Some Trouble with Cows: Making Sense of Social Conflict

Beth Roy's account of how a dispute between two neighboring farmers - cow grazes neighbor's crop - turns into a family conflict, then a village conflict, then a religious-ethnic conflict, then embroils the surrounding villages and finally an entire region. She went there, she spoke with the people most directly involved, and she uncovered the underlying national and international issues here being played out on a village level. It takes great insight and empathy to accomplish what Beth Roy has done. This is such a good book.

This is an academic study of social conflict. The author investigated a previously unreported riot in what is today the country of Bangladesh, though at the time of the riot was East Pakistan. Her methodology was to talk in detail to persons involved to understand what happened, and perhaps more importantly, their interpretation of what happened. Initially, the book is easy and engaging reading as she describes how she learned of the riot, and how the riot reportedly occurred. She then proceeds to explain the conflict in terms of the broader scholarship of social conflict. Roy's analysis of the power relationships in the village, the precipitation of the riot, and the meaning of the riot to Hindus and Muslims provide is a refreshing balance of the perception of common villagers, and academic social conflict theory. For persons interested in the social relationships in South Asia, and social conflict broadly, this is a terrific book.