Dairy plays a significant part in numerous aspects of Indian society, including cuisine, religion, culture, and the economy.
India has the world's largest dairy herd with over 300 million bovines, producing over 190 million tonnes of milk. India is first among all countries in both production and consumption of milk. Most of the milk is domestically consumed, though a small fraction is also exported. Indian cuisine, in particular North Indian cuisine, features a number of dairy products like paneer, while South Indian cuisine uses more yoghurts and milk. Milk and dairy products play a part in Hindu religious practice and legend.
Dairy production in the Indian subcontinent has historical roots that go back 8,000 years to the domestication of zebu cattle. Dairy products, especially milk, were consumed on the subcontinent at least from the Vedic period. In the mid- to late 20th century, Operation Flood transformed the Indian dairy industry into the world's largest. Previously, milk production in India occurred mainly on household farms.
The economic impact of the dairy industry in India is substantial. Most of the milk produced comes from buffalo; cow milk is a close second, and goat milk a distant third. A large variety of dairy products like paneer, butter, ghee, and yogurt are produced by buffaloes in India. Dairy imports into India are negligible and subject to tariffs. The domestic industry is regulated by government agencies such as Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries; National Dairy Development Board; and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.
History
Early period The history of dairy in the Indian subcontinent goes back roughly 8,000 years to the first domestication of zebu cattle, which is thought to have originated in India. By the beginning of the Indus Valley Civilisation ( BCE), zebu cattle had been fully domesticated and used for their milk. They are abundantly represented in the osteological remains and ceramics of the time. The water buffalo is also indigenous to South Asia. While wild populations were present long before domestication, they were domesticated and used for ploughing and milk by the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Goats and sheep were also domesticated in the Indus valley, though it is uncertain if they were milked.
In the Vedic period ( BCE), milk was one of the primary elements of the typical diet. Milk and milk products including clarified butter were consumed. The Vedas refer to milk in a number of passages and contains over 700 references to cows, which are described with high regard and referred to as aghnya (not to be killed). Both the Vedas and the Pali canon, which are rich in descriptions of contemporary culture, contain numerous references to offerings of milk products and their processing. Milk, generally boiled cow milk, was used for preparing a mixture with grains, and gruel with parched barley.
Yoghurt (curd) was another form in which milk was consumed during the period. The Vedas describe curdling of milk by mixing a portion of soured milk into it. They also mention curdling of milk by the addition of plant substances such as the bark of the palash tree and the fruit of jujube, which may have contained rennet-like enzymes. These are some of the earliest documented references to enzymatic cheese-making.
Indologist Wendy Doniger compares Vedic peoples to American cowboys, noting that they would often go on raids for the cattle of their rivals. She further observes that Vedic groups viewed cattle as a form of wealth.
According to the Sutra literature, during the period BCE, boiled rice with milk or curd continued to be a common food item. Cows used to be milked twice a day. The ones which were pregnant or undergoing their estrous cycle or nursing a calf of another cow were not milked. The preparation of payasa is also noted. Madhuparka – a mixture of honey with curds or ghee was used for welcoming guests. The preparation of a sweet with clarified butter as one of the ingredients is also mentioned. The Buddhist and Jain texts of the period also regard milk and its products important articles of food, with milk-rice being especially favoured. They mention preparations made from curds, butter and buttermilk. The milk of camels and goats were also in use, in addition to that of cows and buffaloes.
Milk, curds, and ghee were important elements of food in the Indian subcontinent over the reigns of rulers from different religious backgrounds. A number of foreign travellers noted the presence of dairy products in the Indian diet.
Modern period
Dairy in India was once a largely subsistence-oriented occupation intended to produce milk for home consumption. In 1919, a dairy animal census was conducted for the first time by British colonial officials. A report authored in 1937 indicated a sub-optimal rate of milk consumption in the country. It estimated a per capita intake of per day (inclusive of all dairy products), which was the lowest among all large dairy countries. Low productivity of dairy animals and widespread poverty were the challenges in increasing dairy production and consumption. Consumption varied by geographic and economic conditions, but was on the whole quite low.
In the 1920s, modern milk processing and marketing technologies were introduced in India. The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was founded in 1965. It launched Operation Flood in 1969–70, a programme aimed at modernising and developing the dairy sector using co-operatives. During this period, dairy co-operatives emerged as a dominant force, as a result of the exploitative nature of private milk plants and vendors. Co-operatives were based on the "Anand model" – a three-tier organisational structure comprising (i) village-level co-operative societies (the primary producers), (ii) district-level co-operative producers' unions which collected the milk and operated processing plants, and (iii) state-level federations for marketing. This model was evolved in Anand, Gujarat, having begun there in 1946, and came to be adopted all over the country.
Operation Flood proceeded in three phases. Phase I (1970–1981) focussed on developing dairy production in areas surrounding New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Phase II (beginning 1986), a larger phase of the project, expanded investment to 147 urban centres across the country. Phase III, which continued to the mid-1990s, expanded investment still further, to a number of smaller towns. In addition to investments by the government of India, several phases of Operation Flood were funded in part by the World Bank and European Economic Community.
India has been the world's largest milk producer since 1997, when it surpassed the United States.
Culture Cuisine
+ Indian dairy products and preparation Method Products Lactic acid fermentation Dahi, shrikhand, lassi Fermented milk coagulation Chhena, paneer, whey Heat condensation Kheer, khoa, rabri, malai Heat condensation and freezing Kulfi Dairy has been an integral part of Indian cuisine from ancient times to the present. North Indian cuisines are particularly well known to rely heavily on dairy products. A distinctive feature of Punjabi cuisine is the use of paneer, a type of cheese. The Punjabi dal makhani is a rich stew of black lentils, kidney beans, butter and cream. The popular paneer dishes include mattar paneer, palak paneer, shahi paneer, paneer kofta, and paneer bhurgy. Paneer is also used for making paneer pakora (a fried snack) and paneer paratha (a layered chapati stuffed with paneer). Ghee, a form of clarified butter, is commonly used in Indian cuisine. It is used with rice preparations such as biryani and as a spread on unleavened breads (roti). It has a strong flavour and is also used as cooking oil. Cream is also usually used in dishes in North Indian cuisines to make the gravy rich and creamy.
Another common use of milk is in tea (chai). Most tea consumed in India is sugared milk tea. Drinking tea became ingrained in Indian culture over the 20th century, with a per capita consumption of as of 2018.
Religion
The cow has a sacred status in Hinduism, which is the majority religion in India. However nearly half of the milk produced in India comes from buffaloes, which are also consumed as meat (carabeef). In contrast to the cow, the water buffalo is seen as unclean and inauspicious. In Hindu mythology, evil is often represented by the water buffalo. The Hindu god of Death, Yama rides on a water buffalo. In the 1940s, Mahatma Gandhi lamented the preference for buffalo milk in the Indian society, noting the nutritional superiority of cow milk.
Ancient Indian cosmology postulated that the Earth's continents were submerged in a variety of dairy products, including milk and ghee.
According to Wendy Doniger, during the early Common Era, the ideal Hindu devotee's practice changed from sacrifice and consumption of cows to milking of cows. In other words, she argues, there was a cultural shift between "hunting" cows and "preserving" them in order to use products such as milk. Milk, curd and ghee were three of the five sacred cow products for Hindus.
Milk is one of the offerings made by devotees in a number of Hindu festivals, such as Maha Shivaratri and Nag Panchami. During Pongal, rice is boiled in milk until it overflows out of the clay pot, and then offered to the gods, to the cows, and finally to the family members. During Holi, milk is used for preparing thandai, a slightly intoxicating drink. In Kerala, the state government procured 8.5 million litres of milk for the festival of Onam in 2015.
There was some conflict in early Buddhism, with its emphasis on ahiṃsā (non-violence), as to whether drinking milk was ethical as it deprived calves of their nourishment, but this view was ultimately abandoned.
Jainism, even with its more extreme views on ahiṃsā and vegetarianism, does not prohibit consumption of dairy products. While the Jain doctrine prohibits intentional infliction of suffering or distress to any multi-sensed being, most Jains do consume dairy products. This has been source of tension in the religion. Some Jains argue that dairy (along with other animal products like wool) can be produced without causing hiṃsā (harm). However, this ignores the reality of industrial dairy production which typically causes great distress to the animals. The sentiment in the Jain community is growing in the direction of veganism.
Traditional medicine Milk plays a part in Ayurveda, a form of alternative medicine practised in India. Ayurveda recommends daily consumption of milk because of its good digestive and sedative properties.
Production
India has the highest level of milk production and consumption of all countries. The annual production was 186 million tonnes .
, approximately 4.2% of India's gross domestic product was due to dairy production. In 2019, the Indian dairy sector was reported to be growing at 4.9% yearly. In 2018–19, the Government of India reported that 187.7 million tonnes of milk had been produced, and that the per capita availability of milk in India was 394 grams per day.
India has a population of over 300 million bovines as per the 2019 livestock census, including 192.49 million cattle and 109.85 million buffaloes. Nearly half of the milk produced in India comes from water buffaloes, as opposed to cows; previously, water buffalo produced the majority of milk in India. "Among countries with large-scale milk production, India is unique insofar as most milk comes not from cows, but water buffalo. Consistent with mid-twentieth-century patterns, buffalo currently contribute 58 of the total milk supply …" , buffaloes produced 91.82 million tonnes of milk. Goat milk is the third-most produced variety of milk, with a contribution of 4% as of 2017–18. The predominant genotype in Indian native breeds of cows and buffaloes is described as A2A2, meaning they produce A2 milk.