The Nomadic Indigenous Peoples of South Asia

The indigenous nomadic peoples of South Asia - including Baluch, Banjara, Bhil, Charan, Gujar, Jat, and Nandiwalla - have traditionally occupied a unique place within the larger South Asian society. Often subsisting on the outskirts of major society, they have played an essential role in the larger economic and social functioning of South Asian society. Traditionally the indigenous nomadic peoples of South Asia have practiced camel breeding, pastoralism, camel driving, buffalo breeding, merchantilism, and farming, as well as a wide variety of social and economic occupations. Despite their lack of identity through their economic practices, the indigenous nomadic peoples of South Asia are bound by the common life of nomadism.

south_asia_map.gif

South Asia has the world's largest nomadic population and the greatst diversity of nomadic professions. Anthropologists have identified some five hundred distinct communities of mobile herders, gypsies, and foragers, equally around seven percent of the total Indian population. These indigenous people have been practicing their nomadic lifeway for hundreds to thousands of years - fulfilling several needs in ther larger South Asian region that are essential to the economic, ecological, and social functioning of the region. These people, however, are currently under enormous pressure.

Intimately connected with state policies and practices applied over the last century, the plight of the nomadic indigenous peoples of South Asia is of critical importance. As a result of the establishment of British colonial rule, and the subsequent independence and nation-state building of South Asian countries, three major threats to nomadic indigenous peoples survival have been identified.

1) Specific types of infrastructure have rendered the lifeway patterns and occupations of indigenous nomadic people largely obsolet.

2) Various decisions based on fiscal policies have led to an increase in the distance traveled and/or the duration of migration required for indigenous nomadic peoples to find jobs.

3) Migration, either annually or seasonally, has become increasingly difficult across South Asia, and in many areas it has been completely prohibited.

A full listing of the nomadic indigenous peoples effected by these policies in South Asia is impossible. However, several indigenous nomadic communities have been identified and include:

In recent years indigenous nomadic peoples have been arrested as "smugglers" or labeled as "infiltrators" as they follow their traditional paths and cross state and national borders. The Kanjar, Qalandar, Sansi, and Jogi have had their entire communities split as new borders have been delinated. Beginning in the 1960s the historic trade between Tibet, China, and India by the Humli-Khyampa, whose economy had been premised on the absence of salt in Nepal and rice in Tibet was largely destroyed. The Siwalik range in the foothills of the Greater Himalayas used to be the "salt border" between Tibet and Indian salt, the former being of major importance for centureis for the whole of Kashmir, Himachal, and Uttaranchal. However, as a result of national and international policies this historic trade network has largely ceased to exist.

Similarly, with the spread of cinema, television, and other forms of media, many of the traditional entertainment roles that various indigenous nomadic peoples used to occupy have disappeared. The industrialization of South Asia and various infrastructural developments have also largely affected the demand for goods traditonally supplied by indigenous nomadic peoples. For example, the skills of the Ghatiya Jogi of western Rajasthan - traditonal makers of grinding stones for household use - have become obsolete as electricity has become more available.

Finally, the changes in the local environment - often as a result of the development of agriculture, industry use, military use, and developmental infrastructure - have impacted many of the resources indigenous nomadic peoples of South Asia historically utilized. Species of grasses, reeds, rushes, leaves, bamboo, wood, and specific kinds of clay have all been reduced in traditional areas. These natural resources were essential for the manufacture of baskets, winnows, screens, cradles, toys, figurines, and the like. As such, not only have many of the resources utilized by the indigenous nomadic peoples of South Asia disappeared, but they have also lost potential sources of income as many of these manufactured goods were subsequently sold for everyday household use.