Abstract
This article focuses on the experience of the Baloch in Iran and examines the tension between the state-constructed national memory and the Baloch collective memory. Since the Constitutional Revolution, the discourse of Iranianhood has been shaped and institutionalized by nationalist intellectuals and ideological apparatuses such as formal education and nationalist historiography, aiming to create a centralized and homogeneous national identity. This official memory, grounded in pre-Islamic myths, the Shahnameh tradition, and Shi‘i identity, has led to the marginalization or exclusion of alternative ethnic memories. In contrast, the Baloch, drawing on their tribal life, experiences of repression and exclusion, and local narratives, have reconstructed a resistant and autonomous identity. Employing the theories of Benedict Anderson, Antonio Gramsci, and Edward Said, the study shows how national memory in Iran has fostered ethnic and religious “othering,” while Baloch memory has emerged as a site of cultural resistance and identity redefinition.
