Cattle Nomads Of The Indian Desert

Cattle nomads of the Indian desert

Tan Dan about cattlebreeders and pack-ox caravans since ancient time

By Son Lal

Copyright 2013 by Son Lal

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This is a work of fiction. The names and characters come from the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Similarly, the locations and incidents in this book, which might resemble real locations and events, are being used fictitiously and are not to be considered as real.

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Cattle nomads of the Indian desert

Tan Dan about cattlebreeders and pack-ox caravans since ancient time

Tan Dan's nomadic forefathers lived a tough life, herding cattle out in the grassland wilderness of the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent. In this book Tan Dan tell about them and other similar groups that might be related to them. Especially, the ox caravan transporters and the many small castes of various professions in western Rajasthan that seem to have originated from these nomads. Other small castes served the pastorals at cattle fairs, selling all kinds of necessities to livestock breeders and farmers. The cattle castrators were also a necessary service group. Where did it all started? Where are the roots for the cattle nomads of the Indian desert? Tan Dan tries to find out and his speculations goes back to early human establishment in the region and further to the west.

Some generations ago Tan Dan's relatives carried out a difficult transformation from grazing big cattle herds on vast hot climate grasslands to dryland farming for cattle breeding. An intensification in reponse to a changing environment in the Rajasthan desert region. Tan Dan tells how his grandfather coped with it.

As narrated to his friend Son Lal around 1980.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Tan Dan

Chapter 2 The risky life of Chelana cattle

Chapter 3 Early Detha cattle husbandry on Chelana grasslands

Chapter 4 Monsoon failures, cattle migration, and the diminishing Detha herd

Chapter 5 Jugti Dan's farm development work

Chapter 6 The life on Jugti Dan's agricultural farm in the 1920s

Chapter 7 Satia castrators

Chapter 8 Tilvara Cattle Fair

Chapter 9 The emergence of ox caravans

Chapter 10 The Baldia ox caravan transporters

Chapter 11 Baluchistan and Suraj Karan

Chapter 12 The Banjara nomadic culture

Chapter 13 Banjara caravan business

Chapter 14 Banjaras as warrior nomads

Chapter 15 Early urban cultures with whom early oxen caravans might have interacted

Chapter 16 Tan Dan's comments on his baldia group classification

Chapter 17 The same caste may have different names in different regions

Chapter 18 The same name for different castes

Chapter 19 Bahi bhats as family pedigree recorders

Chapter 20 Praisers and glorifiers related to the baldias

Chapter 21 East west division within the baldia group of castes

Chapter 22 Non-baldia nomadic groups in northwestern India

Chapter 23 Banjara smallscale pack oxent transport in the 1970s

Chapter 24 After the age of pack oxen caravans

Supplements

Indian words used in this book are explained here.

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Chapter 1 Tan Dan

This is Tan Dan's version of the pastoral life in northwestern India with focus on his home region in western Rajasthan. The narrations go far both in space and time, as Tan Dan has many thoughts on how the vast multi-ethnic region from the Indian forests to the river plains of west Asia might have been experienced by widely travelling pastoral nomads over a period of four thousand years. It is narrated from his own perspective as villager of the semi-arid tropics in northwestern India. Based on his observations of the life of the nomadic groups from his childhood up to 1980 and on the narrations of those who have lived as cattle nomads themselves. Such as his father.

Others may have different ways of looking at these events. No claim is made that this is the ultimate truth. It is an attempt to come close to a nomadic culture that disappeared a few decades ago. Bits and pieces can still be found in western Rajasthan.

Who is Tan Dan?

Tan Dan Detha was born in a farmer family of the Charan caste in 1943. His native village is Chelana in Jodhpur District of Rajasthan in northwestern India. Tan Dan has lived in the midst of his strongly traditional environment all his life. He is a critical observer rather than a follower of that tradition.

Who is Son Lal?

Son Lal is my pen name. I was born in a Scandinavian country of northern Europe in the early 1940s. I have lived in India off and on for fifty years, since I first arrived to the Gateway of India at Bombay by ship in 1963. In the 1970s I met Tan Dan. We soon found we shared many views on the world, and had the same curiosity of village life. I saw a chance to learn how he experienced his rural environment. He did his best to explain, and I am grateful to him for having shared his knowledge and thoughts with me.

How this narration was done

Tan Dan told in English and I typed, while we sat together in long sessions. His many photos became a starting point for our discussions. Our knowledge of English was on the same level and we formulated the sentences together. Sentence after sentence, day after day. Most of it we wrote around 1980, but some additions were made in later decades. Afterwards I have edited the material and supplemented some sections with information from elsewhere. Still, it is Tan Dan's voice that is heard on these pages. It is a personal narration by a village farmer, and has no connection to any university.

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Chapter 2 The risky life of Chelana cattle

After the land reform in 1952 effect of the droughts on killing cattle became more severe over time due to increased shortage of grazing land. More and more land was used for crop cultivation on previous grazing land. Overgrazing and increased aridity deteriorated the quality of the grasslands that still existed.

The deteriorating grazing lands in the 1970s

In the arid region of western Rajasthan, where only one fifth of lands scattered in different parts was suitable for sustained cropping, half of the area was used for cropping.

In 1970 the net cultivated area was 63 per cent of the total area in Jodhpur district. That much was cultivated by crops, especially pearl millet in the monsoon season. It was much above the 15 per cent of the land area best fit for cultivation. On the contrary, 69 per cent of the whole area was fit for pasture based livestock-farming. For grazing rather than crop cultivation. (Source: NS Jodha, 1977 and 1980)

The area available for grazing in the district declined of course, but the livestock population went up. Between 1951 and 1966 the livestock population increased by fifty per cent. The livestock density on the diminishing grazing land area almost doubled between these years.

How baffling! The number of animals increased and the grazing land decreased. The larger area to cultivate required more bullocks for ploughing, and the growing human population wanted to keep more cows for milk. Then the number of surplus cattle also grew, as there was no way to get rid of surplus cattle by slaughter. The health of the animals declined and their large numbers caused an environmental problem.

The growing human population also damaged the natural vegetation in the areas used for grazing and deforestation became severe. The growth of the human population as a social problem left the public debate in India in the 1970s. After Sanjay Gandhi's failure. A basic problem that never got a solution. Most people were more concerned about Sanjay Gandhi's high-handed handling of the issue than the population growth as such.

Unattended cattle around 2000 AD

The miserable situation for cattle continued at Chelana during the next forty years in spite of the emergence of irrigation farming. Mechanized agriculture at Chelana meant that tractors replaced all bullocks except a few that pulled carts around the bus station. Male cattle were not castrated any longer. They moved around mingling with cows let loose after no longer yielding any milk. Hundreds of animals roamed around on their own in search of something to eat. Inside the village at places such as the bus station, which in early mornings looked like a cow shed. They also roamed around in crop field areas surrounding the village settlement.

Unattended herds of such unproductive underfed animals now and then created havoc in standing crops. An important reason for farmers to keep night-watch in their fields. The idea of castrating surplus bulls as a way of reducing the cattle population pressure was not talked about at all. The focus was on saving the life of the animals by ample donations to the goshala, the place where abandoned cattle were kept for survival. In the buses volunteers went around collecting money from the passengers for the goshala. That money would be used for buying fodder and other necessities to alleviate the condition of the unhappy animals. They were worshipped and given bread by pious villagers enjoying the sight of divine cows. That was also the condition in many other villages and urban centres in the early 21st century, both in western Rajasthan and elsewere in India.

Chelana grasslands in Tan Dan's childhood

How different the vegetational cover looked like on uncultivated land around 1950! When Tan Dan was a child and all the days played hide and seek out in the bush jungles with his friends. They were sent by their parents as helpers to the cattle herders, and had sometimes quite a problem to find those cattle who had gone astray. The animals could wander far while grazing, without feeling any need of joining the herd. Especially oxen put at the yoke most of the time enjoyed freedom like this, while the cows going with the herds as a habit seldom left on their own.

It was as a small cowherder, Tan Dan spent a lot of time playing hide and seek with his friends. A free and happy time, which ended with start of the village school in 1950. First an improvised one with three classes at a temple near the Thikana. Later on, a fourth class was added. Then Tan Dan had left for further studies at Anandpur Kalu. His father Tej Dan and other grown ups managed to build a real school house, in spite of resistence from Rajputs and Baniyas, who did not want simple village children to be spoiled by formal education.

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Thus, the grass in the grazing grounds in Tan Dan's childhood was high and tough and looked endless with only patches here and there of cultivated land.