Uprooted when settled: Koonj and Kuku in the changing migrating identity of Gujjars and Bakerwals, the transhumant pastoralist of Jammu and Kashmir

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ABSTRACT Transhumant pastoralism, rooted in the seasonal movement of humans and nonhuman animals across forest ranges, constitutes a shared multispecies collective identity. For Gujjars and Bakerwals – a transhumant pastoral tribe from Jammu and Kashmir – the long-distance movement with their livestock across the forest has for long defined their lived experience. The present study examines how the assimilation of the transhumant identity of Gujjars and Bakerwals into a more settled mode of living, resulting from hegemonic ideologies, leads to what Homi Bhabha calls ‘in-between-ness,’ as reflected in their oral narratives. This ‘in-betweenness’ generates a sense of being ‘unhomed.’ The research explores how, by establishing their relationship with the birds Koonj (Crane) and Kuku (Cuckoo) – who for years have migrated with the Khafila of the tribe – emerge as counter-hegemonic narratives in oral narratives, such as Udd Udd Koonj and Kuku amid changing socio-political conditions. Month-long fieldwork with the members of the tribe in the Rajouri district reveals that their deep connection with these birds underscores their adaptive resilience. This paper attempts to understand the interwoven relationship of agency, where humans and more-than-human actors come together to construct a multispecies world of entangled relationships, which makes the tribe cognizant of their collective multispecies identity as transhumant pastoralists.