Sacred Cows and Chicken Manchurian: The Everyday Politics of Eating Meat in India (Culture, Place, and Nature)

Bovine politics exposes fault lines within contemporary Indian society, where eating beef is simultaneously a violation of sacred taboos, an expression of marginalized identities, and a route to cosmopolitan sophistication. The recent rise of Hindu nationalism has further polarized traditional views: Dalits, Muslims, and Christians protest threats to their beef-eating heritage while Hindu fundamentalists rally against those who eat the sacred cow. Yet close observation of what people do and do not eat, the styles and contexts within which they do so, and the disparities between rhetoric and everyday action overturns this simplistic binary opposition. Understanding how a food can be implicated in riots, vigilante attacks, and even murders demands that we look beyond immediate politics to wider contexts. Drawing on decades of ethnographic research in South India, James Staples charts how cattle owners, brokers, butchers, cooks, and occasional beef eaters navigate the contemporary political and cultural climate. Sacred Cows and Chicken Manchurian offers a fine-grained exploration of the current situation, locating it within the wider anthropology of food and eating in the region and revealing critical aspects of what it is to be Indian in the early twenty-first century. "Observance of what people in present-day India eat and do not eat, the styles and contexts within which they do so, and the disparities between rhetoric and everyday action prompt vital questions concerning what it is to be Indian in the early twenty-first century. The current "beef situation" exposes, like no other issue, the central fault lines that run across contemporary Indian society. Sacred Cows and Chicken Manchurian explores contemporary cattle slaughter and beef-eating in India and considers what has led to the apparent turn away from the hitherto secularist approach of post-independence India. The book draws on ethnographic research in both rural and urban South India with domestic cattle owners, brokers, butchers, and meat eaters. It brings nuance to existing accounts by journalists, historians, and others by charting how ordinary people navigate the current febrile political climate in their everyday lives. In doing so, it avoids an overly simplistic binary opposition between those who oppose the slaughter of cattle and those who view beef consumption as a fundamental right. Locating debates and actions concerning beef eating in relation to caste and community, the book offers a fine-grained exploration of the current situation as it is experienced on the ground, comprehensively locating it within the wider anthropology of food and eating in the region"-- Provided by publisher Challenges popular generalizations about cow protection and beef consumptionBovine politics exposes fault lines within contemporary Indian society, where eating beef is simultaneously a violation of sacred taboos, an expression of marginalized identities, and a route to cosmopolitan sophistication. The recent rise of Hindu nationalism has further polarized traditional views: Dalits, Muslims, and Christians protest threats to their beef-eating heritage while Hindu fundamentalists rally against those who eat the sacred cow. Yet close observation of what people do and do not eat, the styles and contexts within which they do so, and the disparities between rhetoric and everyday action overturns this simplistic binary opposition.Understanding how a food can be implicated in riots, vigilante attacks, and even murders demands that we look beyond immediate politics to wider contexts. Drawing on decades of ethnographic research in South India, James Staples charts how cattle owners, brokers, butchers, cooks, and occasional beef eaters navigate the contemporary political and cultural climate. Sacred Cows and Chicken Manchurian offers a fine-grained exploration of the current situation, locating it within the wider anthropology of food and eating in the region and revealing critical aspects of what it is to be Indian in the early twenty-first century.

Bovine politics exposes fault lines within contemporary Indian society, where eating beef is simultaneously a violation of sacred taboos, an expression of marginalized identities, and a route to cosmopolitan sophistication. The recent rise of Hindu nationalism has further polarized traditional views: Dalits, Muslims, and Christians protest threats to their beef-eating heritage while Hindu fundamentalists rally against those who eat the sacred cow. Yet close observation of what people do and do not eat, the styles and contexts within which they do so, and the disparities between rhetoric and everyday action overturns this simplistic binary opposition.

Understanding how a food can be implicated in riots, vigilante attacks, and even murders demands that we look beyond immediate politics to wider contexts. Drawing on decades of ethnographic research in South India, James Staples charts how cattle owners, brokers, butchers, cooks, and occasional beef eaters navigate the contemporary political and cultural climate. Sacred Cows and Chicken Manchurian offers a fine-grained exploration of the current situation, locating it within the wider anthropology of food and eating in the region and revealing critical aspects of what it is to be Indian in the early twenty-first century.

Bovine politics exposes fault lines within contemporary Indian society, where eating beef is simultaneously a violation of sacred taboos, an expression of marginalized identities, and a route to cosmopolitan sophistication. The recent rise of Hindu nationalism has further polarized traditional views: Dalits, Muslims, and Christians protest threats to their beef-eating heritage while Hindu fundamentalists rally against those who eat the sacred cow. Yet close observation of what people do and do not eat, the styles and contexts within which they do so, and the disparities between rhetoric and everyday action overturns this simplistic binary opposition.0Understanding how a food can be implicated in riots, vigilante attacks, and even murders demands that we look beyond immediate politics to wider contexts. Drawing on decades of ethnographic research in South India, James Staples charts how cattle owners, brokers, butchers, cooks, and occasional beef eaters navigate the contemporary political and cultural climate. Sacred Cows and Chicken Manchurian offers a fine-grained exploration of the current situation, locating it within the wider anthropology of food and eating in the region and revealing critical aspects of what it is to be Indian in the early twenty-first century Dedication 6 Contents 8 Foreword • K. Sivaramakrishnan 10 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction: Sacred Cows and Chicken Manchurian 20 1 Differential Histories of Meat Eating in India 51 2 Everyday South Indian Foodways 70 3 From Cattle Shed to Dinner Plate 94 4 Cattle Slaughter, Beef Eating, and Ambivalence 119 5 Health, the Environment, and the Rise of the Chicken 136 6 From Caste to Class in Food 157 Conclusion: Taking on Sacred Cows 179 Glossary 198 Notes 204 References 218 Index 236