India, April 16 -- In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mutton was an important source of protein in the Indian diet, but the production was low, and the quality of mutton was not good. The patterns of sheep and goat rearing in the Deccan, especially around Poona, along with early colonial and postcolonial efforts to improve breeds for better meat and wool, reveal the complex relationship between diet, pastoral practices, and agricultural policy.

There was a large meat-eating population in India then, since not only Europeans, but all Muslims and several Hindus were mutton-eaters. Among natives, goats' flesh was much more widely consumed than that of sheep. In large towns, those who could ate meat daily. But in small villages...