Pastoralists in the Modern World

1. Who are Pastoral Nomads?

Pastoral nomads are people who do not live in one place but move from one area to another to earn their living by rearing animals. They keep large herds of cattle, sheep, goats, camels or yak, and depend on these animals for milk, meat, wool, skins and the sale of these products. They move because no single pasture can feed their animals all year round — when the grass in one region is finished or the season changes, they shift to a new area where fresh grazing is available. Their whole way of life is shaped by the seasons, the availability of water, and the rhythm of growing and harvesting crops in the plains they pass through. This constant movement is called nomadism, and it is a skilled, carefully planned response to a harsh environment, not aimless wandering.

2. Pastoralists in the Mountains — the Gujjar Bakarwals and the Gaddis

In the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir lived the Gujjar Bakarwals, great herders of goats and sheep. They came to this region in the nineteenth century in search of pastures. They followed a regular seasonal movement: in winter, when the high mountains were under snow, they lived in the low hills of the Siwalik range, where their animals grazed on dry scrub forests. By the end of April they began their northward march to their summer grazing grounds. Many households moved together in a group called a kafila. They crossed the Pir Panjal passes and entered the lush green valley of Kashmir by the end of September. As winter approached and the high meadows were covered with snow, they came back to their winter base. This way they had grass for their cattle in both seasons. Similarly, the Gaddi shepherds of Himachal Pradesh spent their winter in the low hills of Siwalik, grazing flocks in scrub forests; in April they moved north to Lahul and Spiti, and by September they returned. The Gujjar cattle herders of Garhwal and Kumaon came down to the dry forests of the bhabar in winter and went up to the high meadows — the bugyals — in summer. Many of them had originally come from Jammu in the nineteenth century. In this cycle of movement, the cattle of one region grazed where the snow had melted and fresh grass had grown, and the people timed their movements perfectly with nature.

3. Pastoralists on the Plateaus, Plains and Deserts

Pastoralists were found not only in the mountains but also on the plateaus and in the dry regions of India. The Dhangars were an important pastoral community of Maharashtra. In the monsoon they stayed on the dry central plateau of Maharashtra, a semi-arid region where they sowed bajra (a kind of millet). By October they moved west to the Konkan, a fertile farming area where they were welcomed by Konkani peasants. After the kharif harvest was cut, the fields had to be fertilised and made ready for the rabi crop, and the Dhangar flocks manured the fields and fed on the stubble. The Konkani peasants also gave the shepherds rice for the home; with the onset of the monsoon they left, because the wet area was bad for sheep. In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh lived the Gollas (cattle herders) and the Kurumas and Kurubas (shepherds and blanket weavers). They lived near the dry forests, on the plateaus, combining cultivation with herding and many other small jobs. In the deserts of Rajasthan lived the Raikas. The rainfall was meagre and uncertain and harvests were poor, so the Raikas combined cultivation with pastoralism. One group, the Maru (desert) Raikas, herded camels; another group reared sheep and goats. In the dry season they moved out in search of green pasture, returning during the monsoons. So we see that the lives of all these communities were sustained by careful judgement about how long the herd could stay in one area, where they could find water, and how to time their movement through cultivated and uncultivated land.

4. Colonial Rule and Pastoral Life

Under colonial rule, the life of pastoralists changed dramatically. Their grazing grounds shrank, their movements were regulated, the revenue they had to pay increased, their agricultural stock declined, and their trades and crafts were adversely affected. There were four main reasons for this. First, the colonial state wanted to turn all grazing lands into cultivated farms because land revenue was the main source of its income. By expanding cultivation it could increase its revenue collection and at the same time produce more jute, cotton, wheat and other crops needed in England. So uncultivated land was seen as “wasteland” that produced no revenue, and it was brought under cultivation through Waste Land Rules. In most areas the lands taken over were the very grazing tracts the pastoralists had used.

Second, by the mid-nineteenth century various Forest Acts were enacted. Through these Acts, forests that produced commercially valuable timber like deodar or sal were declared “Reserved”. No pastoralist was allowed access to these forests. Other forests were classified as “Protected”, where some customary grazing rights were granted but their movements were severely restricted. The colonial officials believed that grazing destroyed the saplings and young shoots of trees that came up on the forest floor. So pastoralists were now prevented from entering many forests they had earlier used. Third, the British were suspicious of nomadic people. They could not understand communities that were always on the move and could not be easily identified or controlled. In 1871, the colonial government passed the Criminal Tribes Act, by which many communities of craftsmen, traders and pastoralists were classified as Criminal Tribes. They were stated to be criminal by nature and birth, were expected to live only in notified village settlements, and were watched by the police. Fourth, to expand its revenue income, the colonial government looked for every possible source of taxation. So tax was imposed on land, on canal water, on salt, on trade goods, and even on animals. Pastoralists had to pay grazing tax on every animal they grazed on the pastures. The tax per head of cattle went up rapidly and the system of collection was made very efficient. In the decades from the 1850s to the 1880s the right to collect the tax was auctioned out to contractors, who tried to extract as much as they could. By the 1880s the government began collecting taxes directly from pastoralists, each of whom was given a pass. To enter a grazing tract a cattle herder had to show the pass and pay the tax, recorded on it along with the number and kind of cattle he had.

5. How did these Changes affect the Lives of Pastoralists?

These changes had a deep impact. There was now a shortage of pastures. As grazing lands were taken over and turned into cultivated fields, the area of pasture declined. When restrictions were imposed on forests, the existing animals had to feed on whatever grazing land remained, so the same land was continuously and intensively grazed. This deterioration of pastures created a further shortage of forage and a decline in the quality of animals. Animal stock declined because they did not have sufficient nutrition and often died in large numbers during scarcity and famine years. So the pastoralists faced very hard times. But pastoralists are clever and resourceful people, and they responded to these changes in different ways. Some reduced the number of cattle in their herds, since there was not enough pasture to feed large numbers. Some discovered new pastures when movement to old grazing grounds became difficult — for example, after 1947 the Raikas could no longer move into Sindh and graze their camels on the banks of the Indus, as a new political boundary now separated India and Pakistan, so they had to find new places to go, such as Haryana, where sheep could graze on agricultural fields after the harvests were cut. Over the years, some richer pastoralists began to buy land and settle down, giving up their nomadic life; some became settled peasants cultivating land, others took to more extensive trading. Many poor pastoralists, on the other hand, borrowed money from moneylenders to survive, and at times lost their cattle and sheep and became labourers, working on fields or in small towns. Yet, in spite of all these hardships, pastoralism did not disappear; it continued, and ecologists believe it remains the most rational and useful way of life in many dry and mountainous regions.

6. Pastoralism in Africa — the Maasai of East Africa

Even today over 22 million Africans depend on some form of pastoral activity for their livelihood, living in the semi-arid grasslands and dry deserts of Africa. They include the Bedouins, Berbers, Maasai, Somali, Boran and Turkana, raising cattle, camels, goats, sheep and donkeys, and selling milk, meat, animal skin and wool. The chapter studies the Maasai, who live in east Africa — 300,000 in southern Kenya and another 150,000 in Tanzania. One of the problems the Maasai have faced is the continuous loss of their grazing lands. Before colonial times, Maasailand stretched over a vast area. In the late nineteenth century, European imperial powers scrambled for African territory and cut Maasailand into half with an international boundary between British Kenya and German Tanganyika in 1885. The best grazing lands were gradually taken over for white settlement, and the Maasai were pushed into a small area in south Kenya and north Tanzania. They lost about 60 per cent of their lands and were confined to an arid zone with uncertain rainfall and poor pastures.

7. The Maasai — Borders, Drought and the Loss of Power

From the late nineteenth century the British colonial government in east Africa also encouraged local peasant communities to expand cultivation, so pasture lands were turned into cultivated fields. Large areas of grazing land were also turned into Game Reserves like the Maasai Mara and Samburu National Park in Kenya and the Serengeti Park in Tanzania. Pastoralists were not allowed to enter these reserves; they could not hunt animals or graze their herds in these areas. The loss of the finest grazing lands and water resources created problems for the cattle of the Maasai. Pasture was now limited to a small area, and continuous grazing within a small area meant a deterioration in the quality of pastures. Fodder was always in short supply, and feeding the cattle became a persistent problem. Droughts hit the pastoralists badly. In 1933 and 1934 a severe drought killed half the cattle in the Maasai Reserve. As the area of grazing shrank, the adverse effect of drought increased in intensity, and the number of cattle perished in droughts rose alarmingly. The colonial government also changed the traditional social and political life of the Maasai. In pre-colonial times Maasai society was divided into two social categories — elders and warriors. The elders formed the ruling group and met in periodic councils to decide community affairs. The warriors consisted of younger people who defended the community and organised cattle raids, by which they asserted the power of their group. To administer the affairs of the Maasai, the British appointed chiefs of different sub-groups, who were made responsible for the affairs of the tribe. The British imposed various restrictions on raiding and warfare, so the traditional authority of both elders and warriors was adversely affected. Over time, the appointed chiefs often accumulated wealth, bought land and lent money, while the poor pastoralists who depended only on their cattle suffered terribly in years of drought and war.