'Report on the Nushki, Chagai and Western Sinjerani Districts for the year 1897-98 and on the Development of The Quetta-Seistan [Sistan] Trade Route' [‎4r] (7/148)

APPENDIX I.
On the Administration of the Nuskhi, Chagai and
Western Sinjerani Districts.
NUSUKI.
I was unable last year, for various reasons, to supply any detailed
information as to the history and revenue resources of the district. Accordingly,
I took advantage of the halt which I was compelled to make at Nushki from
the 21st November to 10th December 1897, settling tribal feuds and district
cases of the usual type, to order a careful investigation into these resources.
I now embody the result of my enquiries under the following three heads: —
{a) History of the tribes inhabiting Nushki.
(b) Water-supply available for irrigation purposes.
(c) Lands, crops and revenue.
-2. Before entering on the subject, it is necessary for me to premise that
the figures which I quote, although sufficiently near to the truth to afford a
basis for calculating the possible revenue of the district, must, nevertheless, be
accepted as merely approximate, as I found the zamindars exceedingly reticent
in imparting information.
A.—History of the Tribes inhabiting Nushki.
3. Nushki originally belonged to the Mandai tribe of Baluch. Many
•generations ago, these Mandai were decimated by inter-tribal quarrels, and
found themselves unable to hold their ow r n against the Barech. They therefore
enlisted the assistance of the Badini Bakhshami, a tribe which.at that time was
Tesiding in Kharan. The Badini, nothing loth, accepted the invitation of the
Mandai, and the two clans combining their forces quickly drove the raiders
across the border into Shorawak. The Badini then proceeded to establish
themselves in Nushki, quite regardless of the feelings of their hosts.
My investigations show that, up to a comparatively recent date, the
Brahui tribe of Mengals—the most numerous tribe now populating Nushki —
resided in Kalat. During the reign of Mir Mehrab Khan, for various reasons,
which spaoe precludes me from discussing, a feud broke out between the
Mengals and the Badini branch of the Rakhshani Baluch. In the desultory
fighting which ensued, the Mengals lost heavily. After the conflict had
continued several years, the Khan stepped in and adjusted the feud by
compelling the Badini to surrender to the Mengals two Shabanarozes
of water in the Kaisar stream. The Mengals took advantage of the
opening thus offered them to emigrate to Nushki, where they built
their village on land which, up to the present, remains Rakhshani
property. The Mengal Sardar Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. soon found the inconvenience of having his
tribal property divided, and so requested the Khan to exchange the water which
his tribe owned in Kalat for water of equivalent value in Nushki. In this, the
Khan acquiesced, and gave the Mengals, in lieu of their Kalat property,
5 Shabanarozes in the Kaisar river, exempt from all revenue charges. This,
(then, is very briefly the history of the Mengal advent into Nushki. The
Mengals from time to time added to their possession, not only by purchase and
mortgage and sometimes by marriage, but largely by forcibly exacting compen
sation for blood shed in the frequent quarrels which followed their arrival.
The dak System of postal communication used in Moghul India and later by the East India Company. lands which this tribe claims come under the latter category. A re
ference to the table annexed to this report will show that the Mengal posses
sions in Nushki are still very limited. The tribe is by inclination a pastoral
one: had it not been so, there was nothing to prevent the Mengals following the
example originally set them by the Badini Rakhshani and gradually absorbing
.all Nushki, as, man for man, they out-number the Rakhshani in the proportion
♦of seven to one. The Mengals, considering their numbers, appear to have acted
\with singular moderation. Finding their water more than sufficed to irrigate