Some Trouble with Cows: Making Sense of Social Conflict

by Beth Roy

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 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.

Genres: Nonfiction

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Annalise Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think about this book often. Learned the word ‘phenomenology’

[Sarah Lillo Kang · Rating 4 out of 5]

It started with a cow that wandered into a neighbor’s garden. It escalated into a full scale riot between Muslims and Hindus. Years later, Beth Roy, an American sociologist focused on conflict-resolution, went into the community to gather perspectives and attempt to make sense of the conflict. This was interesting both on a cultural level and on an intellectual level. I enjoyed this academic read.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read. The power of story is captured in this grad student's thesis - a Indian community slowly reveals the contrasting versions, divided by religion, of an event that boiled up and turned violent.