Paper short abstract:

This paper charts the relocation of large numbers of formerly nomadic, itinerant, wandering or otherwise peripatetic communities, such as performers, minstrels, acrobats, palm readers, gypsies, herders, and other itinerant lifestyles into settled enclaves in the wake of the Indian Mutiny (1857-59).

Paper long abstract:

This paper begins to chart the relocation of large numbers of formerly nomadic, itinerant, wandering or otherwise peripatetic communities, such as performers, minstrels, acrobats, palm readers, gypsies, herders, and other itinerant lifestyles into settled enclaves in the wake of the Mutiny (1857). The ancestors of the performers of Budhan Theatre, for example, were settled into the spinning industry in Ahmedabad in the 1930s, when they were awarded a "free colony" in their present locale of Chharanagar. 

In oral history they trace their lineage to the court of Maharana Pratap Singh of Mewar who was deposed by Emperor Akbar in 1567. For 300 years they wandered as itinerant performers, fortune tellers, and entrepreneurs of fortune. They were then surveilled, concentrated and settled under the provisions of the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. How they got to Ahmedabad is the crux of the story, not recorded in oral history, and subject to a convoluted archival chase. This is one strand of how Street Theatre came into being, as itinerant performers began to practice their ancient craft in new urban settings.