Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Peace and Democracy
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2024.1476454
This article is part of the Research Topic Representation of Minority Nations in Multinational Federal States View all 5 articles

Ethnic Disloyalty or Federal Loyalty? A Case of Contesting Baloch Representation in Postcolonial Pakistan

Provisionally accepted
Shahal Khoso Shahal Khoso *
  • Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This article captures the representation of the Baloch ethnic minority in Pakistan's multinational federation. The research establishes a taxonomy of Baloch representatives and their contesting ideological positions by analysing a sample of news articles published in Pakistan's national and international newspapers between 2006 and 2024. This approach provides fresh insights into the complex dynamics of minority representation for the Baloch. The study classifies the contesting groups of Baloch representatives into three clusters: a) The federalists, b) The nationalists, and c) The secessionists. Not restricting its scope to periodisation, the research further investigates if there are linkages between the British colonial view of the Baloch, their treatment as a belligerent ethnic group and the submission of their ethnic loyalty in the postcolonial federation of Pakistan. Using the qualitative content analysis technique, the research attaches themes emerging from the analysed discourse of Baloch representatives from the news articles. Moreover, the article scrutinises each representative group's understanding of how they perceive themselves and other representatives of the Baloch minority within the federation -in the context of the broader Baloch question. The research also aims to provoke thought within federalism theory: if representatives of an ethnic minority group show more allegiance to the federal centre than the minority they represent, is it a case of federal loyalty or ethnic disloyalty?

    Keywords: Ethnic representation, Baloch, Federal loyalty, Postcolonial Federalism, Pakistan

    Received: 05 Aug 2024; Accepted: 24 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Khoso. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shahal Khoso, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.