My photographs and videos were a contribution to Living Lightly, an exhibition advocating for the rights of nomadic and settled pastoralists all over India. During this project, I was able to witness a lifestyle that is centuries old and vastly different from any I've observed before.
‘Mal’ means herds. Herds of camels, goats and sheep with a family of four or six 'dharis' or wielders tending to them. The herds marched towards food, the Maldharis followed them, and I the Maldharis. On one day we were in the middle of a farm, drinking chai, cracking jokes, the children playing. On another, we were spread over hills under grey skies, watching a transaction between a Maldhari and a buyer come to buy goats for Eid. |
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It is fair to say that the livelihoods of the Maldharis are centred around their animals - dairy being the primary source of sustenance. Camel's milk is an important source of nourishment for them, given that they lead extremely hardy lives, trudging arid landscapes under adverse weather conditions; their wovens are made form their animals' hairs, and each Maldhari artefact is marked with animal motifs.
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For centuries, the Maldharis have lived thus. I watched them sleep directly on the earth, wear cloth spun and woven out of camel and sheep wool, drink their camels’ milk, decorate it on occasion and even in death, preserve them as leather shoes.
Discarded plastic wrappers have replaced their light foot prints. Cell phones light their faces at night when sleep is scarce. We chatted about our favourite songs and exchanged WhatsApp forwards. At the end of the day, we’d disperse at the highway— where my way world began, and in so many ways, threatened theirs. |