Ans: Balochi:
Balochs were divided into clans and tribes. Every tribe had its own poet who
composed poetry to admire the heroes of his tribe and condemn and
humiliate the tribe’s enemies. Since the Balochi language had no script, this
poetry travelled from one generation to another generation only through
word of mouth.
Different genres of Balochi are hajwiyat, marthias, romantic poems and
songs, ghazals, religious and moral poems, loris (lullaby or cradle song)
dastangh and motaks. These have been transferred to posterity through
word of mouth. Mirza Asadullah Ghalib’s contemporary Mirza Ghulam
Muhammad Natiq Makrani is a Balochi poet of high stature.
During the 19th century four western scholars did a great service to Balochi
literature by compiling the century’s old scattered poetry. Hani Shah Mureed,
Meer Chakar and Hamal Rind’s works are the master pieces of Balochi
literature. Syed Muhammad Taqi Shah Taib, Mast Tawakli, Gul Muhammad
Zeb are the most reputed Balochi poets.
Mir Muhammad Hussain Anqa composed national poetry to motivate the
masses during Pakistan movement. Prominent among modern Balochi
writers are Muhammad Ramzan, Gul Khan Naseer and Azad Jamal-ud-
Deen. It was very late that Balochs developed a script for their language.
Standard Balochi script was devised on the basis of Urdu alphabets, only
after the creation of Pakistan. Certain other languages are also spoken in
different areas of Balochistan i.e. Siraiki, Brahvi, Jatki, Pushto and Makrani etc.