This volume contains the proceedings of the National Seminar on Indian Nomads. It was for the first time that a national seminar on Indian nomads was organised. Nomadism is as old as history of mankind. Apart from the compulsions of nature and search for food, quest for knowledge and exploration of the unknown regions have led people to move from one place to another and interact with different groups of people. India the only surviving ancient civilization has a large number of nomadic people. Apparently nomads are marginal people but it appears they become marginal to the academic interest also. As we have been habituated to look from alienated eyes, we either do not realise or are too late to realise virtues of our own system. The nomads moving in the villages, towns and even cities represent an unique institution of this country. The nomadic people, like all other weaker sections of the populations, are under tremendous pressure. It was overdue to take a stock of them, compare notes with the different scholars working in the field, understand the roles nomads play in the Indian society and also their problems.
This seminar was jointly sponsored by the Anthropological Survey of India and the Indian Statistical Institute. The seminar was conducted from 14th to 17th February, 1978 at Mysore. The seminar was inaugurated by Shri D.V. Urs, the then Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University. The inaugural session was presided over by Dr. D. P. Mukherjee, the then Acting Director, Anthropological Survey of India, Calcutta. Dr. K.C. Malhotra introduced the theme of the seminar to the audience. Apart from local participants, 30 delegates from different parts of the country participated in the seminar which included prehistorians, historians, anthropologists, sociologists, linguists and development administrators. The seminar had seven scientific sessions.
The first session was chaired by Dr. G.S. Gai, Retd. Chief Epigraphist. It was devoted to understanding of the phenomenon nomadism. In-formation based on ancient Tamil literature showed that symbiotic non-pastoral nomads were in existence even 2000 years ago. It was suggested that similar historical research from other areas may also provide similar data. It was surmised that symbiotic non-pastoral nomads are not an aberration in the Indian society. If one conceives of the age when transport system was not so developed and the mass media were not there, these nomads must have performed an important role of carrying information, goods and services from one place to another and must have been also considered as very brave people who could take such hazardous tasks. It has been shown that kings and laity anxiously awaited their arrival. Nomadism as practised in the higher altitudes of Himalayas also came in for discussion as also the nomads who move in the forest areas. The discussion highlighted the need for more information in space and time to precisely define the full range of the meaning of the term nomadism. The second session was chaired by Dr. M.R. Rajasekhar Setty, Professor of Zoology, Mysore University. It was devoted to the biological and demographic aspects of nomadism. The session highlighted the problem of determining the ages of the people correctly in a population like that of nomads for demographic analysis. However, it was reported that in one of the nomadic groups the child bearing ages of mothers was relatively very high. This point was particularly underlined for further examination. The papers also stressed the significance of cultural practices in demographic processes. The third session, chaired by Dr. K. N. Venkatarayappa, Professor of Anthropology, Mysore University, discussed the life style of the nomadic groups. Interesting details of several nomadic groups were highlighted. We learnt about the compulsive beggars, mendicants, medicine men, weavers, pastoralists, etc. The fourth session, chaired by Dr. C. Parvathamma, Professor of Sociology. Mysore University, concerned itself with specific social organisations and world view of the nomadic people. In this session attention was drawn to the values of nomads and its correlation with nomadism, economy and social organisation. Obviously there are conflicts between the values of the nomads and settled people. Some of the nomads would like to continue their wandering life whereas social circumstances around them are no more congenial. On the other hand some of the nomads are influenced by the values of settled people and they would like to own land and settle down. Some of the papers in this session discussed the stratification among the nomads. It was noted that some nomads reproduce caste like structures among them. Conflict resolving mechanism hold a key position in the life of most of the nomadic people.
The fifth session was chaired by Dr. E. Annamalai, Deputy Director, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, and was devoted to the communication network and social boundary maintenance mechanism among the nomads.
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