48 SOCIAL SCIENTIST transportation displaced them quickly as transporters. This is bound to have affected the size of the herds of cattle which represented their wealth. This led to many Lambadas choosing alternative occupations. A great proportion chose to settle on the land and took to agriculture for a living. There are about 7.5 lakh Lambadas in a total population of 436 lakhs in Andhra Pradesh. Approximately 25 per cent of Lambadas own land, 65 per cent are agricultural labourers and the remaining 10 per cent work as construction workers, hunters, fishermen and traders etc. The present study pertains to the Yampally Thanda, in Korutia, Taluk Karimnagar district, Andhra Pradesh, and will concentrate on those who own land and their relationship, through class and caste, with those who do not own land. Twenty five per cent of the Lambadas own land with holding-sizes ranging from 20 guntas to 5 acres. Most of the land, however, is marginal, unproductive, unfertile and has not yet been included in the government's irrigation and development plans. Land Holdings and Origin of Glass Differences The pattern of land holdings has some bearing on class difference among the Lambadas. There exist land owners and the landless. Out of the twenty-five per cent who own land, a small minority constitutes rich peasants, a slightly larger proportion belongs to the class of middle peasants, but most of the land owning Lambadas fall into the category of poor peasants.2 This differentiation can be traced to the period when the Lambadas were invited by the landlords to migrate and settle on the periphery of villages. These invitations were extended to those thandas, the inhabitants of which were noticeably efficient, hardworking and well organised. Once the Lambadas settled in these peripheral areas (always outside villages), they provided the landlords with protection against marauders and in return were given land for common use. Class differences which existed prior to migration were now brought into sharper focus: it was to the Naiks and Kharbaris that land was awarded, and though the understanding was that the land be used for the Lambada tribes as a whole, often the land was entered in the Pahani3 in the name of the Naik and/or Khaibari, thereby giving legitmacy to private property. Who are the Naiks and Kharbaris? Anyone, other than Dhapdya,4 Dhadi,5 Bhat,6 and the Zangad,7 who owned livestock and land could become a Naik (both the chief of a Thanda) or a Kharbari (deputy to the Naik). Traditionally the duties of a Naik were to settle disputes among the Lambadas and be the intermediary between the Lambadas and the outside world, the government, the non-Lambadas or the landlords. With migration came the acquisition of land; with land came domination over the common Lambada. Domination was maintained by various means.