# Bullock cart

A bullock cart or ox cart is a two-wheeled or four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen (draught cattle). It is a means of transportation used since ancient times in many parts of the world. They are still used today where modern vehicles are too expensive or the infrastructure does not favor them.
    CONTENT : A - F , G - L , M - R , S - Z , See also , External links

## Quotes

    Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author

### A - F

* The fifth day closed with a procession to the brook Almo, in which the sacred stone of the Goddess and her bullock cart were bathed as a rain-charm. On the return the cart was strewn with flowers.
** Grant Allen in: The Evolution of the Idea of God, Health Research Books, 1 September 1996, p. 115
* Now 90 per cent of our ploughing is done by bullock-drawn ploughs. Hence it is quite impossible to switch over from bullocks to tractors. Even today there are about two crores of bullock ploughs and one and a half crores of bullock carts.
** K. S. Bharathi in:The Social Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, Concept Publishing Company, 1 January 1991, p. 78
* Beautiful womenfolk wave at you from flower-bedecked cottage doors, while gaily painted bullock carts creak about the place.
** James L. Busey in: Notes on Costa Rican Democracy, University of Colorado Press, 1962, p. 2
* In stark practice, trudging round on foot or trundling in a bullock cart, Gandhi came where ordinary people lived, and talked about their concerns in the language they understood. P.68
** Judith M. Brown in: Gandhi's Rise to Power: Indian Politics 1915-1922, CUP Archive, 26 September 1974, p. 68
* In the Indus Valley culture slow moving bullock carts were also common because many models of such a cart have been found. It is significant to note that there is very little difference between the bullock cart of today and that of the Indus Valley culture. Even today the same kind of bullock cart plies in Sindh as 4000 years back.
** Moti Chandra in: Trade and Trade Routes in Ancient India, Abhinav Publications, 1977, p. 33
* Bullock-Cart theology is a call to mutuality — first world Adventism must realize, as we do, that in some places the bullock-cart is the most efficient means of transport there is. The best vessel to proclaim The Three Angels’ messages in Asia is the life that is truly Adventist and truly Asian.
** W. Arden Clarke in: And the People Said, "We Will Serve the Lord": An Analysis of Church Government, TEACH Services, Inc., 1 January 2001, p. 172
* ...he [Gandhi] opposed a scheme for developing rubber-|tyres to be fitted on bullock-carts, arguing, somewhat implausibly, that this would not make things easier for the villagers but on the contrary would increase their requirements, make them dependent on others and provide yet another means od exploitation.
** Ajit K. Dasgupta in: Gandhi's Economic Thought, Routledge, 26 September 2002, p. 80
* There may still be more bullock carts in rural India than bicycles; there surely are still infinitely more bullock carts than there are small tractors. But what powers India's Green Revolution, what has given the subcontinent a food surplus for the first time in its thousands of years is not the digging stick or the wooden plow. It is the ubiquitous gasoline pump in the Tube well and the irrigation ditch of an arid land.
** Peter Drucker in: The Changing World of the Executive, Routledge, 11 October 2013, p. 209
* Along with the masses of labourers flocking to Agra once news of its [Taj Mahal] inception spread, materials for the construction had also begun arriving; red sand stone from local quarries in Fatehpur Sikri and marble dug from the hills of far-off Marana in Rajasthan. In order to transport the marble, a ten-mile long ramp of tampered earth was built through Agra on which an unending parade of thousand elephants and bullock carts continually dragged the blocks of marble to the building site.
** Jim Ford in: Don't Worry, Be Happy: Beijing to Bombay with a Backpack, Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2006, p. 442.

### G - L

* Feroze Gandhi also laid stress on the encouragement to be given to the bullock carts for transportation of goods. He said that, even in the atomic age, bullock carts are useful as a means of transport. There were more than one crore bullock carts and they carried more than the railways did. … bullock cart covered 17.5 miles in 15 hours.
** Feroze Gandhi in: Shashi Bhushan Feroze Gandhi,Frank Brothers, 2008, p. 83
* Our leading men traveled throughout India on foot or through bullock carts...By contrasting the railways with the bullock-carts Gandhi drives home the point that speed by itself is not a value to be cherished.
** In: Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi: 'Hind Swaraj' and Other Writings, Cambridge University Press, 28 Janauray 1997, p. 48
* The present distress is undoubtedly insufferable. Pauperism must go. But industrialization is no remedy. The evil does not lie in the use of bullock-carts. It lies in our selfishness and want of consideration for our neighbours. If we have no love for neighbours, no change, however revolutionary, can do us any good.
** Mohandas Gandhi in Young India, 13 August 1925, P.246, quoted in: Gandhi: Selected Writings, Courier Dover Publications, 7 May 2012, p. 246
* Ten million refugees were on the move, on foot, on bullock cart, and by train, sometimes traveling under army escort and other times trusting to fate and their respective gods. Jawaharlal Nehru flew over one refugee convoy which comprised 100,000 people and stretched for ten miles.
** Ramachandra Guha in: India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy, Pan Macmillan, 10 February 2011, p. 15
* The carts were piled with bales of textiles, bags of rice and spices, big round cakes of brown sugar, exotic lands like Persia, Arabia and Egypt, then move boxes of precious stones for jewelry, packets of incense, metal, wood ware and pottery. Once the carts reached the seaside, the goods would be loaded on ships that would sail to exotic places like Persia, Arabia and Egypt and then move over land across the deserts of North Africa to arrive in the markets of Rome.
** Subhadra Sen Gupta in: A Mauryan Adventure: Girls of India, Penguin UK, 15 June 2013, p. 45
* They are medieval because of Gandhi's insistence on the bullock-cart economy, undermining the importance of scientific and technological development. Such remarks are uncharitable not only to Gandhi but to India and her cultural heritage. Gandhi was a practical idealist. He knew the needs of the country and also the resources it had. In fact India does not need the type of mechanical industries and large scale industries which lead to a World War II. Gandhiji’s bullock-cart economy is more conducive to human welfare than the modern atom bomb economy.
** T. N. Hajela in: History Of Economic Thought 17Th Ed, Ane Books Pvt Ltd, 1 January 2008, p. 941
* The next scene, one of the funniest in the play, depicts Jaka Karewet's ride to town in a bullock cart, along with a group of other passengers. The cart is depicted by a wooden bench, on which the driver, whip in hand, sits astride at one end, while passengers sit sideways behind him in a row.
** Barbara Hatley in: Javanese Performances on an Indonesian Stage: Contesting Culture, Embracing Change, NUS Press, 2008, p. 241
* Before the Second World War the number of bullock carts in our country [India] was roughly estimated at about 9 million. After Independence [1947] a small percentage of this number was shared by Pakistan. Still the number of bullock carts is fairly large, because as a result of an improvement in their economic condition even those who formerly did not possess bullock carts come to have their own.
** S.G. Hundekar in: Management Of Rural Sector, Mittal Publications, 1995, p. 115
* Animal drawn carts, especially bullock carts, are the oldest mode of transportation, existing in India and in few other countries since the past unknown. About 15 million bullock carts exist in India. Statistic shows that number of bullock carts has not reduced in last 30 years, belying the popular concept that bullock carts will disappear with the development of society. Reasons are many. The fact is that still in India, bullock carts are the most important mode of transportation in many parts of rural India. Unfortunately, the technology of the carts has not been improved. The conventional bullock carts are made of wooden wheels and bamboo/wooden load carrier (known as platform). More than 80% bullock carts are of conventional type. Only a few number of carts has been partially converted to metallic (which can not be termed as ‘improved’). As this mode of transportation will exist in India, there is need for the improvement of the technology.
** Insdag in: Improved Bullock Carts, Institute of Steel Development & Growth (INSDAG) (steel-insdag.org)
* Kim marked down a gaily ornamented ruth or family bullock cart, with a broidered canopy of two domes, like a double humped camel, which had just been drawn into the par. Eight men made its retinue and two of eight were armed with rusty sabres, sure signs they followed a person of distinction, for the common folk do not bear arms.
** Rudyard Kipling in: Kim, KITABU, 24 June 2014, p. 69
* We are strange mixture of hate, fear, and gentleness; we are both violence and peace. There has been outward progress from the bullock cart to the jet plane but psychologically the individual has not changed at all and the structure of society through the world has been created by individuals.
** Jiddu Krishnamurti in: Freedom from the Known, Random House, 1 July 2010, p. 5
* A classic success story is that of the bullock cart driver rising to a position of wealth. In the late 1800s, Tamils and Sikhs in Malaysia began giving up coolie work to become bullock-cart drivers. When the road had been constructed, some traded their bullock carts to become lorry drivers, becoming prominent transporters in the latter half of the twentieth century.
** Christina Lubinski et all in: Family Multinationals: Entrepreneurship, Governance, and Pathways to Internationalization, Routledge, 18 July 2013, p. 29

### M - R

* Product design needs to reflect the challenges of the local environment and the demands of the local culture and religion. When you're looking for creative solutions to these needs, sometimes a bullock cart is better than an automobile.
** Vijay Mahajan, et al., in: The 86 Percent Solution: How to Succeed in the Biggest Market Opportunity of the Next 50 Years, Pearson Education, 14 September 2005 , p. 31
* The town of Sarchi in the central plateau is known for its highly decorated bullock carts (carretas), … These carts]] are uniquely Costa Rican handicrafts and can be exquisitely detailed and brightly colored. Believe it or not, in the olden days such fancy carts were used by everyday farmers, who still take pride in their beautiful carts. The genuine antique carts from the town of Sarchi are treasured and can be quite expensive.
** Bruce Morris in: Costa Rica Alive!, Hunter Publishing, Inc, 1 March 2003, p. 90
* The poor are almost fashionable. And this idea of Intermediate technology has become an aspect of that fashion. The cult in India centres on bullock cart Intermediate technology. The bullock cart is not to be eliminated; after three thousand or more of backward years Intermediate technology will now improve the bullock cart. ‘Do you know’ someone said to me in Delhi that investment in bullock carts is equivalent to that in the Railways.... Under the Intermediate technology improvements such as Metal axles, bearings, rubber tyres? But wouldn't that make the carts even more expensive? Wouldn't it take generations, and a lot of money, to introduce those improvements.
** V. S. Naipaul in: India: A Wounded Civilization, Pan Macmillan, 22 March 2012, p. 107
* Bullock cart making is an important use of wood in rural India. Bullock cart is one of the very proud possessions of most of the farmers. It is used for transportation of agricultural inputs like fertilizers, manure, seeds as well as agricultural produce. It has great importance in agricultural and rural economy. It is estimated that there are 12 million bullock carts in use in the country and two million are added every year.
** Sharad Singh Negi in: Forests for Socio-economic and Rural Development in India, M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1 January 1996, p. 94
* In parts of rural Maharashtra, bullock cart races have, for long, been a source of recreation and entertainment. In 2013 too, during the annual Pune Festival, over 1000 bullock carts participated in the race which was held at Bhosari near Pune. Organisers and promoters of these races have argued that the sport was being held for centuries and was an integral part of the culture of the state.
** Aditi Pai in: Animal lovers hail Supreme Court's ruling to ban bullock cart race, India Today, 8 May 2014
* For long, animal activists have been fighting to stop bullock cart races which often leave the animals in pain and distress. The apex court also set aside the judgment of the Madurai High Court of 9 March 2007 and upheld the 12 March 12012, judgment of the Bombay High Court banning bullock cart races.
** Aditi Pai in: "Animal lovers hail Supreme Court's ruling to ban bullock cart race"

### S - Z

* India had launched [in 1977] a project to redesign and modernise its bullock cart, the country's chief transport system after the railways. In response to a call from India's Prime Minister, scientists in at least four national institutes worked on improving the cart whose design had hardly changed since the Mohanjadaro Civilization (3000-2000BC).
** New Scientist, in: New Scientist, Vol. 73, No. 1034, p. 82
* Man leads these leafless branches On a bullock cart Like relatives arranging Logs on a corpse Man removes the bullock’s harness And places some green grass before it The bullock cannot form an idea Of the load while pulling the cart Its veins get strained and stretched And it stops to stare At people Carrying axes On their shoulders.
** Shivanath in: Padmā Sacadeva A Handful of Sun and Other Poems, Sahitya Akademi, 1 January 2000, p. 103
* Bullock carts, one of the earliest and most popular modes of transport in the 19th and early 20th century Singapore. They were used for a variety of purposes, such as travelling and transportation of goods. They were phased out slowly with rising levels of traffic and the advent of mechanised transport from 1867 onwards.
** Government of Singapore in:Bullock carts, Government of Singapore
* In Malay, is a road in Chinatown which draws its name from the bullock and ox carts that used to ply this road carrying water for the early inhabitants of Singapore.
** Government of Singapore in: "Bullock carts"
* Bullock carts were mostly owned by Tamils, and along with trams, buses, jinrickshaws and horse carriages, they formed the main modes of transport in the early 19th century.
** Government of Singapore in: "Bullock carts"
* Fittings done to the bullocks include placing a wooden platform with a sturdy tongue between the parallel wheels of the cart to create space for passengers or freight. The driver holding a yoke hitched to the two bullocks on one hand and a thin whip on the other was invariably an Indian with betel juice running from his lips.
** Government of Singapore in: "Bullock carts"
* Prior to 1880, when the rickshaw was first introduced into Singapore, hack gharries and bullock carts were the principal means of road transport.
** Leo Suryadinat in: Chinese Adaptation and Diversity: Essays on Society and Literature in Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore, NUS Press, 1993, p. 37
* I heard footsteps approaching. A local farmer herding his cows noticed me and took pity. Pressing the back of his hand to my forehead, he looked skyward toward the vultures and understanding my predicament, lifted me onto a bullock cart. As we jostled along the muddy paths, the vultures followed overhead.
** Radhanath Swami in:In every crisis lies the seed of opportunity, Radhanath Swami's Journey22 October 2013
* Bullock-carts piled high with pitiful chattels, cattle being driven alongside. Women with babies in their arms and wretched little tin trunks on their heads. Twenty thousand men, women and children [Refugees during the India's partition] trekking into the promised land - not because it is the promised land.
** A Press Correspondent of Swatantra quoted in Ramachandra Guha in: India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy, Pan Macmillan, 10 February 2011, p. 15
* I hope the world will try to understand what we are going through. Can the world really understand this tragic contradiction that paralyzes human hope? At this point one could almost fancy oneself in the company of bullock carts making their everlasting aimless trek into a future that does not exist. As the bullock cart moves, space changes, and distance is gained, but time is at a standstill. The movement of bullock cat is measured by space and not time.
** C.S. Song in : Tell Us Our Names: Story Theology from an Asian Perspective, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 7July 2005, p. 70
* As I told you, Ganapathi, I know a great deal about a great deal. Like India herself, I am at home in hovels and palaces, Ganapathi, I trundle in bullock-carts and propel myself into space. I read the vedas and quote the laws of cricket.
** Shashi Tharoor in: The Great Indian Novel, Arcade Publishing, 1993, p. 65
* The traditional oxcart, or carreta, is the product of Costa Rica’s most famous craft. Dating from the mid-nineteenth century, oxcarts were used to transport coffee beans from Costa Rica’s central valley over the mountains to Puntarenas on the Pacific coast, a journey requiring ten to fifteen days.
** Unesco in: Oxherding and oxcart traditions in Costa Rica, unesco.org 2008
* The tradition of painting and decorating oxcarts started in the early twentieth century. Originally, each region of Rica had its own particular design, enabling the identification of the driver’s origin by the painted patterns on the wheels.
** Unesco in: "Oxherding and oxcart traditions in Costa Rica"
* By the beginning of the twentieth century, flowers, faces and miniature landscapes began to appear beside patterns of pointed stars, and to this day annual contests reward the most creative artists in this tradition.
** Unesco in: "Oxherding and oxcart traditions in Costa Rica"
* Each oxcart is designed to make its own ’song’, a unique chime produced by a metal ring striking the hubnut of the wheel as the cart bumped along. Once the oxcart had become a source of individual pride, greater care was taken in their construction, and the highest-quality woods were selected to make the best sounds.
** Unesco in: "Oxherding and oxcart traditions in Costa Rica"
* The carretas remain strong symbols of Costa Rica’s rural past, and still feature prominently in parades and in religious and secular celebrations.
** Unesco in: "Oxherding and oxcart traditions in Costa Rica"
* The Little Lady Of The Bullock Cart: Now is the time when India is gay With wedding parties; and the radiant throngs Seem like a scattered rainbow taking part In human pleasures. Dressed in bright array, They fling upon the bride their wreaths of songs- The Little Lady of the Bullock Cart. Here is the temple ready for the rite: The large-eyed bullocks halt; and waiting arms Lift down the bride. All India's curious art Speaks in the gems with which she is bedight, Ad in the robes which hide her sweet alarms- The Little Lady of the Bullock Cart. This is her day of days: her splendid hour When joy is hers, though love is all unknown. It has not dawned upon her childish heart. But human triumph, in a temporal power, Has crowned her queen upon a one-day throne- The Little Lady of the Bullock Cart. Ah, Little Lady! What will be your fate? So long, so long, the outward-reaching years: So brief the joy of this elusive part; So frail the shoulders for the loads that wait: So bitter salt the virgin widow's tears- O Little Lady of the Bullock Cart.
** Ella Wheeler Wilcox in: Leafs On An Idle Breeze - My Inspirational Poems (Extended Annotated Edition), Jazzybee Verlag, 2012, p. 136-37