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civil veterinary material in the nls india papers collection

My PhD thesis: The Civil Veterinary Departments of British India 1876-1947: Science, medicine, power and ... Elephants transporting heavy artillery to a hill station, c. 1935 ...

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civil veterinary material in the nls india papers collection

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    1. Civil Veterinary Material in the NLS India Papers Collection A previously neglected resource for historical research

    2. Overview of the paper The wider significance of the veterinary material It’s specific significance to my research project

    3. Outcomes of the Collaboration My PhD thesis: ‘The Civil Veterinary Departments of British India 1876-1947: Science, medicine, power and nature in a colonial context’. ‘Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health in British India’ phase of ‘The Medical History of British India’ online resource. www.nls.uk/indiapapers/index.html

    4. Overview of the Material 1.) Veterinary Diseases Collection 2.) Civil Veterinary Department (Central) 3.) Civil Veterinary Departments (Provincial) 4.) Veterinary Colleges and Laboratories

    5. Indian Eco-Regions

    6. Historical Debates 1. Questioning the ‘Civil’ in the Civil Veterinary Service 2. Veterinary medicine & metropolitan profit 3. Indigenous mediation of veterinary policy

    7. Elephants transporting heavy artillery to a hill station, c. 1935

    8. 1.) Military work, civil cost? ‘[This is] another sign of the rampant militarism under which India groans, while the soil cries out for improvement’ - Indian Agriculturalist (1886) The CVDs were not intended to ‘help veterinary investigation, much less serve the cause of Indian agriculture’ -Deepak Kumar (2006) ‘Colonial veterinary activities… began, and continued for much of the colonial period, in a military context’ -Diana Davis (2005)

    9. Reports on animal disease ‘A note on surra [trypanosomiasis] in camels for commandants of camel corps’- HE Cross, Lahore, 1914 ‘Report on his [Steel’s] investigation into…fatal disease among transport mules in British Burma’- JH Steel, 1885 ‘Elephants and their diseases’- GH Evans, 1910 ‘Report on horse surra’- Alfred Lingard, 1893

    10. Animal Draught Power- Figures from 1938 ‘The whole of Indian cultivation rests on the bovine population’ Total bovine value- Ł750m Total livestock value- Ł1,500 million -more than estimated annual crop value Source: R.G. Allan ‘Agriculture- Crops, Farmers and Departments’ (ICS Probationers’ Manual, 1938)

    11. Dual military/civil functions- Camels Camels vital to civil transportation A new laboratory at Sowaha (1923) allowed CVD activities to become ‘more closely identified with the needs of the district’ Source: Punjab CVD, ‘A Short History of Surra Treatment in the Punjab’, Indian Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, Vol. 4, 1934

    12. Dual civil/military function- Horses Horses work the land at depots in Babugarh and Hapore Classes in harness making and ploughing Prizes at Quetta horse show ‘[I hope] that in the course of a year or two, Beluchis will utilise nothing else but broad mares on the land’

    13. 2.) CVDs and Economic Imperatives Metropolitan profit or indigenous prosperity? Economic or humanitarian concerns? Safeguarding revenue or ameliorating famine?

    14. Famine & the Raj Famine increased under British rule 90 major famines in previous 2,000 years 66% occurred since 1701

    15. Raymond Crotty (2001) A narrow focus on disease prevention Natural demographic control mechanism of animal disease removed Overgrazing Animal malnutrition

    16. Raymond Crotty (2001) Veterinary medicine allowed animals to survive at ever lower levels of nutrition Malnourished animals provided less nourishment for people Human medicine allowed people to survive at ever lower levels of nutrition

    17. Daniel Hall, ‘Veterinarians as officers of animal health’ Prophylactic rather than curative medicine Dealing with the root cause of disease- malnutrition Greater emphasis on fodder cultivation and pasture management

    18. Daniel Hall, ‘Veterinarians as officers of animal health’Indian Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, 1934 British veterinarians in the metropole focus on curing disease, rather than animal health ‘It is only latterly that we have really begun to appreciate what an enormous factor nutrition is in the health of livestock: we do not even know all that is yet necessary’

    20. Treatment: Rinderpest

    21. Treatment- Foot and Mouth

    22. Treatment- Charbon Symptomatique

    23. Overall Results 3, 293 animals treated by VGs Success rate- 55% 634 animals treated by owners Success rate 77%

    24. Summary Tentative conclusions: The CVDs were not merely civil institutions carrying out military work A narrow focus on curtailing contagious animal diseases was not uniquely colonial A connection between animal health and nutrition may have been made by colonial veterinarians prior to the 1930s

    25. Summary Broader significance of the NLS material: Contributes to wider debates on the autonomy of colonial scientists Useful for social-historical research Can contribute to the environmental history of South Asia

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