The
French historian Marc Bloch who was a pioneer in mastering anthropological
insights into studying history of rural transformations argues:
“…history is the study of dead and living.
The faculty of understanding the living is, in truth, the master quality of the
historian, who does not love the past but loves life”.
The
present ongoing discussion strives to seek answers to understand changes in the
complex social formation, especially the aspects of engagements of communities
with each other, with the state and its institutions and the natural ecology of
which they are an integral part. What interests us here is the history of the
human and livestock communities of the Thar and the physical territory in which
they were inscribed, the deciphering of the relations, multiple, intertwined
and elusive, between man and biosphere in Thar.
It
would be of interest to decipher the fast changing contemporary realities that
seem to shape up a present that is eager to throw away, shake off the heavy
lethargic weight of past as a obscurantist legacy. It needs to be said that in
the midst of this noisy clamor for ushering in a new present it is important
that we do not loose sight of this remarkable ability of past to persist at the
level of mentalities as well as a ‘prodigal inertial mass’.
The
Indian Thar is a hot desert and ranks among the few deserts of the world that
have had a long human history of settlement. This history has been made
possible by the unique attributes of the complex of eco systems and their
natural endowments that make the natural setting of Thar. Equally ingenious and
resilient have been life practices of different communities, mobile and
sedentary, who have displayed remarkable forbearance and endurance in
populating the region.
It
would not be very off the mark to suggest that pastoralism, along with the ways
of life associated with it, has been one of the core elements of human history
of this region. From early on it became an indispensable part of the
combinatory of survival practices that included subsistence based sedentary
farming and hunting- gathering. Pastoralism represented one
of the significant patterns of mobility that was a phenomenon characterizing
much of pre modern life in Thar. Mobility of pastoral groups contributed to
urbanisation as well as the emergence of settled clan aristocracies, mainly of
the Rajputs. The variant of
pastoralism that was typical of this region was a diverse range of semi nomadic
pastoralism that evolved in interaction with agriculture.
The
agro pastoral region of the western and north western parts of the state of
Rajasthan has been home to different pastoral communities nested within the
overarching hegemonic dominance of the Rajputs. The Rajputs, Jats, Raikas,
Charans, Bishnois, Meghwals and a group of Muslim communities are some of the
major pastoral communities. The livestock rearing practices of these different
communities are specific adaptations to distinct ecological niches negotiating
a middle space between sedentary agriculture and free ranging pastoralism,
relying on commons pastures and grasslands. These regions have their localized
and hereditary customs, social ties, inter dependencies and practices relating
to natural resource use and traditions of music and craft. The realms of the
anthropological and the natural were articulated in specific ways for these
distinct ecological regimes.
The
pastoral way of life was majestic, given the frugal and rustic ecology where it
had originated and thrived over centuries. It had come to represent a
substantive holistic experience and was innovative in the sense of having
capability for a range of adaptations devised to survive in the long periods of
harshness, and bloom in the brief spells of abundance in the region. The sway
of pastoral way is evident in the dexterous everyday work ethic of rearing
animals to aesthetic pursuits of exquisite creations of music and rustic
textiles and other crafts. These life-sustaining practices weave the complex of
cultures of pastoralism. They are intimately linked and draw upon each other
profusely in terms of their relation with nature.
Pastoralism
has been increasingly relegated to margins of settled existence and indeed of
the development discourse. The ecology that sustained it over centuries has
dissipated fast having fallen prey to radical transformation by modernizing impulses
of modern development.
Notwithstanding
the almost fatalistic present prophecies justifying the contemporary ‘sedentary
turn’, long term historical sensibility urges the need to situate the
historical roots of pastoralism as a resource use strategy and a way of life
more firmly into our existence. This is considered necessary, because such a perspective
is often found wanting in the numerous prophecies (like nomadic pastoralism
will / must / should disappear) on the future of pastoralism and pastoral
communities in Thar. Far from assuming that contemporary pastoralism is in an
inevitable crisis and should/would give way to agro industrial complexes in the
rapid on-going transformation, there is sense in learning from this remarkably
resilient and frugal way of life.
It may hold insights and
cues for transition to a sustainable world.
