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Goyal Brothers Prakashan
5 Pastoralists in the

Modern World

1. PASTORAL NOMADS AND THEIR MOVEMENTS

1.1 In the Mountains
l During the nineteenth century, Gujjar Bakarwals of Jammu and Kashmir migrated to the
mountains in search of pastures for their cattles. During the winter season, they moved
down to the foot hills of the Siwalik range.
l By the end of April, they again moved towards northern side for their summer grazing
grounds. This movement is known as a kafila.
l Again, they started their movement downward by the end of September, this time they
are coming back to their winter base.
l In Himachal Pradesh the same cycle of seasonal movement was followed by the Gaddi
shepherds. They spent their winter in the Siwalik low hills and by April they spent their
summer in Lahul, Spiti.
l After the snow melted, they moved to higher mountains to graze their sheep. With the
start of September, they began their return journey downwards, stopping in Lahul and
Spiti to cut summer crops and sow winter crops. Afterwards they came down to grazing
grounds on the Siwalik hills in winter. Next April, they again began their march to
summer meadows.
l The Gujjar cattle herders from the further east came down to the dry forests of the
bhabar in the winter season and moved up to the high grasslands – the Bugyals – in
the summer season. Many of them originally belonged to Jammu and Kashmir.
l The same cyclical movement between summer and winter pastures was very common
to many pastoral communities of the Himalayas, such as the Bhotiyas, Sherpas and
Kinnauris.

Source A (Page no. 98)
Writing in the 1850s, G.C. Barnes gave the following description of the Gujjars of Kangra:
‘In the hills the Gujjars are exclusively a pastoral tribe – they cultivate scarcely at all. The Gaddis
keep flocks of sheep and goats and the Gujjars, wealth consists of buffaloes. These people live in
the skirts of the forests, and maintain their existence exclusively by the sale of the milk, ghee, and
other produce of their herds. The men graze the cattle, and frequently lie out for weeks in the woods
tending their herds. The women repair to the markets every morning with baskets on their heads,
with little earthen pots filled with milk, butter-milk and ghee, each of these pots containing the
proportion required for a day’s meal. During the hot weather the Gujjars usually drive their herds
to the upper range, where the buffaloes rejoice in the rich grass which the rains bring forth and at
the same time attain condition from the temperate climate and the immunity from venomous flies
that torment their existence in the plains.’
From: G.C. Barnes, Settlement Report of Kangra, 1850-55.

History Class IX H-95