Samiparna Samanta in Talking Animals, Law & Philosophy

This talk examines the relationship between animals, law, and epizootics in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century India to analyze its impact on the history of Calcutta’s urban spaces. More specifically, it explores how slaughterhouses emerged as a significant site of tension among British public health officers, humane societies, and the bhadralok (Hindu-Bengali middle class) as they came to be entangled in an interlocking relationship and debated the regulation of Calcutta’s urban space.