Communities at the Margins: The Barren Land in Balochi Poetry

Shortly this paper attempted to discuss about the Baloch tribe, a community that has been for ages at the margins and away from education and academic progress. This tribe, with Khans and Sardars ruling over them, has a rich and long tradition of its own. Their love for their homeland, yet their hospitality, is phenomenal and so is their nomadic life. Their land is mountainous and desert. This barren land in the Baloch context is associated with different themes like patriotism, nationalism, purity, freedom, infiniteness, strength, existence and spirituality and so on. Such ideas have been depicted in Balochi oral songs, stories, folklore and literature. The choice of the desert looks like a real aesthetic option for the Baloch narrators and writers that gave them chance to offer a vast symbolic and creative freedom in the power of imagination. Though other landscapes have their own spell and beauty, the barren land and the vast desert hone the talents to a finer edge.

Keywords:

Motherland , Desert and Mountains , Love , Patriotism , Balochi Oral Tradition , Poetry and Music