Some Trouble with Cows : Making Sense of Social Conflict

by Roy, Beth

• ISBN13: 9780520083417
• ISBN10: 0520083415
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Fascinating in its combination of personal stories and analytical insights, Some Trouble with Cows will help students of conflict understand how a seemingly irrational and archaic riot becomes a means for renegotiating the distribution of power and rights in a small community. Using first-person accounts of Hindus and Muslims in a remote Bangladeshi village, Beth Roy evocatively describes and analyzes a large-scale riot that profoundly altered life in the area in the 1950s. She provides a rare glimpse into the hearts and minds of the participants and their families, while touching on a range of broader issues that are vital to the sociology of communities in conflict: the changing meaning of community; the impact of the state on local society; the nature of memory; and the force of neighborly enmity in reshaping power relationships during periods of change. Roy's findings illustrate important theoretical issues in psychology and sociology, and her conclusions will greatly interest students of ethnic/race relations, conflict resolution, the sociology of violence, agrarian society, and South Asia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Maps
The Cast of Characters
Introduction	p. 1
Making Trouble
The Quarrel	p. 13
The Decision	p. 48
The Riot	p. 72
Intervention and Punishment	p. 91
Reconciliation and Thereafter	p. 111
Making Sense
Lessons of Panipur	p. 125
Self and Decision	p. 137
Community and Identity	p. 153
History and Ideology	p. 169
Bringing History Home	p. 184
Appendix A: Chronology	p. 195
Appendix B: Land Relations in Panipur	p. 197
Notes	p. 199
Names and Terms	p. 211
Bibliography	p. 217
Index	p. 229
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