Editor’s Note: Lost amid the violence of the latest India-Pakistan dispute was a call for independence by leaders of Pakistan's Balochistan province. Jayita Sarkar of the University of Glasgow explains the reasons for this declaration and why Chinese, Canadian, and other foreign mining and other investments in the province make greater political rights, let alone independence, less likely.
On May 14, 2025, the leaders of Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province, declared independence from Pakistan and requested that India and the United Nations recognize its sovereignty. The declaration came amid military airstrikes between India and Pakistan following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam; it stoked nationalism in the Indian media, but was met with silence on international platforms. The Pakistan government has not publicly responded to the declaration of independence but has reportedly increased repression in the province. Even if the declaration garnered more attention, it would be unlikely to succeed. The significant level of foreign investment in Balochistan reinforces the status quo and Pakistan’s control of the province.
Separatist claims are ubiquitous in South Asian nation-states, making interstate conflict both international and domestic. Conflicts between India and its neighbors, China and Pakistan, almost always involve tensions in the borderlands where inhabitants assert separatist claims, such as Punjab, Arunachal Pradesh, Kashmir, and elsewhere.
Separatism in Balochistan is not new. Baloch authorities declined to join the dominion of Pakistan when it achieved independence in August 1947, but were compelled to do so by Pakistan—similar to other parts of decolonized South Asia, such as Travancore and Hyderabad, both of which had initially opposed joining India. Even though Balochistan has extensive natural resources, including natural gas and oil reserves, by the time of Pakistan’s first direct general elections were held in December 1970, it, along with the most populous province of East Pakistan, were Pakistan’s two poorest provinces. From the early 1970s onward, state repression of Baloch nationalists increased, as did violent insurgency, both abetted by Pakistan’s involvement in helping the CIA fight the Soviets along the border with Afghanistan.
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