Growing up, I always had an unexplainable affinity for cows. I became so emotionally attached to them, I gave up eating beef in 6th grade. When traveling in India in 2012, I learned about the “the holy cow” and was amazed to witness the Indian’s honor of the creature in contrast to the American culture of hot dogs, burgers & steak as staples of pleasure and identity. In India, seeing cattle, roaming freely in city streets and living on the sidewalks, intrigued and excited my spirit. There is something about how these creatures are both so strong and so serene that amazes me. And the fact that Indian culture, specifically Hindu India, reveres the cow in a religious sense resonates with me, and sparks my curiosity.
As a Rhetoric & Media studies major, I love to look at the nature of communication surrounding cultural phenomena, and as an Environmental Studies minor, I have learned the best way to do so is by situating research around a specific object. I recently found out the India is among the world’s top exporters in the beef industry. I also know that although India is majority Hindu, many other religions are present that do not revere the cow in the same way, such as Islam, which can call for cow scarifies. It is details like this that call in complication about the protection and use of cows in India, not to mention their environmental and spatial impact on an already overcrowded population. I want to research the Cow in India as an intersection point of religious, political, and scientific discourse. I’m sure as I begin to dive into the topic I will need to narrow down my focus on the cow towards a specific question, but I believe that researching this animal will illuminate deeper meaning into Indian culture, the intersectional world at large, and my own emotional connection to the creature.
Cows are all over India, abundantly. A quick google search confirmed that the cities I will be staying in (Varanasi, Chennai, and Delhi) all have cattle present. Even if I were to find myself in an area without cows though, they are such a part of the cultural awareness there, that I am sure I could find information and opinion about their role in India.
While in India, there are many different types of people I could interview to gain insight on the cow. As my research narrows, choosing which people will be easier. But generally I could speak to scholars to gain insight on any research already taking place over there. I could speak to Hindu figures, such as sadhus and other holy men, to better understand their reverence of the cow. I could interview people of other religions as well to compare their interactions. I could interview people of different socioeconomic statuses and professions to see their different opinions of and interactions with the animal. I could potentially interview someone in the beef or dairy industry, or a cattle rancher. There are many convergences.
My fieldwork can be done all over, because there are cows all over! Beyond interviews, my research can include taking photos of the cows that I spot, and analyzing the amount I see, their appearance, noting how people interact with them. I will keep my eyes out for newspaper articles and other forms of media that talk about the cow in any way. I’m sure that various temples and Hindu places of worship could provide insight into the cow as well. I could potentially find some sort of ceremony or puja honoring the cow. Because of its omnipresence in the culture, I am not worried about a lack of material– but instead will refine from the abundance to focus in on a more specific aspect of intersection.
Below is an annotated bibliography containing preliminary research sources to start off my own project:
Baker, Katie. “Not Lovin’ It.” Newsweek 17 Sept. 2012: 8. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.
The adaptation of McDonald’s menu to tailor to the vegetarian population is an interesting corporate tactic to look into, but more relevant to my research is the Hindu Indians’ response of not wanting to support the company at all for all the beef it sells elsewhere.
Cole, John R. “On Attacking Sacred Cows.” CURR ANTHROPOL Current Anthropology 21.6 (1980): 806. JSTOR. Web. 17 Aug. 2015. <www.jstor.org>.
Cole asks the important question of, “What are the positive and negative functions of India’s cattle-and who decides what is positive or negative?”, which is central to my research inquiry.
Copland, Ian. “History in Flux: Indira Gandhi and the ‘Great All-Party Campaign’ for the Protection of the Cow, 1966-8.” Journal of Contemporary History 49.2 (2014): 410-39. SAGE Premier. SAGE Publications. Web. 20 Aug. 2015. <jch.sagepub.com>.
This paper gives more historical perspective to the reverence and treatment of the cow in India, but particularly from a political perspective, which will be important for me to include in background information for my research paper.
Copland, Ian. “What to Do about Cows? Princely versus British Approaches to a South Asian Dilemma.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies BSO 68.159-76 (2005). JSTOR. Web. 20 Aug. 2015. <www.jstor.org>.
“Every Indian government over the past 200 years has had to grapple, at one point or another, with the imponderable question: what to do about cows?”; this paper looks at what different political approaches have been taken historically to deal with cows and will help me with background information.
Dandekar, V.m. “India’s Sacred Cattle and Cultural Ecology” Economic Political and Weekly 4.39 (1969): 1561-566. JSTOR. Web. 1 Aug. 2015. <jstor.org>.
This essay is a critique of Harris’ take on cultural ecology of the cow in India; Dandekar disagrees with Harris’ methodology and conclusions, so taking this critiques into consideration for my own use of cultural ecology is important in relaying background information and in conducting my own fieldwork.
Gangul, R. “Cattle and Cattle Rearing in Ancient India” Annals of the Bhandarkar Orient Research Institute 12.3 (1931): 216-30. JSTOR. Web. 1 Aug. 2015. <www.jstor.org>.
This piece will be useful for me in understanding the historical significance of the cow in India, and therefore providing necessary background information in my paper to make sense of my research in contemporary intersections of the cow.
Harris, Marvin. “The Cultural Ecology of India’s Sacred Cattle.” CURR ANTHROPOL Current Anthropology 33.1 (1992): 51. JSTOR. Web. 17 Aug. 2015. <www.jstor.org>.
This paper aims to explore the spiritual cow phenomenon of India from a scientific standpoint; the author acknowledges the limitation of not having ever been to India to do field research, so I can use this paper to look at how I could expand upon his concepts in a more tangible way.
Heston, Alan. “An Approach to the Sacred Cow of India.” CURR ANTHROPOL Current Anthropology 12.2 (1971): 191. JSTOR. Web. 28 Aug. 2015. <www.jstor.org>.
This paper is an economic examination of whether or not India’s cow population is in excess; adding another frame of reference to look at the cow through (besides political, religious, historical, and scientific) will be helpful in making my own research more well rounded.
“India–the emerging global beef exporter.” Intas Polivet 13.2 (2012): 254. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.
India as one of the top beef exporters according to the USDA adds an interesting economic twist to the country’s overwhelming reverence of the cow; looking at this contradiction could be an interesting new angle to approach existing research on the holy cow.
Saldhana, Kennedy, and Lisa Klopfe. “”On Seeing Monkeys, Cows, and Beggars: Between Ethnography and Tourism.” Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies 14.4 (2014): 324-32. SAGE Premier. SAGE Publications. Web. 1 Aug. 2015. <csc.sagepub.com>.
This essay is a critique of “research tourism” in developing countries, and gives suggestions on how to be more aware of the researcher’s privilege and perspective coming into a space for a limited time; although not solely focused on the cow, I think this article will help me with overall methodology.