https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc en-us 2023-03-31 13:52:47 UTC 2023-03-31 15:04:09 UTC hello@padlet.com nirva_shahsias21 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539929594 The Indian scenario highlights the complex intersection of food, religion, and culture, showing us how food practices are embedded in cultural, religious, and social norms. 

Food practices are used to solidify social boundaries and power relations, as is seen in Chapter 1 of Usha Sanyal and Nita Kumar's "Food, Faith and Gender in South Asia."

Thus, within this context, the differential and preferential culinary enforcements during religious festivals in India reveal how these practices cab be and are in fact often used to assert power and privilege of certain groups over others. ]]> 2023-03-31 14:03:38 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539929594 sagarika_reddysias211 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539937367 "One day, I used the term ‘smelly’ to describe fermented food during a conversation in a Nepali household in Bagdogra, a town not far from the Himalayas in north Bengal. The mother of the house immediately corrected me and said: ‘It is scented, not smelly’. She used the term scent, a general phrase to refer to perfumes and other aromatic fragrances to emphasise that the smell of fermented soya beans was in fact delightful" (Kikon 330)

 "The Delhi Police pamphlet advised Northeast Indian residents in the nation’s capital that ‘bamboo shoot, akhuni and other smelly dishes should be prepared without creating ruckus in neighbourhood" (Kikon 332)

"Lucy, a professional from Manipur who calls the city her home, said: ‘I cannot live with akhuni, neither can I live without akhuni" (Kikon 333)

Kikon, Dolly (2015). “Fermenting Modernity: Putting Akhuni on the Nation's Table in India”. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 38(2), pg 320–335. doi:10.1080/00856401.2015.1031936  ]]> 2023-03-31 14:09:12 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539937367 nirva_shahsias21 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539951400 While speaking about culinary practices observed by women in zenanas, the author posits that the book written by Thanvi, "according to Metcalf...[offered] an example of male intrusion into a heretofore largely female domain’" (Sanyal & Kumar, 46). Similarly, those cooking in the zenana (largely female) operated under the "distant authority" of the men of the household. 

This same lens can be used to view how food practices are legitimized in India. it is only under the distant - and sometimes not-so-distant authority of the Hindu vegetarians that food, cuisines, and traditions of the anthropological "others" are accepted and formalized, but also, there is a similar "intrusion" led by those in power into the personal and political lives of people following different religions/practices; because food is both personal and political. 


]]> 2023-03-31 14:19:37 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539951400 nirva_shahsias21 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539952191
The imposition of vegetarianism is not just a Hindu supremacy issue, it is also largely an upper-caste issue. ]]> 2023-03-31 14:20:16 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539952191 sagarika_reddysias211 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539952388  "In contrast, once inside the kitchen, one is assailed by the fragrance of rose water and vegetables being cut. Such smells are enough to make a Brahmin tear off his sacred thread (Hossain 1973a: 251). Rokeya’s critique works through paradox – in this case, the incongruity between the ‘malodourous’ outside space of the kitchen and the fragrance of the food being
prepared inside, whose seduction is so great that it is enough to make a Brahmin ‘tear off his sacred thread’." (Sanyal and Kumar 60)

"Itself a humorous observation since a Brahmin would never find himself in the kitchen of a Muslim household and would have to risk his caste status (thus the tearing off of the sacred thread) to eat" 
(Sanyal and Kumar 70)

Usha Sanyal and Nita Kumar ed., Food, Faith and Gender in South Asia, The Cultural Politics of Women’s Food Practices, 2019, Bloomsbury, London: Introduction, Ch 1, 2, 3, 8]]> 2023-03-31 14:20:26 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539952388 sagarika_reddysias211 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539955390 About the Dalit community in relation to food practices, Sudha of the DMC says: "‘Before they used to eat a lot of beef. Because of this feeling that it is lowly, some people have stopped. They have stopped because of this imposition of disgust’" (Chigateri 26).

Shraddha Chigateri, Glory to the Cow: Cultural Difference and Social Justice in the Food Hierarchy in India, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, n.s., Vol.XXXI, no.1, April 2008 ]]> 2023-03-31 14:22:23 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539955390 nirva_shahsias21 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539956319 The National Crime Records Bureau's data records that over 2,900 communal and religious violence cases were registered in the country in the last 5 years.]]> 2023-03-31 14:23:08 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539956319 sagarika_reddysias211 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539970893 https://www.sultanarecipe.com/beef-tehari-recipe/]]> 2023-03-31 14:34:08 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539970893 nirva_shahsias21 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539972206 Historically, the Brahmins, the most elite caste, controlled land and access to food grain. They created three levels of the food order: satvik, rajasik, and tamasik. Each order corresponded to a social status. Satvik food, which includes vegetables and dairy, is restricted to the elite castes, while tamasik food, which includes beef, garlic, and tobacco, is restricted to non-elite and non-caste groups.

There is a popular phrase used to describe the situation: "There is no Dalit cuisine" - because what the lower caste were forced to turn to, such as chicken feet and intestines, would never be accepted or viewed respectably by the upper. ]]> 2023-03-31 14:35:18 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539972206 sagarika_reddysias211 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539974396 There are two roots from which Untouchability has sprung: 

a. Contempt and hatred of the Broken Men as of Buddhists by the Brahmins:
b. Continuation of beef-eating by the Broken Men after
it had been given up by others

(Selections from B.R. Ambedkar’s- The Untouchables- Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables?)]]> 2023-03-31 14:37:07 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539974396 sagarika_reddysias211 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539981140 2023-03-31 14:42:23 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539981140 sagarika_reddysias211 https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539986103 2023-03-31 14:46:26 UTC https://padlet.com/nirva_shahsias21/y0x5e0zzndgdd2zc/wish/2539986103