Sirgapoor Sahil Reddy - Week 9


DALIT LITERATURE AND CULTURE READING SUMMARIES
DALIT FOOD
Sirgapoor Sahil Reddy
20161245
The dominance of upper caste is propagated through cultural and traditional hegemony. Every culture, every community has its foods, and when you deny them that representation, you marginalize their existence. Which is why we haven’t even heard the use of ‘Dalit food’. The nomenclature is always based on what region one belongs to, and there too the dominant caste determines what we eat, and what we name it. For instance, the concept of vegetarianism is one that is practised mainly by the upper castes and has been forced upon the other castes through the reasonings of religion, purity, etc.
The ban on the consumption of beef and the curbs on the cattle trade today is nothing but the state practising a severe form of untouchability and reiterating the caste hierarchy. The beef ban affects the Dalits, Muslims and Adivasis who consume the beef, thus reinforcing the upper caste’s hegemony over culture and food. To stop eating beef is neither practical nor economically viable for oppressed communities. Besides, if one of the theoretical premises of democracy is equality—and India’s claim is that it is the most populous democracy on earth—then equality must begin with food and the right to eat what one likes, wants and needs. What one eats cannot, and must not, be legislated, unless it involves partaking of endangered species.  The reason is that too many Indian intellectuals and scholars, instead of taking the lead in standing up to such violence, believe that discriminatory food habits, including ones that sustain the practice of untouchability, are part of Hindu “tradition” and “culture.” Respect for cultural diversity and Hindu sentiments is offered as a pathetic excuse for sidestepping the violation of the fundamental right to the food of one’s choice.

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