Ajri (Gujjar)

In the context of the nomadic Gujjar/Bakarwal of South Asia, the terms ajar and ājaṛī (also spelt ajri), originally meaning "shepherd" in Gujjari,[1] are used in several different ways.

Among the Bakkarwal of Jammu and Kashmir, ajṛī normally refers to a hired shepherd: a member of the community who does not have a big enough herd to subsist on and so has to hire out his labour to bigger herd owners.[2]

The term has a different meaning in Swat, Pakistan. At the start of the 20th century, Grierson reported based on second-hand data that the Ajars there are a tribe closely related to the Gujjars, and that they speak a dialect called Ajṛī, which apart from minor variations, is "practically the same" as the one spoken by the Gujjars.[3] This picture is contradicted by Barth, who conducted fieldwork in Swat in the 1950s. Noting the belief current among the Pathan majority that the Gujjars and Ajars are distinct ethnic subdivisions, he asserts that these two groups are only differentiated by their pattern of nomadism – the Gujars practising transhumance and the Ajars being fully nomadic – and that individual Gujjars can switch between the two.[4]

References

Losey, Wayne (2002). Writing Gojri: Linguistic and sociolinguistic constraints on a standardized orthography for the Gujars of south Asia (M.A. thesis). University of North Dakota. pp. 10–11.
Losey, Wayne (2002). "Writing Gojri: Linguistic and sociolinguistic constraints on a standardized orthography for the Gujars of South Asia". Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session. 46. Article 3. doi:10.31356/silwp.vol46.03.
Rao, Aparna (1988). "Levels and boundaries in native models: Social groupings among the Bakkarwal of the Western Himalayas". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 22 (2). See page 210 of 195–227. doi:10.1177/006996688022002004. S2CID 143989610.
Grierson, George A. (1916). Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. IX Indo-Aryan family. Central group, Part 4, Specimens of the Pahāṛī languages and Gujurī. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. pp. 941, 948.
Barth, Fredrik (1956). "Ecologic Relationships of Ethnic Groups in Swat, North Pakistan". American Anthropologist. 58 (6). See page 1083 of 1079–1089. doi:10.1525/aa.1956.58.6.02a00080.

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[Losey-1] Losey, Wayne (2002). Writing Gojri: Linguistic and sociolinguistic constraints on a standardized orthography for the Gujars of south Asia (M.A. thesis). University of North Dakota. pp. 10–11.
Losey, Wayne (2002). "Writing Gojri: Linguistic and sociolinguistic constraints on a standardized orthography for the Gujars of South Asia". Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session. 46. Article 3. doi:10.31356/silwp.vol46.03.

[Rao-2] Rao, Aparna (1988). "Levels and boundaries in native models: Social groupings among the Bakkarwal of the Western Himalayas". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 22 (2). See page 210 of 195–227. doi:10.1177/006996688022002004. S2CID 143989610.

[Grierson-3] Grierson, George A. (1916). Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. IX Indo-Aryan family. Central group, Part 4, Specimens of the Pahāṛī languages and Gujurī. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. pp. 941, 948.

[Barth-4] Barth, Fredrik (1956). "Ecologic Relationships of Ethnic Groups in Swat, North Pakistan". American Anthropologist. 58 (6). See page 1083 of 1079–1089. doi:10.1525/aa.1956.58.6.02a00080.