Partition and Pastoralism: The Gaddi-Gujjar Conflict in Chamba, 1947

Abstract

The Partition of India in 1947 was not just a political division of land but a deep rupture that unsettled older relationships between people, power, and place in the Himalayan borderlands. For the Muslim Gujjars, whose lives had long depended on seasonal migration across these highland routes, Partition meant more than the loss of territory—it meant the narrowing of movement and the erosion of a shared social world. Their migratory paths, once stretching across what became two separate nations, were suddenly constricted by new borders and bureaucratic controls. In the years that followed, these restrictions led to rising local tensions and outbreaks of communal hostility in the mountain passes. At the same time, the new Indian administration restructured regional authority, allowing other local groups—most notably the Gaddis—to consolidate political and economic influence. Drawing on this shifting terrain of power and belonging, the paper explores how the Gaddi community, through careful adaptation to post-Partition governance, managed to institutionalize certain forms of exclusion that disadvantaged their Gujjar counterparts. The study thus connects the national story of Partition to the lived realities of Himalayan pastoral life, showing how historical boundaries continue to shape everyday claims over land, identity, and memory.