The origins of the gaothan problem are embedded in a complex historical process involving three main threads: Katkari migration from forested hills to the outskirts of caste villages on the coastal plain, integration into rural and migratory livelihoods where the Katkari could be easily bonded and systematic exclusion from the caste communities where Katkari hamlets are now located. The dual process of integration and exclusion (Kela 2006) sheds light on how and why the Katkari came to be so vulnerable to enclosure and eviction from their homes. This chapter traces the intermingling of these historical forces and concludes with a description of the Katkari's living conditions observed by the research team at the launch of the inquiry.

Our historical reconstruction of the gaothan problem also illustrates the evolving relationship between the Katkari and the caste-based agrarian societies of the coastal districts of Maharashtra. We argue, as Heredia and Srivastava do in their 1994 study of the Katkari, that their vulnerability to external exploitation is not due to some inherent characteristics of their culture and communities. The Katkari, and for that matter other tribes of India (Béteille, 2008), do not have a fixed cultural identity linked to an unchanging past that can be labelled as primitive and backward.