The Curious Case of the “Bengal Cattle
Unpacking Cattle-Breeding in Colonial Bengal, 1860–1920
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6452872 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aritri Chakrabarti (History Department, Ashoka University Sonipat India, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 377-394 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Society and Animals (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1063-1119 • E-ISSN: 1568-5306 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/15685306-bja10253 |
| OpenAlex | W4413199151 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 20 |
Viewing Bengal as an administrative unit, this article explores how ideas surrounding “breed” were instrumental in describing, classifying, and enumerating cattle within official narratives in British India. It examines British agrarian and veterinary records, highlighting recurrent discontents with cattle within the purview of Bengal’s administration. The official narrative maintained that the cattle of Bengal were “diminutive” and “degenerate” and these characteristics were primarily attributed to the region’s predominantly tropical climate. Official discussions repeatedly lamented the absence of proper nutrition for cattle, linking it to pasture shrinkage. Such perceived shifts in the landscape were articulated as major factors for cattle being starved, overworked, and thereby physically impoverished in this province. This article also discusses ramifications of certain policies adopted by the government to address the problem of alleged cattle-degeneration and highlights anomalies within colonial narratives in perceiving “breed” as a stable category for classifying and organizing nonhuman animals
Agrarian society · Agriculture · Archaeology · Art · BENGAL · Biology · Breed · Colonialism · Geography · Government (linguistics · Livestock · Narrative · Political science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Law · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Ecology
A rule of property for Bengal
Technology and Culture
“Illusory Riches”
"The Tender Frame of Man"
Meat, Mercy, Morality
Mother Cow and Maternal Behaviour in Colonial North India
Dogs and Dogma
Preserving and Improving the Breeds’
Are animal breeds social kinds
Beastly encounters of the Raj
The Routledge Companion to Animal–Human History
Interspecies Mapping and Timing
Humanimalia Roundtable on Breed
Race and Animal-breeding
Race, Breed, and Myths of Origin
The Camera and the Cattle
A Question of Breeding
Agriculture and 'Improvement' in Early Colonial India
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |