India, March 10 -- Baloch Culture Day, which was celebrated on 2 March, is more than a cultural festival; it is also a tacit condemnation of a state that has been unwilling to listen to the political and human narratives that are embedded in Baloch identity. It provides a rare opportunity to think of Balochistan not as a security concern in the periphery of Pakistan, but as a laboratory where the issues of rights, representation, and federal justice need to be addressed.

Baloch culture as living testimony The music, poetry, and oral histories that emerge on Baloch Culture Day are a testament to the dispossession and broken promises of the Pakistani state, even as Islamabad seeks to reduce these to simply ethnic nuances in a larger nation...