Who are Hattis?

About Hattis:

• The Hattis is a close-knit community who take their name from their traditional occupation of selling home-grown crops, vegetables, meat, and wool at small-town markets known as ‘haats’.
• Hatti men traditionally don a distinctive white headgear on ceremonial occasions.
• The Hatti homeland straddles the Himachal-Uttarakhand border in the basin of the Giri and Tons rivers, both tributaries of the Yamuna. The Tons marks the border between the two states.
• There are two main Hatti clans: one in the Trans-Giri area of the Sirmaur district in Himachal Pradesh and the other in Jaunsar Bawar of Uttarakhand.
• The two Hatti clans have similar traditions, and intermarriages are common.
• They are governed by a traditional council called ‘khumbli’ which decides community matters.
• Economy:
  • The Hatti population relies on agriculture for livelihood and bare subsistence since their climate is ideal for growing “Cash Crops.”
  • Moreover, the rise in Kinnaur, Lahaul, and Spiti’s seasonal tourism, often called “eco-tourism”, served as a merged source of income.
• According to the 2011 census, members of the community numbered 2.5 lakh, but at present population of the Hattis is estimated at around 3 lakhs.
• In 2023, the Indian government granted Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Hatti community in Himachal Pradesh.
  • The Jaunsar- Bawar region of Uttarakhand was granted tribal status in 1967.

Q1: Who are pahadi people in India?

The word ‘Pahadi’ essentially means “dwellers of mountains.” It is associated with the population of Himalayan Indian regions, comprising Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and parts of northern Uttar Pradesh, along with Nepal.

Source: CNBC

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