HH Krishna Ksetra Swami: Today I received another nice endorsement for ‘Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics’, this time from Dr. Bibek Debroy, whom I met a few days ago in Delhi:
“There have been other books on cows and their role and importance in Hindu culture. But typically, their range is narrow. Kenneth Valpey’s book is not only extremely well-written and engrossing, its range and scope is breath-taking—from Hindu culture on cow-care to the contemporary, from texts to the temporal. It is a story told by someone who is steeped in the bhakti tradition, but testable propositions (such as on the efficacy of bovine products) are examined with the lens of a scientist and empiricist. But the objective of animal care isn’t only about an esoteric ideal. Therefore, towards the end, there are examples of how cow-care works in specific communities. A wonderful book that everyone, not just every Indian, should read. Attitudes of arrogance, fuelled by ignorance, will then be somewhat tempered.”
–Dr. Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, and translator of the unabridged Mahabharata (Penguin 2015) and other Sanskrit texts.