{M:H:O} INDIA'S NOMADS

A roof overhead is new for Punkti, a shepherd's daughter in Rajasthan. Family men still live under the stars, staying close to their animals. Drumbeats draw a crowd as acrobats from the Nat nomadic group perform outside Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Open space keeps shrinking for itinerant herders. In the Kutch region of Gujarat, construction of a coal-fired power plant forces Sangbhai and his buffalo to detour down paved roads and past boundary walls to find what grazing land remains.

During the dry season herding activity slackens, and the Rabari alter their routines. In Rajasthan, women turn to grueling wage labor, earning two dollars a day for digging a reservoir. Men hunker down to shear sheep. Once the rains return, they'll set out with their flocks, depending on landowners for access to water and pasture. Pleased with his day, a Rabari herdsman leads his animals to the spot where they'll bed for the night. He'll sleep with them outdoors on a simple cot called a charpoy. A small boy practices with a slithery partner as his parents, members of the Vadi snake-handling community, watch and teach. The Vadi, like many nomadic entertainers, increasingly depend on begging to survive. All Ali the magician and his two partners need for their escape act is a patch of dirt, a cluster of fascinated children, and parents who will throw a few rupees at the performers' feet. Sand slows the progress of a group traveling by cart and foot. At the rear men push and a camel peers, while in front a mother carries the youngest child. Their destination is a village in Rajasthan where the men will perform one of the world's oldest arts: storytelling. A banner depicting figures in the tale will be unfurled, a fiddle will scratch, and voices will sing and chant of kings and gods. The scavenged tarp on their cart—and home—may advertise modernity, but the skills and lowly status of the Gadulia Lohar haven't changed for generations. Once weapon-makers for royalty, the blacksmiths now make and repair tools at roadside camps. A Rabari woman in Gujarat visits the grave of an ancestor. A power plant dominates what was once open grazing land surrounding the burial ground.

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