1. British officials were suspicious of nomadic people. They distrusted mobile craftsmen and traders who hawked their goods in villages, and pastoralists who changed their places of residence every season, moving in search of good pastures for their herds.

2. The colonial government wanted to rule over a settled population. They wanted the rural people to live in villages, in fixed places with fixed rights on particular fields. Such a population was easy to identify and control.

3. Those who were settled were seen as peaceable and law-abiding; those who were nomadic were considered to be criminal. Because of all the above reasons, in 1871 the colonial government in India had passed the Criminal Tribes Act.

4. By this Act, many communities of craftsmen, traders and pastoralists were classified as criminal tribes. They were stated to be criminal by nature and birth.

5. To expand its revenue income, the colonial government imposed the grazing tax. Pastoralists had to pay tax on every animal they grazed on the pastures.