In Gujarat the main concentration of Maldharis is found in Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Bhavnagar, Junagarh, Jamnagar, Surendranagar, Rajkot and Kutch districts. It has been stated in some records that at one time there were 103 chariyans in Gujarat; and in and around these chariyans Maldharis were settled. Most of these chariyans are either encroached or degraded resulting in forced migration of Maldharis for as much as 9-10 months in a year.

The Maldharis and their cattle thrived on the grasslands. They sold milk and milk products such as butter, ghee and condensed milk (mava) to the nearby towns and villages. The shepherds, among the Maldharis, also sold wool and woolens that their women folk made with their deft hands, carrying out fine embellishment through intricate embroidery work. However the main source of income was through bullock trading and Maldharis are known to have produced some of the best breeds of cattle.

Their life came in for a rude shock when, beginning with the last decade of the 19th century, the plough of the ‘civilized’ world started encroaching on the grasslands to produce grain and cash crops like cotton and groundnut. Agriculture for subsistence was replaced by commercial farming. The rich eco-system of the region, which sustained them for centuries, was ravaged.

Since the pastoral communities and their cattle depended on common property resources such as grasslands, forest, ponds and rivers and did not own land, they were neither counted nor consulted by the policy makers enacting laws aimed at regulating the use and ownership of land. Like the tribals, who lived in and survived on the forest, and were deprived of ownership rights over the forestland, the pastoral communities too were deprived of their right over grasslands, ponds and rivers. Natural resources that fell into the category of common property steadily became private property, the farmers, builders, contractors and industrial houses having grabbed these resources through legal or illegal means.

The Maldharis became the victims of the ‘development’ process unleashed by market-driven economy. With the market pressure increasing on local resources, the Maldharis and their cattle were forced into seasonal distressed migration in search of fodder. The partition of India in 1947 further added to the problem, as it placed the lush green pasturelands of the Sindh province out of bounds for the Maldharis in the newly created Pakistan.

Uprooted from their homeland, the Maldharis today lead a nomadic life, wandering hither and thither along with their herds of cattle through the length and breadth of India. Though constituting more than one-fifth of the population of Gujarat, these pastoral communities do not figure either in the electoral rolls or in the development plans of the government. They have become non-entities, left to fend for themselves.

Low literacy level among the Maldharis is the main reason why very few members from the pastoral communities are found in any significant positions in the government, political parties, industry, educational institutions, or for that matter in any of the organized sector. It is a travesty of fate that the Maldharis, whose traditional occupation has been animal husbandry, have virtually no representation in the cooperative dairy sector.