BALOCHISTAN In the Crosshairs of History

Pakistan’s growing proximity to a China-led new geopolitical order and a Turkey-led po-tential ‘caliphate’ pose new challenges to India and the world. The China-Pakistan Eco-nomic Corridor traverses territory that legally belongs to India and enables China to ex-pand its footprint on land and sea routes to Europe the Middle East up to Africa and even South America. These developments highlight the strategic importance of Balochi-stan which stands at the crossroads of Afghanistan Iran and the Gulf. This work discusses Balochistan’s failure to secure independence in August 1947 includ-ing the Anglo-US quest for military bases and post-1945 dominance. It traces the distinct identity of the Balochs that forms the basis of Baloch nationalism along with successive insurgencies since 1948 their brutal suppression and the emergence of powerful guerril-la groups. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor straddles the Silk Road Economic Belt and Maritime Silk Road and gives China command of a geostrategic sphere from Xinjiang to the Mediterranean Sea and beyond making it a two-ocean power while swamping Is-lamabad in untold debt. Finally China’s vision for a new international order via the Bor-der and Road Initiative contrasts with India’s gentler neighbourhood policy; it has trig-gered the evolution of the Indo-Pacific concept from a purely maritime idea to a geopolit-ical one. India is adamant that Beijing should not achieve a Sino-centric unipolar Asia as a multipolar Asia is a critical pillar of a multipolar world.