The State Strategy of Job Culture, Economic Dependence and Political Neutralization of the Baloch Youth
Historical overview
Colonial rule is sustained not only through military or by force; it controls the political, economic and social administrations through its institutions and creates such a paralyzed society which fails to function and continues national resistance. Bureaucracy provides a legitimate structure through which colonial power could be exercised beyond the battlefield. A slow death is much more painful than a sudden death; the military kills one at once, but a society whose people are taught that the only purpose of life is to get a degree for a 17-grade job creates a generation living under a slow death.
No bullets, no midnight raids, just job applications and pay checks, and a whole society is erased more efficiently than any military could. The death squad attacks Baloch society from outside. The job-owning mindset mentality corrodes it from within.
Colonialism is itself a destruction: when such a nation, whose youth needs to counter every colonial policy, itself becomes the human resource for the growing factor of colonialism, it loses its identity.
According to Michel Foucault, colonial power not only relies upon the command of a ruler or exclusively on visible violence; rather, it is practiced in everyday life through institutions in which individuals are observed, classified, disciplined, and governed.
Job-owning culture is not a sudden act in Balochistan; when the state realized the increasing participation of educated classes in anti-colonial politics, the state brought the policy of economic dependence. The economic dependency has brought such a mindset where a salaried youth indifferent to national interests is much more valued and respected rather than those who are willing to sacrifice his/her life for national interests. The resulting culture encouraged a particular objective that education should lead to employment, and employment provides honor and is cherished with respect within families and societies.
At the same time, economic dependency is influencing the political behavior of the youth. Students are taught that their political participation with any particular nationalist organisation makes one a target of enforced disappearance or target killing. When such techniques didn’t work because people from every class, whether they were politically active or not, became targets of state brutalities, then came up the concept of civil services. It’s very clear that it’s one of the capitalized colonial policies: on one side, the state is bombarding and burning the houses of your people, not considering you even as a human, and on the other hand, it is encouraging your people into its civil services by glorifying some of the aspirants. Bringing up the concept of bureaucracy in Baloch society, which is politically and socially colonised, was only meant for the purpose of political neutralization, which refers to institutionally reducing, managing, discouraging, or controlling political activity among young people. It may not be a direct repression, but it bounds the youth for years with only the thought of clearing that one exam, neglecting the oppressive situations which are happening right in one’s own land with one’s own people. Youth is deliberately encouraged to remain politically inactive because academic success promised employment, while political activism threatened that pathway.
The colonial era is deforming education from intellectuality and cultural institution into the mere source of employment. This process is the emergence of what we describe as the job-seeking system.
The best example of colonial bureaucracy which has been practiced is that of Undivided India by the British, where it played a central political role in maintaining its power. The colonial bureaucracy was not simply an administrative mechanism for governing territory; it was an important instrument through which the colonial state exercised authority, regulated society, maintained political control and protected imperial interests in India. It functioned through the Imperial Civil Service (ICS), which is the Central Superior Services (CSS) in Pakistan today. On one hand, the power was implementing its colonial policies, and on the other hand, knowingly and unknowingly, the oppressed were happy with short-term honor and vulnerability. The retired members of the colonial administration wrote about the civil services, which were only glorified to create a good public image.
The colonial bureaucracy was both a strength and a weakness for British rule. Its centralized structure allowed the British to govern a large and diverse population, but at the same time, its rigid methods, such as treating people according to their social statuses such as class, occupation, and political power, created political resistance.
Bureaucracy became one of the most important pillars of colonial rule. It connected imperial policies with local administration and ensured that British interests were implemented across different regions of India. These machine-like characters only strengthened the colonial rule.
Through close cooperation with British officials, Indians gradually became familiar with their culture; they adopted the attitudes, habits, and social practices of their European colleagues. The same practices are applied here today too; people feel privileged to be part of the elite pseudo-culture of colonial powers. In British India, the influence of colonial bureaucracy did not end with independence. Newly independent states inherited administrative institutions; this creates an important postcolonial dilemma. Through these examples from the past, it’s obvious that colonial bureaucracy was powerful, but it was never absolute.
In the same way, today Balochistan is under colonial rule; practices applied in British India are being applied here. In Balochistan, bureaucratism is spreading like a cancer, and if it’s not stopped, it would ultimately become the reason for the living dead of Baloch society, where the people may call themselves Baloch but no longer the owners of the land which carried the sacrifices of generations.