ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION OF GUJJAR TRIBE IN SAAL VALLEY OF CHAMBA DISTRICT, HIMACHAL PRADESH

Gurjjar is a pastoral agricultural ethnic group living mostly in good number of populations in India and Pakistan and a small number in north eastern Afghanistan. In India Gujjar are mostly found in the state of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Harayana, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh and considered OBC and scheduled tribe in different states. In the state of Himachal Pradesh, Gujjar Tribe is one of the Scheduled Tribes and found in Una, Mandi, Shimla, Kangra and Chamba districts and follow Hinduism and Islam. In Chamba they found in saal, churah and lihal vallies and are mostly Muslim. The main occupation is buffalo rearing and is the major source of their income. They are doing labour and some settled permanently and doing some agriculture and small businesses. They are most illiterate, but researcher has observed that presently most of the parents are sending their wards to schools. Usually they live in ‘gujjar kothas' which is made up of mud, clay and wood. The present paper is an attempt to document economic transformation of this tribe who got the status of scheduled tribe in 1950 along with Gaddies and Pangwals in the district by using exploratory method of research and applying suitable statistical and sampling techniques. To see the transformation, a comparative analysis has been done between the present conditions with the conditions they had ten years ago. The study concluded that there is a big difference between economic conditions presently as compared to the conditions ten years ago.