Vaghri

   It has been suggested that, at the same time as the ancestors of the European Gypsies moved west from India, a small group of nomads, the Narikuravar or Vaghri, migrated south. The Vaghri speak a North Indian language and their traditional occupation is catching birds - which is the meaning of their name in Tamil. They call themselves Vaghri. Since the enforcement of the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972, many have switched to selling beads and other trinkets. Making plaits of false hair is another new occupation.

   In 1961 a Tamil named K. Raghupathi gave up his work with a bus company and started a day school for Vaghri in Trichi. Six years later, he set up a meeting of 67 leaders of the community to form the Nadodi Nalvazue Sangam. Raghupathi married a woman from the tribe, Jna-sundari, which made him more accepted by the people he was working with. In 1972 he opened a boarding school in Madras against much initial opposition from the parents of the children; since then, further school projects have been initiated.

   The Vaghri have not reached the political maturity of the Banjara and Kalbelia, and links between them and European Romanies have been solely through Pentecostal missionaries.