Gwadar. Gwadar continued to be part of Sultanate of Oman until it was purchased by Pakistan in 1958.^[8] Due to his achievements, he is considered a central figure and hero among Brahuis as well as Balochs.^[21][4]

 

The Khanate of Kalat declined in the early 19th century, losing much of its territory to Qajar Iran and Emirate of Afghanistan.^[2] The internal weakness of the state forced Khan of Kalat to sign the Treaty of Kalat (1876) with the British Agent Robert Sandeman in the late 19th century.^[2] Parts of the state to the north and northeast were leased or ceded to form the province of British Baluchistan, which later gained the status of a Chief Commissioners province. The Iran–Kalat Border was demarcated in 1896, and the former territories of Kalat Khanate now form part of Iranian province of Sistan and Balochistan.^[2]

The political centralization of the Khanate of Kalat failed to survive through the colonial era and did not lead to the standardization of the Baloch language.^[23] However, with the withdrawal of the British from the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the Indian Independence Act provided that the princely states which had existed alongside but outside British India were released from all their subsidiary alliances and other treaty obligations. The rulers were left to decide whether to accede to one of the newly independent states of India or Pakistan (both formed initially from the British possessions) or to remain independent outside both.^[24] As stated by Sardar Patel, "On the lapse of Paramountcy every Indian State became a separate independent entity."^[25]

The Instruments of Accession made available for the rulers to sign transferred only limited powers, namely external relations, defence, and communications. The Shahi Jirga of Baluchistan and the non-official members of the Quetta Municipality, according to Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, stated their wish to join Pakistan on 29 June 1947;^[26] however, according to the political scientist Rafi Sheikh, the Shahi Jirga was stripped of its members from the Kalat State prior to the vote.^[27]

Kalat remained fully independent from 15 August 1947 until 27 March 1948, when its ruler, Ahmad Yar Khan (1904–1979), finally acceded to Pakistan, becoming the last of the rulers to do so.^[28] Show elections were held during this period and a bicameral parliament was established.^[29][30] On the night of 27 March, All India Radio carried a story about Yar Khan approaching India with an unsuccessful request for accession in around February.^[31] The next morning, Yar Khan put out a public broadcast rejecting its veracity and declaring an immediate accession to Pakistan — all remaining differences were to be placed before Jinnah, whose decision would be binding.^[31]

Dushka H. Saiyid emphasizes that Yar Khan lost all of his bargaining chips with the accession of Kharan, Las Bela, and Makran, leaving Kalat as an island.^[31] Salman Rafi Sheikh largely concurs with Saiyid's assessment: multiple other Kalat sardars were preparing to accede to Pakistan and Yar Khan would have hardly any territory left, if he did not accede.^[27]: 80

On 3 October 1952, the state of Kalat entered into the Baluchistan States Union with three neighbouring states, Kharan, Las Bela, and Makran, with Yar Khan of Kalat at the head of the Union with the title of Khan-e-Azam. The Khanate came to an end on 14 October 1955, when it was incorporated into West Pakistan.^[28]

The Khanate of Kalat covered the area of 139,850 km² (53,995 sq mi).^[32] The territories of the Khanate of Kalat flactuated throughout its history. At the time of death of Mir Nasir Khan I in 1794, it comprised the Iranian province of Sistan and Balochistan, parts of Sindh and Afghan Balochistan as far as the Helmand river. Significantly reduced in the late 19th century, the princely state of Kalat occupied the central part of the territory of modern-day Balochistan province in Pakistan. To the north was the Baluchistan (Chief Commissioner's Province), part of British India.

Kalat state was divided into following sub-divisions:

• Jhalawan, an ethnic Brahui subdivision, headed by the chief nawab of the Zehri tribe, known as Chief of Jhalawan.
• Kacchi, an ethnic Sindhi subdivision, in which various tribes had their own tribal lands under the Khan of Kalat.
• Sarawan, an ethnic Baloch subdivision, headed by chief nawab of Raisani tribe, called Chief of Sarawan.^[33]

The rulers of Kalat at first held the title of Wali but in 1739 also took the title of (Begler Begi Khan), usually shortened to Khan. The last Khan of Kalat (Balochi: خان قلات) had the privilege of being the President of the Council of Rulers for the Baluchistan States Union. They also had the title of beylerbey.

• Baluchistan (Chief Commissioner's Province)
• Makran (princely state)
• Las Bela (princely state)
• Kharan (princely state)
• Kalat State National Party
• List of princely states of British India

• Axmann, Martin (2019). "Kalāt, khānate of". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
• Breseeg, Taj Mohammad (2004). Baloch Nationalism: Its Origin and Development. Royal Book Company. ISBN 978-969-407-309-5.
• Siddiqi, Farhan Hanif (2012), The Politics of Ethnicity in Pakistan: The Baloch, Sindhi and Mohajir Ethnic Movements, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-68614-3

• Swidler, N. (1972) "The Development of the Kalat Khanate Archived 31 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine" Journal of Asian and African Studies 7: pp. 115–21
• Kalat District – Planning and Development Department of Balochistan Government
• Genealogy of the Khans of Kalat

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