Historicising pigs, caste, and Dalits in colonial North India

Abstract Pigs played a varied role in the history of colonial North India depending on whether they were wild, semi-wild, or domestically reared. While colonial elites hunted and ate wild pigs, Muslim elites and upper-caste Hindus were ambivalent towards them. But both these groups stigmatised domestic pigs and the Dalit groups that raised them. The latter used domestic and semi-wild pigs to affirm their identities and as a source of power and resistance against the upper castes and Dalit groups that sought to distance themselves by adopting Brahmanical practices. Domestic pigs also became a source of silent resistance for Dalits because they formed an important part of their everyday cultural, ritual, and economic lives. Members of these groups later joined Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s political and constitutional movement to fight for civil and human rights but continued to use pigs and consumed pork at public feasts to reaffirm their identity and resistance.