Join the Centre for India and South Asia Research (CISAR) in partnership with the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Department of Anthropology for a film screening of the documentary “Sikkidre Shikari, Illadiddare Bhikari (Bird Trapper or Beggar)” on November 17th, 6:00 PM (PST) at xʷθəθiqətəm (Place of Many Trees). The event will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with the film director, Madhu Bhushan and film cinematographer, Vinod Raja.
About the Documentary
In the 1950’s and early sixties, efforts were made by the Government of India to settle Nomadic tribes across the country including the Hakki Pikkis who were settled in the Southern parts of Karnataka.
Also called Shikaris, the Hakki Pikkis have wandered all the way from Gujarat to different parts of the country. As they moved they survived through trapping birds in the forests and selling them in cities and towns along with lucky charms and trinkets. If the trap failed, begging was the next best bet!
They claim descent from those warriors who fought in and fled from the battle between Rana Pratap Singh and Emperor Akbar and came down South around 400 years ago
They continue till date to defiantly dance on the blurred boundaries between the field and the forest; modernity and tradition; law and disorder; between movement and stillness.
Exiled from the forest, reviled by the city, their traditional ways of life outlawed, the Hakki Pikkis share their stories of wit and survival in the film, released in 2018, that emerged through a series of community conversations held when we travelled with friends from a settlement in Bannerghatta, Bangalore to other settlements across Karnataka.
