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Bazigar is an Unclassified Dravidian language of Northern India. According to Ethnologue, this language is spoken in areas such as Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka. The word Bazigar is derived from a Persian word, bazi.

General Information
The language status is 7 (shifting) and the language development literacy rate is in L1: Below 1%, according to Ethnologue. The Bazigar are also subdivded furher into five sub-groups. These groups include the Jogi, Badtia, Mushal, Dharamsot, and Namsout, according to World eBook Library. Although the Bazigar were either Hindu or Muslim historically, they have embraced Sikhism, and although they were found throughout North India ,they live a life apart from the Hindu population. Regardless of this, they still manage to preserve a certain ethnical identity. The ethnicity population for the Bazigar people is 800,000. There are 58,000 native speakers as well, according to World eBook Libarary. According to Gibb Schreffler, the people known as Bazigar influenced a Punjabi-based people and their culture. Schreffler asks, “Who exactly are the Bazigar people?” The answer to that is, “acrobats”, which means “bazi”. The literacy and education rates for the Bazigar people have been historically low (Schreffler 2011). According to an article from Harmonium, the Bazigars are a group of gypsy like people who congregated in northern and central parts of Punjab. The districts that they congregated in were included in Pakistan in 1947. Bazigars broadly identify themselves as Hindus and Sikhs, however their spiritual beliefs included elements of Islam as well. Today, they mainly live in Chandigarh and Patiala, cities in India. It is said that they have been forced to abandon their itinerant lifestyle for a more settled existence. As mentioned earlier, the word “bazi” is a Persian term and it means, “play”. The last part of the word, “Gar” is a Persian suffix that denotes a “do-er”. Bazigar is closely associated with the Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi language and therefore, it is a word that loosely translates to “acrobat, jester, clown, or contortionist”. The Bazigar people claim to call themselves “Goaars”, who supposedly are highborn people but have lived and earned their living in a “respectable” society. The people of Bazigar usually worked as magicians, dancers/singers, jugglers, and acrobats. They were used as entertainment at weddings and parties.