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ID: 178164

American Modernisers and the Cow Question in Colonial and Nationalist India / Kumar, Prakash

Kumar, Prakash	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

The cattle modernisation sought by American missionaries in colonial North India advanced a productivist argument around the efficiency of cattle and their contribution to agriculture. On the face of it, by criticising the excessive supply of cattle in North India, this position went against the core preservationist concerns of the cow protectionists. But in reality, these modernisers struck a range of correlations with colonial and nationalist positions on the management of livestock and, ironically, even some limited space with the cow protectionists in treating India’s cattle as productive beings that were beneficial to the nation. These American prescriptions were stable constructs that became visible once again in the American food aid apparatus in India after Independence and shared overlapping concerns with ongoing cattle productivity debates in India. This paper illuminates the overlaps between the advocacy of the multiple constituents and a recurrence of certain patterns of contestation that were constitutive of the very paradigm of agrarian modernisation.

Key Words

Modernisation ; Agricultural Production ; Food Aid ; Animal Husbandry ; Cattle Breeding ; Pests ;
US–India Relations

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ID: 170000

Preserving and Improving the Breeds: Cow Protection’s Animal-Husbandry Connection / Adcock, Cassie

Adcock, Cassie	Journal Article
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Many of the controversial actions of the central and state governments in India in recent months—from strengthened anti-slaughter laws to the issuing of ‘identification cards’ to cattle—have been made in the name of animal husbandry or breed improvement. Such gestures are generally understood to be superficial, and recent. They have been attributed to post-colonial influences: the pressure of India’s Constitution on cow protectionist legal strategy, or the pressure of national planning and ‘modernisation’ on cow protectionist institutions. This essay argues that breed improvement has been integral to the politics of cow protection since the early decades of the twentieth century. Breed improvement has long been a central component of cow protectionist arguments and activity. It has been the basis for an alliance with the state that began in the colonial period and continues to the present. Far from superficial, breed improvement is integral to the cow protectionist discourse that supports vigilante violence today.

Key Words

India ; Hindu Nationalism ; Communal Violence ; Improvement ; Cattle ; Cow Protection ;
Animal Husbandry ; Animal Shelters ; Gaushala

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