The Politics of Care
This chapter builds up the first case study of the book by examining the trajectory of diseased animals. It investigates how rinderpest or the Calcutta Epizootic of 1864 came to be constructed as a visible threat to the empire. Additionally, by focusing on major crosscurrents concerning cattle health, it demonstrates how a renewed protectionist stance manifested itself in the form of colonial legislations along with a surge of anti-animal cruelty literature among Bengalis. What sets this chapter apart from other works on animal disease in colonial India is that it demonstrates how attempts to control animal disease eventually merged with humanitarian initiatives. While the sentiment of compassion towards nonhuman animals was not a novelty in India, its contact with the Raj lent a different hue to it. Compassion was no longer a commitment to the virtue of “ahimsa” (non-injury to a living being)- but implied a loyalty to bigyan or “science.” The best example of the mingling of ahimsa and bigyan is the foundation of the Belgachia Veterinary infirmary in 1901.