The Nomads are here to stay

About Banjaras

Banjaras were historically pastoralists, traders and transporters of goods on the inland regions of India, for which they used boats, carts, camels, oxen, donkeys and sometimes the relatively scarce horse, hence controlling a large section of trade and economy. Their prowess in negotiating thick forests was particularly prized. They often travelled in groups for protection, this tanda being led by an elected headman variously described as a muqaddam, nayak or naik. In the Deccan Plateau and the Central Provinces, the Banjaras had a monopoly on the movement of salt prior to the arrival of the East India Company. Banjaras speak Gor Boli; also called Lambadi, it belongs to the Indo-Aryan group of languages. As Lambadi has no script, it is either written in Devanagari script or in the script of the local language such as Telugu or Kannada.