Socio cultural transformation of Gaddi tribe in district Doda of Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

The present study explored the issues of socio-cultural transformation of the Gaddi tribe. The study also examined the socio-economic development that has taken place under the transformation process among the Gaddi tribe situated in the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir. The central narrative of change in the Gaddi community leads to broader critical questions on the organic relationships ascribed to being a tribe. This relationship is characteristic of homogenous and simple societies, definiteness of identity, coherence of culture with everyday social and economic works. Such questions of conceptualisation of tribe as a museum of the past- backward and traditional, unique cultural practices and celebrations, economic and social relationships based on we feeling has a challenge here. Gaddi s of Doda district are not isolated but interconnected with immediate social and political realities. Speed of change is reflective in everyday life like changing marriage patterns, diversity in the choice of occupation for livelihood, changing family structures, aspirations of youth for modern education and skills. Social change has a specific direction of progress and fear of losing cultural values among Gaddis. Sometimes these changes branch an ambiguity for a choice between their cultural values and modern values of non-tribal culture. It shows that the people of the Gaddi tribe experienced massive changes in their culture, but their traditional culture is still not completely transformed into a new culture. New understandings of the tribal world can be more enriched with a comparative perspective on tribal societies with tribal and non-tribal societies. Instead, as this research shows, binary