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Tracing the journey of meat from the farm to the meat shop and other workspaces of the butcher within the multi-sited margins in Delhi, the current volume intimately follows the lives of Qureshi butchers and other meat sector workers in this transforming mega-city. The author addresses the tensions that meat throws up in a bristling society whose stakes are now more than ever intense. She shows how meat is also a rising sector in the Indian economy, and fetches precious foreign exchange. Qureshi butchers stand at the crossroads of class, caste, stigma, religion, market, urban ecological policies, and a never-ceasing political debate around these issues.

Delhi's Meatscapes brings together rare archival documents, vernacular sources, and ethnographic insights gleaned from several years of immersion in the city's meatscapes and is the first of its kind for urban anthropologists, economists, political scientists, policy planners and readers who wish to take a hard look at their own (non-) meat choices.

Contents: Introduction: Meatscapes and Muslim Butchers. 1. Taarikh e Quresh: History of the Biradri. 2. Bonds of Cohesion: Community Life in Delhi. 3. From the Farm to the Abattoir: Actors, Networks, Spaces. 4. Roadside Vendors and Glitzy Malls: Delhi’s Diverse Meatscapes. 5. Messy Meat, Messier Politics: Relocating the Abattoir. 6. Negotiating Occupation, Stigma, and Sensitivity: Qureshis as Agents of Change. Glossary. References. Index.