The Gaddi

Gadia Lohar are the Nomadic people of Rajasthan, but due to their occupation they traveled mostly in the northern parts of India. Their nomadic life style may be compared with Roma Gypsies. Roma are known by different Names in different countries. Most of the Roma of Europe and America believe that they are Rajputs or Jats from India who had migrated in the distant past. The community is divided in various groups known as Bargujjar, Sindhi, Luri or Lohar etc. But there is no doubt that the place of origin of Gadia Lohar was Rajasthan.

P.K. ROY Born in 1960 Udaipur, Tripura. Qualifications: B.A. & Five Years Diploma in Applied Art with first class first from Govt. College of Art and Craft, Agartala, Tripura. Organized more than ten solo painting exhibitions, and many group shows. Collection of Paintings: Studio Vasant, New Delhi and with some individuals in India, USA, Singapore, Italy etc. Awards: Navodaya National Awards in the year 1999 and honoured by Commissioner, Gurgaon in the year 2004.

Thile working with the students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Wh Nagina, Mewat during 1995, I decided to interact with the "Gadia Lohar" people, whom camp-site was very near to the Vidyalay, as a part of Navodaya Family's commitment for pace-setting activities for integrating the society. Students made a project on Gadia Lohar. They had written so many stories, write-ups, poems and also made many paintings on them and exhibited the work in the form of a book at National level exhibition at IIC, New Delhi. I can still remember that one of my student, Miss Jyoti Kansal had written a poem "Sadak Ke Saathi" on Gadia Lohar and their Semi nomadic life. Later on the poem was published in a book on poems "Sankalp other student Jitendra, Ramkishan, Indira, Udaiyram, Kamaljeet had also made so many paintings on Gadia Lohar.

I traveled so many areas of the camp-site of Gadia Lohar in Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, particularly Alwar, Poata, Jaipur Udaipur, Chittorgarh etc. and tried to collect information regarding their life style, problems and values. Their nomadic life style may be compared with Roma Gypsies. Roma are known by different name in different countries. Most of the Roma of Europe and America now believe that they are Rajputs or Jat's from India, who had migrated in the distant past. The community is divided in various groups known as Bargujjar, Sindhi, Luri or Lohar etc. But there is no doubt that the place of origin of Gadia Lohar was Rajasthan. I decided to prepare my work in the form of a pictorial book. I kept the title of the book "The Gaddi" because it is very prestigious thing of Gadia Lohar and it has a traditional beauty. In the recent times the life style of Gadia Lohar may be changed but the Gaddi is still running.

**Contents and Sample Pages**