Historical Overview of Dairy Development in India (Pre-Independence)

India is the world’s largest milk producer today, but this position didn’t come overnight. Long before the cooperative revolution and Operation Flood transformed the sector, the seeds of organized dairy development were quietly sown during the colonial era. The pre-independence period – roughly from the late 19th century to 1947 – saw India’s dairy industry take its first structured steps, driven largely by British administrative needs. Understanding this foundational chapter is essential to appreciating how modern dairy science and policy took root in the country.

Dairy in India before organized development 🔗

Dairy production in the Indian subcontinent has ancient roots going back nearly 8,000 years, tied to the domestication of zebu cattle. For millennia, dairying remained a household occupation – cows and buffaloes were maintained by rural families primarily for their own consumption. Milk, ghee, curd, and buttermilk were staples, but production was entirely informal, unscientific, and small-scale. Until independence in 1947, dairy production and trade were almost entirely in the household sector, with no systematic infrastructure for procurement, processing, or quality assurance.

By the time the British consolidated their rule across the subcontinent, local dairy practices, while culturally rich, did not meet the standards required for supplying safe, consistent milk to large institutional consumers – especially the military.

The military catalyst: Why the British established dairy farms 🔗

The story of organized dairy development in India begins with the British army. Maintaining troops stationed across a vast tropical country presented serious logistical challenges, and ensuring a safe, reliable milk supply was one of them. The absence of refrigeration, India’s warm climate, and local supply chains not geared toward quality control all made milk a risky commodity for the military.

To address this, the first Military Farm was established on 1 February 1889, with the setting up of Military Farm Allahabad. Over subsequent years, a large number of Military Farms spread across the country, numbering over 100 units by the time of partition. The Defence Department under British rule established these farms to ensure the supply of milk and butter to the colonial army. The first of these farms was set up in Allahabad in 1913, followed by Bangalore, Ooty, and Karnal.

These farms were not rudimentary operations. The Military Farms Service was a pioneer in introducing Artificial Insemination (AI) in cattle in India, and the dairy development of the organized sector in India is largely attributed to their work. They used improved milch animals, maintained hygienic standards, and experimented with herd improvement practices that had no equivalent in civilian dairy operations at the time. However, this progress largely stayed within cantonment walls – it had little direct impact on the civilian population or the country’s rural dairy farmers.

The appointment of the Imperial Dairy Expert (1920) 🔗

A significant policy shift came in 1920. Recognizing the growing need for expert oversight of dairy development across British India, the Board of Agriculture advised the government to appoint an Imperial Dairy Expert. Mr. William Smith, a dairy specialist from Britain, was appointed in 1920 and planned for enhancing milk production on a long-term, scientific basis.

This appointment was more than symbolic. It represented the British government’s formal acknowledgment that dairy development could not be left to ad hoc military initiatives – it required a dedicated, science-driven administrative focus. The Imperial Dairy Expert’s role involved surveying dairy practices across different regions, understanding the specific challenges faced by farmers, and recommending policies suited to India’s diverse agricultural landscape.

The 1920s also saw another key development: modern milk processing and marketing technologies were introduced in India during this decade, beginning to bridge the gap between production and organized urban supply chains. Additionally, a dairy animal census was conducted for the first time in 1919 by British colonial officials – itself a reflection of the growing administrative interest in quantifying and managing the country’s dairy resources.

The Royal Commission of Agriculture and its recommendations 🔗

The Royal Commission of Agriculture, constituted during this period, undertook a comprehensive examination of Indian agriculture, including livestock management and dairy practices. Its terms of reference were wide-ranging – covering agricultural research, veterinary education, cattle breeding, and the dairying industry across all provinces of British India. The Commission gathered evidence from across the subcontinent and produced recommendations that were notably forward-looking for their time.

Among its key concerns in the dairy sector was the poor state of cattle breeds and the need for systematic improvement. The Commission noted that no marked improvement in dairy cattle and dairying could be expected until landholders maintained herds of pedigree cattle, and it called for greater attention to breeding and farm management. These recommendations laid the groundwork for the establishment of research institutions and structured dairy education in India.

Establishment of the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (1923) 🔗

The most enduring institutional outcome of this period was the creation of a dedicated dairy research center. The Imperial Institute for Animal Husbandry and Dairying was set up in Bangalore in 1923 as a center for dairy education – directly reflecting the influence of the Royal Commission’s recommendations and the work of experts like William Smith.

This institute was not merely an academic facility. It was a hands-on research center where cattle breeding, milk production science, and dairy farm management were studied under Indian conditions. In its early years, the institute attracted prominent national figures – Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya both received training there in 1927, wanting to understand modern methods of cattle management. Gandhi’s engagement with the institute’s work influenced his writings on dairying and scientific cattle rearing, which in turn shaped post-independence policy thinking.

In 1936, the institute was expanded and renamed the Imperial Dairy Institute, reflecting its growing scope and significance. After independence, it was renamed the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) and eventually shifted to Karnal, Haryana in 1955, where it continues to function as India’s premier dairy research institution under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Dr. NC Wright’s visit and recommendations (1936) 🔗

Another important milestone in the pre-independence era was the visit of Dr. NC Wright, the Director of the Dairy Research Institute in Scotland. Dr. NC Wright came to India in 1936 to review the progress of dairying and made significant observations and recommendations during his four-year stay, which formed the basis for the future development of the dairy industry. His recommendations focused on building the institutional infrastructure required to support a viable national dairy industry – a vision that would take shape more fully only after independence.

The Polson dairy and early private enterprise 🔗

Alongside government-driven initiatives, private dairy enterprise also began emerging in this period. In 1929, Pestonji Edulji Polson established the Polson Model Dairy at Anand to manufacture Polson butter. Polson – a private dairy at Anand – procured milk from producers through middlemen, processed it, and then sent it to Bombay, some 425 km away. This early private dairy operation demonstrated the commercial viability of organized milk processing and long-distance supply, but it also exposed the exploitative dynamics of the middleman-driven system that would later spark the cooperative movement.

The civilian dairy situation: A stark contrast 🔗

While military farms and emerging research institutions were making progress, civilian dairy conditions remained poor throughout the pre-independence decades. Urban consumers had to depend on milk vendors who kept cattle in cities and sold milk door-to-door, leading to several cattle sheds in different cities which caused environmental problems. Profit-driven vendors often compromised milk quality, and there was no regulatory framework to address adulteration or hygiene.

A report authored in 1937 indicated a sub-optimal rate of milk consumption in the country, estimating a per capita intake of about 200 grams per day inclusive of all dairy products – the lowest among all large dairy countries at the time. Low animal productivity and widespread poverty remained major barriers. The gap between the organized military farms and the unorganized civilian dairy sector was stark.

Legacy of the pre-independence period 🔗

Despite its limitations, the pre-independence period established several critical building blocks for modern dairy development in India. The military farms introduced systematic herd management and AI techniques. The appointment of an Imperial Dairy Expert brought scientific expertise to national-level policy. The Royal Commission’s recommendations led to the creation of a dedicated research institute. And private initiatives like Polson’s dairy demonstrated the commercial potential of processed milk – even as they exposed the need for farmer-centric alternatives.

As the FAO has noted in its analysis of Indian dairying systems, the Indian experience shows that success in dairy development depends on ensuring that control of the resources created remains with the producers. The pre-independence era, for all its colonial underpinnings, provided the institutional knowledge, the trained personnel, and the policy templates that independent India would build upon – most visibly through the cooperative model and Operation Flood in the decades that followed.

What do you think? Given that India’s early organized dairy development was driven by military needs rather than the welfare of local farmers, do you think the institutional foundations laid during this period genuinely served India’s rural dairy producers – or did they primarily serve colonial interests? And how much of the pre-independence dairy infrastructure do you think shaped the success of post-independence programs like Operation Flood?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dairy_in_India
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Farms_Service
3. http://ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php?id=6102
4. https://www.nddb.coop/sites/default/files/NDDB-Procurement-Manual.pdf
5. https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.77618/2015.77618.Royal-Commission-On-Agriculture-In-India-Vol-Ix_djvu.txt
6. https://ndri.res.in/icar-national-dairy-research-institute
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Dairy_Research_Institute
8. https://www.fao.org/4/t3080t/t3080t07.htm