The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c8.2

c8.2

The Baluchistan hills, which form the south-eastern framework of the Irano-Afghan plateau, are to-day a bare and cheerless region with rare oases in the valleys and a meagre rainfall which ill nourishes the intermittent patches of village agriculture. In consequence, a considerable portion of their scanty population, as that of the plateau itself, is nomadic; and year by year in the cold weather groups of Baluch and Afghan tribesmen move down with their families to the Indus plain in Sind and the Punjab. There they sell their labour to the less vigorous lowlanders, whom they overawe with their wild and formidable aspect and their innumerable and voracious dogs. Three or four thousand years ago a somewhat different social system prevailed. The sharp differentiation of many of the upland cultures from one another, and the considerable height (up to 100 ft. or more) attained by the accumulations which represent their little towns and villages, imply a higher measure of stability, without, be it added, ruling out altogether a certain element of seasonal migration. This relative stability in turn implies a somewhat moister, more congenial and more reliable climate than at present, and raises at once a problem which will become acute when the Indus civilization itself is considered. The problem is a controversial one in its ultimate analysis, though indeed we are less concerned here with cause than with effect. Briefly, the main points are these.