Page 107 - Understanding NCERT Histroy 09th

Activity
(Page no. 105)
Q. Imagine you are living in the 1890s. You belong to a community of nomadic pastoralists
and craftsmen. You learn that the Government has declared your community as a
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
Criminal Tribe.
 Describe briefly what you would have felt and done.
Ans. I feel that declaring my tribe as criminal just because we move from place to place
is entirely wrong and biased. We are not committing any crime by grazing our herds.
To graze our herds we are moving from place to place when fodder at one place gets
finished. I will write a petition to the District Collector, requesting him to remove our
tribe’s name from the list of Criminal Tribes.
 Write a petition to the local collector explaining why the Act is unjust and how it
will affect your life.
Ans. Petition to Collector
Respected Sir,
I request you to remove our tribe’s name from the list of Criminal Tribes. We are not
committing any crime we are just grazing our cattle at different grazing grounds. We
are not criminals, as we do not commit any crime; we are just earning our living by
selling the milk and milk products of our animals. So the Act is completely unjust and
it should not be enforced.
In fact, I am suffering great hardship, as I am limited to a very small area and when
the vegetation is finished, I have to take special permission to go somewhere else to
feed my animals. And not only that the policemen harass us for bribes when we go
elsewhere, which is the another cause of our hardship.
So, you are requested to remove the name of our tribe from the list of criminal tribes.

2.1 How Did These Changes Affect the Lives of Pastoralis
l These measures led to acute scarcity of pastures. Reservation of forests resulted in
difficulty for herders to graze their cattle. This led to intensive grazing of available
pasture lands.
l Restrictions on pastoral movements further led to decline of pastures as pastures had no

time for restoration.
l All this finally led to death and destruction of livestock during scarcities, drought and
famines.

2.2 How Did the Pastoralists Cope with These Changes?
l Pastoralists took various steps to address the problem of shortage of pastures. Some of
them reduced their livestock; others like the Raikas found new places (such as Haryana)
to graze their sheep after Partition, yet others gave up pastoralism and settled down to
cultivation.
l Some pastoralists also became traders. Those who sold their cattle to repay loans, became
daily wage labourers in villages and towns.
l Pastoralists continue to survive and prosper even today adopting a variety of survival

measures such as changing number of cattle, routes, regions, taking up additional sources
of income.
l Not only in India, such restrictions on pastures all over the world compelled these
communities to take up new options.
H-98 History Class IX