ABSTRACT
Journalists and employees of the tourist industry in India and abroad have often compared the state of Rajasthan to America's Wild West. Waxing eloquent on the romantic ruggedness of Rajasthan's rocky crests and the beauty of its vast desert, magazines and brochures have often portrayed these features as apt props for Rajasthani tales of martial adventure. Typically noting that the state's name means “land of kings,” the accounts tend to extol the virtues of heroic Rajputs, literally, “sons of princes” (which is to say members of the dominant caste), from whose ranks come many of the Rajput heroes throughout India. Celebrated by the British for their chivalry and courage—if also berated for their failure to accept British domination—the Rajputs have recently come to be represented by the popular media as horse-loving cowboys. In their accounts, heavily mustached and turbaned Rajput warriors rescue cows from rustlers (typically members of tribal groups or Muslims) and defend the land from outlaws (again, tribe members or Muslims) and rival Rajputs.
