Peripatetics
The people whom anthropologists commonly call peripatetics (from the Greek peripatetikos, meaning to walk up and down, discoursing while walking) are known in South and West Asia by a variety of terms, among them Gypsies, Lambadis, and Banjaras. They consist of innumerable small, nomadic groups, often no more than one extended family in size, who move through the countryside performing a wide range of tasks. Many of these occupations have given rise to the particular name of a group, like the Banjaras, carriers of rice and salt. The peripatetics fill an economic niche wherever they go. Some perform a variety of services through the distribution of minor products, such as trinkets, forest produce, or magical amulets. Others are religious mendicants who give the faithful the opportunity of acquiring merit by feeding these beggars. Yet others are street beggars or fortune-tellers of a more secular nature. Many groups are involved in performances, from displaying wild animals or performing acrobatic feats to clairvoyance and prostitution.
In South Asia the great majority of peripatetics are Hindu, but some are Muslim or Sikh, and others may claim to be Christian. In every case the nomadism of these people is distinct from the purposive nomadism of transhumant pastoralists like the Gujjars, who move their herds over a fixed route every year to find better pasture. Nonetheless some peripatetics have herds, usually of camels, goats, or pigs, which have their own niche in the landscape.
There are no reliable census figures for such people, and they tend to keep their distance from all kinds of officials, especially the police. There may be some 10 million in South Asia, but there is no source against which to check this figure.
The subculture of peripatetics has its economic specializations, but in other respects it is consonant with that of other castes in the area where the group resides. In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, for example, the peripatetics normally speak Telugu like everyone else, but they may use additional languages if they move much outside that state. Some groups have their own "secret" languages or dialects. Their worship is commonly like that of neighboring Hindu castes. Their marriage preferences are usually similar to those of other castes in the area as well.
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