Vol. 6 · No. 2 · 2002

Aparna Rao

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Most of the world's nomadic communities live in South Asia, and this region has the greatest variety of domestic animals systematically herded - bovines, equines, camels, sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, guinea-fowl. Yet, scholarly interest in South Asian nomadism is meagre (Rao and Casimir 2003), and largely limited to expounding the 'problems' these 'backward' communities create for the state in its developmental aims. Reflecting colonial and orientalist attitudes flavoured by an urbanised and sedentist bias, the perspective has been largely that of a state, whose ultimate objective is to settle migratory pastoralists and other nomads. With environmental problems growing and alarming reports of deforestation throughout the region, state forest departments in many South Asian countries are locked in battles over what they deem 'overexploitation' by migratory herders. Increasingly, however, this perspective is being questioned and issues of social justice are coming to the fore. The notion of the environment being a concern of and for the state, rather than one of and for the people, is being contested. Slowly, but steadily, resource use - and with this, nomadism - in South Asia is also becoming a contested domain.