Every year, Mahendra Khatal, a pastoralist from Maharastra’s Dhangar community, walks between his native village of Dhawalpuri to Vangoan near South Gujarat with other community members and sheep, spending nearly a third of the year traversing through the Dhawalpuri grasslands. It was never an easy life, but now the journey has become even harder for many reasons, not least because these common lands are shrinking, thanks to urban development and construction, with even a large portion of this grassland taken over by the Indian army. Still, they persevere, adapting to these new conditions as pastoralists always have.

“We are resilient,” says Khatal, who is in Bengaluru as part of Living Lightly Utsav, 2025, a festival that brings the stories, traditions, cultures and ecologies of India’s pastoralists to life, now in its sixth edition. He also talks about the symbiotic relationship between pastoralists and the larger ecosystem: how their lives are closely intertwined with their animals, the land on which they graze, and other animals and plants that live on it. “The animals eat grass and excrete the seeds. This, in turn, helps more plants to start growing, creating ecosystems for animals such as tigers, cranes, boar, deer and wolves,” he explains.

“The exhibition focuses on the narratives, histories and of pastoralists in the Deccan, from the Western Ghats to the Eastern Ghats,” says Sushma Iyengar, the lead curator of Living Lightly.
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LIVING LIGHTLY

Khatal’s story is one of many that come alive at this event, which is being hosted by the Centre for Pastoralism and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, in partnership with multiple institutions, artists, scholars, academicians and designers from across the country.

“The exhibition focuses on the narratives, histories and of pastoralists in the Deccan, from the Western Ghats to the Eastern Ghats,” says Sushma Iyengar, the lead curator of Living Lightly, adding that around 19 communities have been featured in this edition, including the Dhangars, Gollas, Banjaras, Erukulas, Kurubas and Nandagawalis. “It has been conceived as a medium through which we spotlight pastoralists’ life worlds, their history of mobility, the present context and their challenges,” she explains.

Since it started, the organising team and their collaborators have been researching this remarkable and complex way of life.
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LIVING LIGHTLY

Background and Intent

The idea for an exhibition of this sort came about several years ago, even before COVID-19, and since then, the organising team and their collaborators have been researching this remarkable and complex way of life. Sushma reveals that much of the research stemmed from understanding various relationships that pastoralists had: with the land pastoralists traverse, the other communities, rain-fed farmers, for instance, with whom they share a symbiotic relationship; the state, both historically and today; with materiality and with the divine. “Culture follows nature. It’s never the other way around. Pastoralists know and never challenge that,” she says, something every exhibit at Living Lightly, which will be held in the city till February 16, reiterates.

The first thing your eyes are likely to land on at the entrance of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, where the primary event is being held, is a poster explaining what “living lightly” for the pastoral community means. Step past this, and you encounter some of these stories in dizzyingly diverse formats: panels with text, photographs, artwork, films, sound installations, olfactory art and much more.

“These multifaceted formats are what make it a whole,” states the event’s press release, adding that the exhibition unfolds across 18 immersive sections on multiple themes, each created by some of India’s most acclaimed designers, curators and artists, and pastoral artisans from various communities. “From the disappearing grasslands of the Deccan to the culture and economy of dung as a medium of exchange between pastoral communities, the exhibition sections offer a journey through pastoral histories, cultures, and ecologies, revealing their challenges and enduring relevance in today’s world,” it states.

Exhibit from the Living Lightly Utsav.
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LIVING LIGHTLY

Exhibition highlights

A few of the highlights of the exhibition include Call of the Kavals, a sound sculpture by Abhi Tambe that brings alive the aural language that pastoralists share with their animals; Walking Stories, a stunning cartographic representation of the migratory journeys of the communities of the Deccan; and a 360-degree film on forests and pastoralists made by the filmmaker Ram Alluri. Other must-visit exhibits include one focusing on Indian grasslands, illustrated with stunning photographs by the photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee; another that examines the dung economy, replete with sculptures and wall panels made of dung itself; and yet another delving into the 4000-year history of pastoralism in the Deccan that uses a mixture of Sangam poetry, craft, art and facts to drive the narrative around it.

Depiction of pastoral life.
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LIVING LIGHTLY

Though the exhibition is on pastoralists across the Deccan and beyond, the exhibition also attempts to give the visitors a feel of pastoralism in Karnataka specifically. For instance, there are exhibits devoted to the legacy of the Kuruba shepherd saint Balumama, the creation and significance of the handwoven woollen Kambli of Karnataka, the indigenous Deccani sheep of Karnataka and Maharastra and the Amrut Mahal cattle of Old Mysore as well as an examination of Bengaluru’s natural landscapes and the impact of urbanisation on it. The exhibition also attempts to make research and documentation accessible to the public, according to Sushma, who believes in expressing some of these ideas through various artistic forms since “it creates both appreciation and wonder…you absorb the same issues, not from your mind but with your heart,” she believes.

Pastoral art bazaar.
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LIVING LIGHTLY

In addition to the exhibition, a pastoral crafts bazaar and a pastoral cafe will be open on all days, offering further insights into the material culture of these communities. At the cafe, for instance, visitors can sample and purchase a curated selection of pastoral artisanal cheeses from across India, explains Asma Sayed, the co-founder of Bombay Fromagerie. She expands on the cheeses available at the cafe, including goat cheese from Gujurat, camel milk cheese from Rajasthan and Kaladi cheese, a traditional variety created by the nomadic tribal Gujjars of Jammu.

Further ahead, at the bazaar, is a selection of craft products “which are materially associated with or intersect with pastoralism,” as designer Anshu Arora, who has co-curated the bazaar with Shabri Wable, says. Some of the brands on display include Khamir from Kutch, Dolls4Tiber from Himachal Pradesh, Earthern Tunes from Andhra Pradesh, Porgai and Thencinpoof from Tamil Nadu, Dakhnii Diaries from Karnataka and the Kishkinda Trust also from Karnataka, all of which bring together the visual language of these various pastoral communities. “We would like people to shop, but there is also a lot to discover,” says Anshu. She adds that a series of craft workshops will also be conducted at the bazaar.

Igniting conversations

The festival is also an opportunity to initiate conversations about the pastoral lifestyle. At one corner of IGNCA, for instance, a pastoral youth conclave is in session, with representatives of various communities coming together to discuss the issues they frequently face. A government expert present who prefers not to be named, talks about some challenges many pastoralists face in the state. “The media always projects that all pastoral communities of Karnataka are Kurubas, but that is untrue. There are more than 7 to 8 of these communities in Karnataka,” he says, naming some of them, such as the Kadugollas, Myasabedaru, Krishnagollas, Bedakampanas, Goulis, Lambani, the pig-rearing Handi Jogis, and the Helavas.

Pastoralists from Koppal region.
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LIVING LIGHTLY

While some communities rear sheep for wool, most rear animals for meat, he says, pointing out that while meat markets are regularly held in the state, there is barely any modern infrastructure to support it. “They are one of the most neglected industries,” he says. Also, “a lot of leather gets wasted in Karnataka because there are no processing and valuing units here.”

Having a space for conversation is, therefore, an integral part of the Utsav, be it conversations between pastoralists, between pastoralists and citizens at large or between pastoralists and the state to “create different provocations and learnings,” says Sushma, who hopes that creating these streams of conversations and concentrations will help bring some shifts in policy.

On February 15, a day before the close of this edition of the festival in Bengaluru, independent curator Ishita Shah, the founder of Curating for Culture, will drive a community conversation on different themes in urban pastoralism.

Artisan craft workshop.
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LIVING LIGHTLY

Crowdsourced initiative

Submissions for this crowdsourced initiative are already open, and selected contributors will be invited to present on this occasion, she says. “I am a city dweller, and, for me, it is important to see pastoralism beyond the peripheries… see how they have become a part of the city and ecosystem,” she says of this initiative. “The Centre for Pastoralism is doing amazing work for the pastoral community. We want to contribute by bringing conversation about the city and its relationship with these communities.”