Form of words:
TeaHere are some of the things that Indians love the most – cricket, army, Amitabh Bachchan and food. And God forbid, if anyone utters a word against them, especially our desi food, they should arm themselves to sticks and drops.
That’s exactly what happened after Jean Weingarten, a food columnist Washington Post, recently said That Indian food is “the only ethnic cuisine in the world that is entirely based on a single spice”. Apart from the statement being false, Washington Post Even issuing a correction to the statement reveals how poorly Weingarten is about Indian cuisine. And if we want to give him the benefit of the doubt, because it was a comic column, it’s just lazy, unfounded and normal. To be honest, pillar Topic ‘you can’t feed me these foods‘, is just a white man crying about what food he doesn’t like. Should we really be so surprised?
And yet, this insignificant column ruffled quite a few wings, especially for the Indian-Americans. From writer Padma Lakshmi, her ex-husband and writer Salman Rushdie to actor-comedian Mindy Kaling, everyone rallied in defense of Indian food.
There is no dearth of outrage on social media too:
Brother if you say that all Indian food is a spice, that’s fine, but at least you can tell which spice it is
— Shiv Ramdas (@nameshiv) 23 August 2021
So the Washington Post says that Indian food is made with only *one* spices.
Can you imagine how little they know about India?
But the moderates depend on the Washington Post to assess the Modi government, the situation in Kashmir, etc.
to imagine!
— Abhishek (@AbhishekBanerjee) August 25, 2021
Every few years some white people take the same dumb Indian food…the laziest crap really
— a shady dame from Seville (@SorayaMcDonald) 23 August 2021
Bad treatment of Indian food by white people is nothing new. Last year, there was a tweet by British historian Edward Anderson insulting the humble idli received criticism Even from Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. In 2019, American historian Tom Nichols starting After a huge controversy he tweeted that “Indian food is terrible and we pretend it is not”.
However, inherent in these many examples of outrage is the hypocrisy of the Indians, which is better than Bottle gourd In someone’s lentils – what do Indians consider ‘Indian’ food? And do we even know ourselves about the spices used in the next state or do we just stereotype each other?
Read also: Indian food fourth most popular in the world, finds a study of cuisine trade
Inclusions and exclusions in Indian cuisine
In the light of this outrage, a big question has to be asked, what are the dishes that people are rallying to defend?
Indian food, of course, is made up of many dishes and cuisines, but many of these are not considered as part of the regional cuisine category.
The same people, who are shouting and taking up arms against the man for criticizing our food, will secretly turn their noses away from less ‘mainstream’ Indian food.
When one says Indian food, the first few dishes that come to mind are: Beanshandjob chickpeashandjob Samosahandjob dosahandjob idlihandjob BreadButter Chicken, Chicken Tikka, among others. Most of these are North Indian dishes. But if you go a little further, dishes like Avial, Luchi, Rogan Josh, Poha, Dhokla, Pav Bhaji, Appam They may also be a part of it.
However, no matter how much you expand the definition, the cuisine of the Northeast is barely visible, nor does the cuisine of Jammu and Kashmir or the cuisine of ‘South Indian’ go beyond dosa. In fact, the food of the Northeast has always been considered exotic and unnatural. There is little mainstream knowledge about it and it is shrouded in conservative views that view a certain diet as counterproductive.
The ban on dog meat in early 2020 is one such example. Despite how the food of the Northeast is viewed, animal rights arguments, hatred and racism are rooted in it.
As my colleague, Tina Das did a . written in pillar, “From ants to snails, dogs, different tribes and communities in the region have consumed a variety of meats over generations, which has also been a symbol of their cultural identity.”
These notions of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’ have governed Indian cuisine for some time now. Vegetarianism, often practiced by the ‘upper’ castes, is a direct result of the high status enjoyed in this country. This is especially true of the Indian diaspora which continues to emphasize that vegetarianism and vegetarianism are explicitly contained in Indian food while making non-vegetarian food completely invisible – e.g. blood, a dish made of frozen blood and spices, born out of poverty and necessity, but also a delicacy. But remember Mindy Kaling dosa Video with US Vice President Kamala Harris?
a research paper, published In Cast: A Global Journal on Social Exclusionnoted that in India, “the widespread discourse on food has been used as a process of identification of ‘other’ and stigmatized as they relate to the consumption of ‘polluting’ food”.
This is more evident in the long-running controversy over the consumption of beef. Beef has been a major part of South Indian and Muslim cuisine. And yet, the violence currently surrounding beef consumption is a sign of how ostracized Indian food has become.
Last year, this religious design of food expanded to the much-loved biryani. There was massive controversy after Tanishq’s advertisement on inter-religious marriage, there were also Call for ban on biryani!
Read also: ‘White foods’ are invading India’s breakfast menu. so are chronic diseases
south indian food
Most people are also ignorant of South Indian food, assuming that people eat only in the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. dosaidli, Vadahandjob sambar and coconut chutney. People cook hundreds of dishes in each of these states, many of which are non-vegetarian, which are simply ignored when people talk about South Indian cuisine.
In fact, for many people, anything with coconut and curry leaves automatically comes from the South, forgetting the fact that it is made up of four very large states with their own regional cuisines.
So the stereotyping, which has infuriated so many people, really starts at home.
Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Srinjoy Dey)
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