1 This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced version of an article accepted 01 October 2020 following peer review for publication in Nomadic Peoples, doi.org/10.3197/np.2020. 240203, volume 24, pages 209-227. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online, https://doi.org/10.3197/np.2020.240203 Citation: Maru, N. (2020) ‘A Relational View of Pastoral (im)mobilities’, Nomadic Peoples, 24: 209- 227, doi: 10.3197/np.2020.240203 A RELATIONAL VIEW OF PASTORAL (IM)MOBILITIES Natasha Maru ABSTRACT Pitched against the apparently more civilised and modern ‘settled’, pastoralists have historically been penalised for the seemingly primitive and outdated practice of mobility. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in western India, this paper challenges this reductive dichotomy and unpacks the many (im)mobilities produced, accessed, experienced and imagined by pastoralists. Adopting a relational lens, it shows how mobilities and immobilities co-constitute and are contingent on each other across social, geographical and temporal scales. Embedded within their own social and political history, the many forms that mobility can take dispel, ontologically, the homogenising effects of rigid typologies, but it also practically offers the capacity to adapt to changing times. KEYWORDS India, mobility, nomad, pastoralism, relational INTRODUCTION Enough! Now we don’t like it, we cannot stay any longer. Now we would like to leave. We miss Gujarat Pabiben, January 2020 Pabiben is a nomadic pastoralist from the western Indian state of Gujarat. 1 Belonging to the Rabari community, Pabiben’s family moves with their sheep and goats throughout the year. In the above quote, she is referring to leaving for their annual winter-summer migration to mainland Gujarat, where they graze on farm residues before moving back to Kachchh, their home district, to graze in the monsoon months. Several families from within their community continue to practice mobile pastoralism as their main livelihood that provides both income and identity, even as they encounter and adapt to changes in their socio-political environment.