LA PERCEZIONE DEL RAPPORTO SPAZIO-POTERE IN EPOCA COLONIALE: IL CASO DEL KHANATO DI KALAT

[Autom. eng. transl.] The article investigates the relations between the British colonial administration in the Indian sub-continent and the traditional local authorities in Baluchistan, a vast, arid and depopulated region divided between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Despite being a marginal area, Baluchistan had a strong strategic value for the British Empire, due to its position along the northwestern frontier. At the end of the nineteenth century, this natural gateway to India was under the nominal control of the Kalat khanate, a weak tribal proto-state created in 1666, plagued by constant confrontation between the kat of Kalat and his riotous tribal chiefs. In particular, the relations between Kalat and his CDs were very tense. "Feudatory States", ie the areas of Las Bela, Kharan and Makran, whose leaders struggled to regain complete independence or total autonomy. The British colonial administrators exploited this political instability to reinforce control over this strategic region, thus further weakening the authority and prestige of the khan and strengthening the role of the local tribal leaders subjected to it. A political choice implemented after a long debate within the colonial administration (the archives of India Office in London still contain many documents on the question) about the "real constitutional nature" of the khanate: whether it was a "federal" or "feudal state" ". In particular, Sir Robert Sandeman, the first Agent to the Governor General (AGG) in Baluchistan, played a crucial role in shaping British military policy and strategy in the region. He bent and manipulated local power relations to serve British interests, allowing the British colonial administration to control Baluchistan without unduly burdening the Government of India's budget. But his policy also had the indirect effect of offering AGG stronger personal power, which Sandeman definitely wanted to achieve. As noted by Simanti: "Unadministered tribal territory across the Indus was re-writing personal political reputations and realizing dreams of personal power, all in the name of empire. Sandeman's strategy in Baluchistan was an exposition in the linkage between imperial ideology and personal interest, which fueled successive waves of British expansion into tribal territory on the Indus frontier ".