Violent Encounters: ‘Stray’ Dogs in Indian Cities

  • Anuradha Ramanujan
Chapter

Abstract

This chapter concerns the large-scale massacre of street dogs in the southern Indian state of Karnataka in 2007. Between January and April, under pressure from citizens and the media, following the deaths of two children, the municipality brutally trapped thousands of dogs, dumped them in packed shelters or vans without sufficient food or water, sometimes for several days, and then poisoned or electrocuted them. The killings started in Bangalore but eventually spread to other parts of the state.

Keywords

Moral Panic Indian City Slum Dweller Violent Encounter Chief Minister 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

Newspapers

  1. Deccan Herald, articles available at: http://archive.deccanherald.com/ and last accessed 10 September 2014.
  2. (2007a) ‘Amendment to Law on Dog Menace Sought’, 6 January.Google Scholar
  3. (2007b) ‘Stray Dogs Maul Girl to Death’, 6 January.Google Scholar
  4. (2007c) ‘Lack of Civic Sense Dogging City: NGOs’, 7 January.Google Scholar
  5. (2007d) ‘Angry People, Dog Lovers Corner BMP’, 8 January.Google Scholar
  6. (2007e) ‘Stray Menace: Crackdown on Illegal Meat Shops’, 10 January.Google Scholar
  7. (2007f) ‘Can Adoptions, Shelters End Dog Menace in Bangalore?’, 3 February.Google Scholar
  8. (2007g) ‘It’s Public Health vs Animal Welfare’, 3 February.Google Scholar
  9. (2007h) ‘Enough is Enough’, 3 March.Google Scholar
  10. (2007i) ‘Culling of Stray Dogs from Today’, 4 March.Google Scholar
  11. (2007j) ‘ABC’s Fine, Why Whine, Ask NGOs’, 7 March.Google Scholar
  12. Indian Express, articles available at http://archive.indianexpress.com/ and last accessed 10 September 2014.
  13. (2007a) ‘Beastly Behavior’, 12 March.Google Scholar
  14. (2009a) ‘Dogged Strays Get a Reprieve’, 24 January.Google Scholar
  15. The Hindu, articles available at http://www.thehindu.com/archive/ and last accessed 10 September 2014.
  16. (2006a) ‘Fewer Stray Dogs in Bangalore Now’, 3 April.Google Scholar
  17. (2007a) ‘Stray Dogs Maul Girl to Death’, 6 January.Google Scholar
  18. (2007b) ‘Dog Menace in Bangalore Finds an Echo in Assembly’, 2 February.Google Scholar
  19. (2007c) ‘Arguments over Culling of Sterilized Dogs’, by C. V. Ramani, 12 February.Google Scholar
  20. (2007d) ‘Governor Unhappy with Culling of Dogs’, 9 March.Google Scholar
  21. (2012a) ‘Were They Being Hunted for Bow-bow Biryani?’, 26 August.Google Scholar
  22. (2012b) ‘Bothersome Strays Can be Humanely Culled: HC’, 8 December.Google Scholar
  23. (2014a) ‘Stray Dogs to be Part of Delhi Security Squad’, 11 August.Google Scholar
  24. The Pioneer, article available at http://www.dailypioneer.com/ and last accessed 10 September 2014.
  25. (2014a) ‘Why Keep a Dog and Bark Yourself? Canine Brigade to Secure New Delhi’, by S. Goswami, 9 August.Google Scholar
  26. The Times of India, articles available at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/archive.cms and last accessed 10 September 2014.
  27. (2008a) ‘Bombay HC Okays Culling of Dogs’, 20 December.Google Scholar
  28. (2010a) ‘Animal Rights Group Sees Red over Maoists’ “Kill Dogs” Call’, by S. Ojha, 10 March.Google Scholar
  29. (2012a) ‘Policy to Check Stray Dogs Soon’, 25 July.Google Scholar
  30. (2012b) ‘In Satara, 200 Dogs Poisoned after 5-year-old Mauled to Death’, by V. Singh, 10 August.Google Scholar
  31. (2014a) ‘Can Mongrels Guard the National Capital? Chhattisgarh Showed the Way’, by M. Akram, 12 August.Google Scholar

Other sources

  1. Bauman, Z. (1995) ‘Making and Unmaking of Strangers’, Thesis Eleven 43:1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Beck, U. (1992) The Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. Trans. M. Ritter. London: Sage.Google Scholar
  3. Benjamin, S. (2000) ‘Governance, Economic Settings and Poverty in Bangalore’, Environment and Urbanization 12(1): 35–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. — (2001) ‘Globalization’s Impact on Local Government’, UN Habitat Debate 7(4): 24–25.Google Scholar
  5. Braidotti, R. (2013) ‘Becoming-world’, in R. Braidotti, P. Hanafin and B. Blaagaard (eds), After Cosmopolitanism. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 1–27.Google Scholar
  6. Cohen, S. (2002) Folk Devils and Moral Panics. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  7. Davis, M. (2007) Planet of Slums. London: Verso.Google Scholar
  8. Douglas, M. (1966) Purity and Danger. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Drèze, J. and A. Sen (2013) An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  10. ‘Gandhi’s Writings On the Stray Dogs Issue, in his Paper Young India’ (n.d.), Karmayog.com. http://www.karmayog.com/dogs/gandhijiletter.htm (accessed 10 September 2014).
  11. Glassner, B. (2004) ‘Narrative Techniques of Fear Mongering’, Social Research 71(4): 819–26.Google Scholar
  12. Haraway, D. (2003) The Companion Species Manifesto. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.Google Scholar
  13. — (2008) When Species Meet. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
  14. ‘Hard Times and Hostile Politics Threaten Street Dogs and ABC’ (2003), Animal People Online, April. http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/03/4/tsg.hard-timesstreet4.03.html (accessed 10 September 2014).
  15. Hollway, W. and T. Jefferson (1997) ‘The Risk Society in an Age of Anxiety: Situating Fear of Crime’, British Journal of Sociology 48(2): 255–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Jeffries, F. (2013) ‘Mediating Fear’, Global Media and Communication 9(1): 37–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Karlekar, H. (2008) Savage Humans and Stray Dogs: A Study in Aggression. New Delhi: Sage.Google Scholar
  18. Kothari, U. (2008) ‘Global Peddlers and Local Networks: Migrant Cosmopolitanisms’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 26(3): 500–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Kulkarni, N. (2007) ‘Should We Kill Our Stray Dogs?’, A Wide Angle View of India. http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/should-we-kill-stray-dogs/ (accessed 10 September 2014).
  20. McFarlane, C. (2008) ‘Postcolonial Bombay: Decline of a Cosmopolitan City?’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 26(3): 480–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Molloy, C. (2011) ‘Dangerous Dogs and the Construction of Risk’, in N. Taylor and T. Signal (eds), Theorizing Animals: Rethinking Humanimal Relations. Leiden: Brill, pp. 107–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Nandy, A. (1998) ‘Introduction: Indian Cinema as a Slum’s Eye View of Politics’, in A. Nandy (ed.), The Secret Politics of Our Desires: Innocence, Culpability and Indian Popular Cinema. London: Zed Books, pp. 1–18.Google Scholar
  23. Palmer, C. (2006) ‘Killing Animals in Animal Shelters’, in The Animal Studies Group, Killing Animals. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp. 170–87.Google Scholar
  24. Plumwood, V. (2011) ‘Being Prey’, Kurungabaa, 18 January. http://kurungabaa.net/2011/01/18/being-prey-by-val-plumwood/ (accessed 10 September 2014).
  25. Rajagopal, A. (ed.) (2009) The Indian Public Sphere: Readings in Media History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  26. Schenk, H. (ed.) (2001) Living in India’s Slums: A Case Study of Bangalore. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers.Google Scholar
  27. Sharma, R. (2007) ‘Beware of Dogs’, Frontline 24(6), 24 March–6 April. http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2406/stories/20070406002610200.htm (accessed 10 September 2014).
  28. Srinivasan, K. (2012) ‘The Bio-politics of Animal Being and Welfare: Dog Control and Care in the UK and India’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 38(1):106–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Varma, R. (2012) The Postcolonial City and its Subjects: London, Nairobi, Bombay. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  30. Weisberg, Z. (2009) ‘The Broken Promises of Monsters: Haraway, Animals and the Humanist Legacy’, Journal of Critical Animal Studies 7(2): 22–62.Google Scholar
  31. Wilbert, C. (2006) ‘Who is Doing the Killing? Animal Attacks, Man-eaters, and Shifting Boundaries and Flows of Human-Animal Relations’, in The Animal Studies Group, Killing Animals. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp. 30–49.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Anuradha Ramanujan 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Anuradha Ramanujan

There are no affiliations available

Personalised recommendations