A Case of the Vaghri in South India

92 ■Article■ Strategic "Otherness" in the Economic Activities of Commercial Nomads: A Case of the Vaghri in South India ● Ayako Iwatani 1. Introduction The purpose of this article is to understand the subsistence strategy of an itinerant community in South India. It has been pointed out that itinerant people have played a significant role of offering services and goods beyond various territories and castes. However, previous studies have overlooked their presence by focusing on villages where the sedentary populations are inter-related by caste-based network. In order to consider the role that itinerant people play in Indian society, this article discusses the commercial activities of the Vaghri,1) a semi-nomadic community in South India. The Vaghri can be called commercial nomads, who engage in various kinds of jobs in South India, while moving from one place to another in a group. Commercial nomadism [Acton 1985]2) is a useful concept to de- scribe the collective aspect of itinerant communities in India. This term originated from the studies during the 1980s to specify nomadic communities other than hunter and gatherers and pastoral nomads. To sum up the discussions about commercial nomads and other simi- lar terms, there are four characteristics of commercial nomads. First they 岩谷彩子 Ayako Iwatani, The Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University. Subject : Social Anthropology. Publication : "Conversion of the 'People without Religion': The Spread of Pentecostal Christianity among Gypsies in France", Religion and Society, 2000, vol. 6, pp. 3-26. Strategic "Otherness" in the Economic Activities of Commercial Nomads 93 generally exploit human resources [Misra 1992: 216]. Unlike exploiting bio-physiotic resources, the mode of subsistence of commercial nomads is based on various differences in a society such as economic difference between town and countryside.3) Secondly, in contrast with vagrancy and individual peddlers, their mobility takes regular patterns. This is because the movement of commercial nomads is constrained by the con- venience of sedentary living. They also have "a place to sleep", which can be the base of their movement [Rao 1987: 8]. The third characteris- tic involves cultural aspects. For example, Hayden [1999: 11] points out that many of them maintain a language for their own use, which is different from that generally spoken in the region they move. Rao [1987: 18] also mentions that the use of self-imposed ethnic markers such as language, genealogy and religion separates them from the surrounding dominant populations. The fourth is their relatively low social status. As to what makes their status low, Trawick [1991] refers to their homelessness, whereas Fisher [1981] argues that economic peripherality derived from irregular and fluid economic transactions with sedentary people makes the social status of nomadic people low. Since the first point has been extensively discussed, I take it for granted in this article. As for the fourth point, there is not sufficient space to discuss in this article. Thus this article mainly argues the second and the third characteristics. As Rao says, seemingly cultural differences should be regarded as "social strategies of survival [Rao 1987: 18]" in complex environments.4) Through an anthropological analysis of economic activities of the Vaghri, this article examines their subsistence strategy. Extensive studies of nomadic communities in India began only in the early 1970s. This is mainly because the previous studies have focused on villages, which contain four-fifths of India's population [Mines 1984]. The population of nomads is estimated to comprise 6-8% of the Indian population and only 1-2% when it comes to non-pastoral or commercial nomads [Robertson 1987:1]. It is natural that the population size prompts academic research. The vague position of artisan-merchant castes in the discussion of jajmani system5) reflects the position of commercial nomads in India as well. In Section 8, the characteristics of commercial nomads will also be drawn in comparison with merchant communities. This article thus hopes to modify the present framework of anthropological studies of Indian society. 94 Journalof the JapaneseAssociation for SouthAsian Studies, 14, 2002 The Vaghri are called Nari Kuravars or Kuruvikkarans in Tamil Nadu according to the traditional occupation of hunting and gathering (see Section 2). Yet as Section 3 shows, their traditional occupation is changing as their living environment is changing. The governmental policies, such as promulgation of the Wild Life Protection Act to prohibit hunting in 1972, and the Backward Class House Scheme6) beginning from the 1960s to offer them settlements, especially influence their traditional way of living. As a result, today the number of Vaghri who engage in hunting and gathering is decreasing and their main subsistence activity is shifting more to itinerant business. Although they now tend to settle, most of them are on leave for vending for more than half of the year. Detailed discussion of their occupational choices is given in Section 3, but it should be noted that they are not entirely out of "free" choices. They make use of their nomadic life style so as to fulfill new demands of society. Their recent economic activities examined in this article clearly show their survival technique. For instance, unlike ordinary businessmen, they are used to staying in any kind of place for business, such as shabby hotels with basic facilities, tents, or packed second-class trains. That is why they can make benefit even if the means of transportation improves and anyone can move from one place to another without much difficulty. They also make use of their multi-lingual ability for purchasing and selling goods. They are said to come from North India, thus their familiarity with North Indian languages helps them in business. In Section 4, their purchase of raw materials of their products in North India is examined. Their business transactions described in Section 5, 6, and 7 show that they are well in tune with new social demands. The rise of pilgrimage in Tamil Nadu started in the 1950s, as the Dravidian movement lifted up the living standard of lower caste people as well as their consciousness toward South Indian deities [Sekar 1992: 91-94; Nishimura 1987: 117- 118] The pilgrimage to Sabarimalai in Section 5 is related to this inter- caste and inter-regional movement. The Vaghri have found a great business chance to sell religious commodities at pilgrimage sites and temples. The second example, which is described in Section 6, is their dealings. The necklaces made from beads also appeal to foreign tourists. Under the wave of globalization, the Vaghri represent India in the eyes of foreign tourists. This holds true when the Vaghri go to work in Southeast Strategic"Otherness" in the EconomicActivities of CommercialNomads 95 Asian countries, where there are many overseas Tamils live. In the third example given in Section 7, the Vaghri play a role of linking the town and the village. From the point of the urban people, "tradition al" medical and magical knowledge seems to be kept among the Vaghri, who are supposed to hunt animals and practice black magic even today. Let us see how commercial nomads fill various niches in society through these kinds of economic transactions. 2. The Field Setting: Who are the Vaghri? In the previous studies of caste in South India, the Vaghri have been referred to only peripherally7) or described rather independently from the caste system.8 The reason behind the scarce study of the Vaghri community lies in the following facts: first their origin and the name are quite ambiguous; second, their influence in the society at large is small because their subsistence and mode of living separates them from the network of ritual exchange in the region. In this section, we hope to present a clearer picture of the group called Vaghri in South India. In Tamil Nadu in South India, the local residents do not know the group name, Vaghri. It is said that their homeland is in Rajasthan or Gujarat judging from their customs and language which has no writing system.9) It is considered that the name Vaghri, by which they call themselves, derives from their traditional occupation of hunting and gathering.10) All of their local names such as Nari Kuravar (jackal hunting Kuravar)11) or Kuruvikkaran (bird catchers) in Tamil Nadu, Nakkala vandlu (jackal hunting people) in Andhra Pradesh, and Hakkipikki (bird mimicking people) in Karnataka are related to hunting and gathering. They call themselves by the respective local names as they move from one state to another, but the images attached to their names are quite negative or invite peoples' ridicule. In Tamil Nadu, the population of the Vaghri is estimated to be about 100,000. It is not the precise number, but they are the largest nomadic group in Tamil Nadu whom everybody knows. There is a clear distinction between the Vaghri and non-Vaghri. Such a distinction can be recognized in the way in which the Vaghri call non- Vaghri. The Vaghri refer to non-Vaghris as madho (man from the out- 96 Journalof the JapaneseAssociation for SouthAsian Studies, 14, 2002 side in the Vaghri language: V) and madsi (woman from the outside: V), though when they address them directly, they use kudiydnavar (a gen- eral term for agricultural people in Tamil: T). For the Vaghri, all the non-Vaghri except Harijans or untouchables belong to one category, madho. The Vaghri also have a specific word to refer to Harijans, dediyo. They maintain a distance from madho and dediyo is considered to be even lower in ranking. Furthermore, they have categories of outsiders within their group with whom they have minimal exchange of goods and women.

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