Meat, mercy, and morality : animals and humanitarianism in colonial Bengal , 1850-1920 / Samiparna Samanta.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Samanta, Samiparna, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Meat--Moral and ethical aspects--India--Bengal--History.

Meat.

Slaughtering and slaughter-houses--Moral and ethical aspects--India--Bengal--History.

Slaughtering and slaughter-houses.

Humanitarianism--India--Bengal--History.

Humanitarianism.

History.

India--History--British occupation, 1765-1947.

India.

India--Bengal.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xvi, 271 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New Delhi, India : Oxford University Press, 2021.

Summary:

"This book disentangles complex discourses around humanitarianism to understand the nature of British colonialism in India. It contends that the colonial project of animal protection in late nineteenth-century Bengal mirrored an irony. Emerging notions of public health and debates on cruelty against animals exposed the disjunction between the claims of a benevolent Empire and a powerful imperial reality where the state constantly sought to discipline its subjects-both human and nonhuman. Centered around stories of animals as diseased, eaten, and overworked, the book shows how such contests over appropriate measures for controlling animals became part of wider discussions surrounding environmental ethics, diet, sanitation, and the politics of race and class. The author combines history with archive, arguing that colonial humanitarianism was not only an idiom of rule, but was also translated into Bengali dietetics, anxieties, vegetarianism, and vigilantism, the effect of which can be seen in contemporary politics of animal slaughter in India."-- Publisher description.

Contents:

Introduction: Writing Embodied Histories-Humans and Non-humans in Nature, Science, and Imperialism

Historicizing Humanitarianism in Colonial India

The Politics of Care: Veterinarians and Humanitarians

Meat: To Eat or Not to Eat?

The Anomaly of 'Animal': Unburdening the Beast

Conclusion: Liminal Boundaries, Colonial Ironies.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 252-265) and index.

ISBN:

9780190129132

0190129131

OCLC:

1280482535