Beat of India Series: Volume 5 – Chamba Shepherd’s Songs

Gaddi man with goat

The Gaddi Scheduled Tribe is a semi-nomadic Tribe situated in the high Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. The Gaddis constitute a sizeable tribal population of Himachal Pradesh who mainly dwell around the Dhauladhar mountain range, Chamba, Bharmaur and the areas near Dharamshala. In Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) they are concentrated in Doda, Bhaderwah, Kathua, Udhumpar and Ramban. They speak a dialect known as Gaddi and their main occupation is just grazing their sheep & goats and preparing khadi (home spun) clothes.

This fifth volume of the Beat of India Series highlights a typical part of their culture–the songs of shepherds. Rajender Singh and Saranu Ram are Gaddis from the Chamba region of the Indian State of Himachal Pradesh.

Interestingly, nomadic herding communities such as the Gaddi were categorized (and maligned) by British colonial scholars as being largely predatory bandits and cattle rustlers who were ultimately to be subjugated. In their theories and academic papers these ancient tribes were either ignored or marginalised. In recent decades scholars have begun to explore these communities with more empathy and investigate them in their own right, trying to understand their own inner structures and dynamics and how they relate to the larger settled agricultural people of India (or which ever country they find themselves living in).

Professor Mahesh Sharma is a preeminent scholar of the Gaddi people and is based at Punjab University in Chandigarh, India. He has written many papers on the Gaddi, their society, culture, religious practice and festivals. I have made some of them available here and as you listen to this music you can also learn about the Gaddi.

These songs are pure folk–with subject matter than references various aspects of their environment and world: gods and goddesses, festivals and the landscape.

Well done to Beat of India for preserving this precious bit of Indian folk culture (lok sanskriti) for posterity.

CHAMBA