Nagaur Cattle and Camel Fair

A strange and slightly overwhelming trip to Naguar broke up the last month in Jaisalmer. I almost started a small riot/mob while walking back one evening to my tent dressed in Rajasthani clothing. It was just a little too much for this crowd of Indian boys who turned from five in number to an overheated and frightening fifty. Somedays I love my orni (veil) more than anything.
Drank much tea, ate delicious samosas, oranges and kachuris, was chased around town by a lit of over excited men and children and met a particularly affectionate camel that I was very tempted to stay with...
I told all the raikas that I was so happy I had finally found a rajasthani boyfriend -- as my new kass dost nuzzled and nestled me lovingly. Oddly appreciated for a girl like me who hasn't had a hug in two months.




All in all, it was an informative and interesing trip. Certainly justified the twenty some hours I spent on public buses to reach Naguar. The naguar Mela, though not any sort of tourist event, is the largest cattle fair in Rajasthan and draws a great deal of camels as well (at least two or three thousand). It was a perfect opportunity for me to meet some Raikas (a subcaste of camel herders) from all over the state who are doing long distance migration and see how they traveled to the fair.



The Raikas are traditionally camel breeders, though some types of Raika (mostly from the Godhwar region) also raise sheep and goats. The Naguar Fair was my first real contact with these people and a large factor in me later deciding to head down to Pali upon leaving Jaisalmer to learn more about them. More than any of the many many nomadic castes in Rajasthan, the raikas are still moving and traveling and dealing with a lot of the issues central to my project. With the Raika (as with all ghummakar in Rajasthan) mobility is intimatly tied up with issuesof natural resources -- distribution of land, water and food. And their lives have been impacted greatly by the changing social and physical landscape of the region.

Unfortunatly, or interestingly, they don't build anything at all. Some use carts and some caravans, but mostly, the Raika I have met just walk. and walk and walk and walk. Smaller dangs (nomadic camps) bring almost nothing with them, but rely on communities to provide them with food and fodder in return for feralizing their fields where they stop. They carry just a few blankets or shawls, a pot for collecting camel's milk and making tea, and a small sack of sugar, tea and maybe some flour. They leave behind nothing but three stones and some ashes. Everythig gets tied onto the camel and off they go.

Nomads in all castes and colors... (Jaisalmer part 2)

Trying to understand caste in India is a complicated business. Primarily, caste is a signifier of vocation (and a certain amount of cleanliness/sacredness that accompanies any job). Many of the nomads in Rajasthan are not pastoral nomads and keep very few, if any, animals. Instead, they used to travel from town to town providing skills and services to villages.

Here are some of the caste groups I met in my first few weeks
(and their corresponding jobs):

Bhopa: Musicians who specialize in the teller of Pabu-ji, a famous Rajasthni epic. (Not to be confused with bopa - higher caste priests who do puja at particular temples)

Banjara: larger category of small goods traders. Originally engaged in trading salt, natural dyes, and minerals. Now mainly sell plastic goods, jewelry and bangles.

Godolia Luhars: iron smiths (the most common type of tool makers/repairers) They travel with great wooden carts and can manifest as anything from a full mobile iron melting and smithing unit to an old man with a sharpening wheel powered by a bicycle.

Ghattiwals: repair stone mills

(Kuch) Bandiya: make tools for goldsmiths, painters and weavers

Nat: Acrobats and performers of various feats and tricks (not to be confused with Naths - fire priests from Bikaneerwho do not wander) often magicians, contortionists, and tight rope walkers.

Bhatts: A large category encompassing different types of wandering storytellers and geneologists. (not to be confused with bhats)

Kathputli Bhatts: Puppeteers and singers. Perform with plays with marionettes on portable stages accompanied by musicians on dholok (drum), khartel (castenetes) and vocals.

Jogi: Wandering beggers with no special vocation. They are considered by some to be cast-out asetics and considered by some to be Kalbelias from another region. Untouchables

Kalbelias: Snake charmers, beggers, dancers, singers. They are connected to Jogis in ancestry (according to some, contested by others). Touted as the epic "real gypsies" of Rajasthan. Mostly, the women wander through towns begging and engaging in serious "flirtation/seduction" for money. Untouchables

Raika and Rebari: Pastoral nomads, herders of camel, sheep and goats. Sometimes considered one group, sometimes considered two separate groups. These days most herderes who call themselves Raika travel in Rajasthan, while most Rebaris are found in Gujarat and MP.


In the face of so much difference and diversity, I find myself constantly questioning any connection at all between these communities and the terms used to link them. North Indians I have met along the way fluctuate between lumping all of these communities under one inaccurate caste name (usually calling them all Jogis with thinly veiled contempt) or saying that these groups have nothing in common with each other. Still others were adamant that these groups even exist anymore. Indeed, other than their own landlessness and incessant movement, the various nomadic castes of Rajasthan do not have much in common. It is primarily when settling (most often in slums or on the outskirts of larger town/cities) that these groups have begun to mix and live in close proximity.

I very quickly had to accept the clear fact that almost none of the traditional nomadic castes in Rajasthan are still moving from place to place. Aside from the Raika and other pastoralists and small groups of banjari (small goods traders), virtually everyone has settled in one way or another. Many have settled in or around towns and cities where they can live off manual labor, low service work or beg or perform for tourists. By the time I come into contact with some Raikas and learn more about their communities, it is no longer possible for me to travel with them for a host of reasons. Only one of which is that it is copletly the wrong time of year to join a migration. Only the Raikas who do short term migration or radial migration (and live in hamlets) are around in Pali. Please come back in July, they say. Everyeon will be returning before the rains. Or come in October. Come back, come back. But by then I’ve been in Rajasthan for almost two months getting lost in other neighborhoods and tied to other families. Compared to Fulli and Suman and my other Bhopa sisters, these Raika men look quiet, reserved and hungry.

So, my time in Jaisalmer passes with a schizophrenic mixture of discomfort, annoyance, joy and ease. I find a room in a family run guest house near the musicians' colony and away from the fort and most of the tourists. I keep thinking that things will become clearer any day and that I will be able to leave soon enough...

Jaisalmer Ayo!

Having left Varanasi and my Hindi student days behind me, I set out for Rajasthan to learn about the ghummaker (wandering people) of the Thar Desert. There are nomadic people found all in every region India, but the nomads of Western Rajasthan have the distinction of an added romantic image. They are considered by many to be the original gypsies. What this actually means, I still have no idea. People - especially those connected to the tourist business - love this word “gypsy”, and nowhere in India is it thrown around with greater zeal than in Rajasthan.



From Delhi, I headed straight to Jaisalmer, an old fort town and trading center in the heart of the Thar. I planned to spend one or two weeks in town talking to local contacts in order to settle in and get a firmer understanding of the different groups, their relations to each other and to Jaisalmer. Then, I would pick one of the groups and move with them, if possible. It was a good plan. It was a clear plan. I slept well on the train and dreamt of the desert that I was passing through. I had no idea that I would almost run away from Jaisalmer after my third day in town; nor that I would end up staying in Kalakar Colony for nearly two months with a bhopa family who rebuilt their home two or three times a year not because they were nomadic, but because most of the huts on that side of the slum dissolved or collapsed in the rains.

But that is another story. I know I tend to wander, but be patient, we'll get there. No one is in a hurry in India.
Please, have some more tea.



Jaisalmer is a fort city located in far Western Rajasthan the heart of the Thar Desert. The district is hugged on the north, north-west and west by Pakistan and bounded by desert on the east. The city was founded in the 12th century by traders from other regions of India and quickly became a rich trade center and stop on the silk route. Jaisalmer remained a vibrant and diverse center of culture, art and music for nearly 700 years until sea routes opened up and trade fell away. During British rule, port centers grew in importance and railroad tracks to Pakistan and Punjab decreased the importance of the camel caravans and gypsies that had passed through Jaisalmer for hundreds of years.

Due to the harshness of its climate and the richness of its trade, Jaisalmer has always been a town which has fascinated visitors and drawn strangers. There are said to be more than fifteen distinct nomadic groups in Jaisalmer District and surrounding areas. It is a rich location to work on this project, and on my quiet ride into town, I have no idea what I’m getting myself into.

Now, in Mongolia matters were fairly simple. Aside from slight regional differences, nomadic communities were easy to label and had no ambiguity about their own identity. Almost all of the population outside of Ulaan Baatar is nomadic or semi-nomadic. The only real divisions between groups were based on region, religion, animals herded and language - all clearly identifiable factors.

Now in Rajasthan the picture is completely different. I’m swimming (at times drowning) in a sea of people who are nomadic, semi-nomadic, historically nomadic and questionably nomadic. There are literally dozens of groups which have traditional held no land and moved from place to place with various means of sustenance. Each group has its own caste or sub-caste which signals its vocation, region of origin, history and genealogy. Caste remains a firm marker of communities in India, dictating and clarifying people’s status, position and relationships. Yet, caste distinctions and titles are constantly being changed and questioned - especially among the lower castes. Some groups hide or change their caste when they move to a new place. Some groups have multiple caste identities in different regions they pass through. For the most part, caste keeps communities separate and would provide a clear identity to stand upon if the ground weren’t constantly shifting.