ABSTRACT
The chapter covers the British involvement in Balochistan and analyses how the British policy evolved in Balochistan. The British interest in Balochistan was purely geostrategic. Initially, the British strengthened the Khan of Kalat and provided full support to him so that he can control the sardars. This policy failed, and through Sandeman, the British actively engaged the sardars: a policy that not only resulted in strengthening the sardars but forever affected Balochistan. Baloch nationalist historians claim that the British treated Kalat as an independent and non-Indian state like Nepal. The British policy, as elaborated in this chapter, was different. British policy makers in India considered Kalat as an Indian state but could not incorporate it into the British India due to administrative and political reasons. A number of British documents and statements point to this inconsistency in British policy. Another important point discussed is the role of the Khan of Kalat Ahmad Yar Khan. A British loyalist to the core, he was highly ambitious and aspired to be a king and had a self-constructed illusion of greatness and grandeur of Kalat and the Khans of Kalat.
