ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the historical and political context of pigeon flying, cockfighting, and dogfighting and how these activities were transformed from being royal pursuits in the pre-colonial and early colonial times to their gradual decline during the late colonial and post-colonial periods. For instance, many Indian rulers kept thousands of pigeons at royal courts, including Mughal emperor Akbar (1542–1605) and Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (1822–1887) of Lucknow. Cockfighting and dogfighting helped Indian elites and early British colonial officials interact with each other socially to strengthen their political relationship. However, with the rise of Victorian values and the emergence of Anglo-Protestant masculinity, these animal activities began to lose ground among the elite. Particularly, as the conception of colonial masculinity changed in the nineteenth century from strength, aggression, and combat to more “gentlemanly” pursuits that disciplined the passions and were geared toward self-improvement and productivity, the leisure activities of the colonial elites changed from hunting, dogfighting, and bear baiting to the game of cricket, tiger hunting, and polo. This, in turn, affected the Indian ruling classes who likewise turned away from keeping animals for combat and relegated such activities to the rural poor who were now considered “backward” for indulging in such passions.
