Week 9 - Samyuktha Rao


Dalit food 
I have had selective preferences when it came to food throughout my life. I don't try new cuisines often and I  am comfortable with the known tastes. After reading the articles, I've realised that dalit food is something that's unfamiliar to literally every other non dalit person. The ingredients they use or the food they make is unknown and invisible to many. This probably has to do with two things primarily. First, that the savarna community treated them and still continue to treat them as "outcasts" and secondly, the culture narrative is mostly controlled by the elite Brahmins. The example of how masterchef in India was hosted with only vegetarian dishes proves this. Only Brahmin representation of food in seen in the mainstream culture dominantly. In movies like Masaan, Gulab Jam as cited in the articles, the exclusion of dalit and even non vegetarian foods clearly depicts the dominance of Brahmins in controlling the narrative. 

Furthermore, it was interesting to note that most of the ingredients and Dalit food recipes is a now a culture that's evolved from nothingness. Back in history, they primarily survived only on the leftovers by the highercastes and ate whatever they could. So, it showcases their creaitivity in creating food and developing a food culture from leftovers solely, which is indeed amazing. 

However, the dark side of it cannot be digested so easily. The illustration in article of keeping beef pieces in store so that it would last for days highlights the fact that for most dalits, food was made with the sole intention of preserving, so that they could survive longer. Often, they weren't paid for their work by the higher castes in the past and hence, did not have any means to purchase cooking ingredients in the market on a daily basis. So they made the most of it whenever they could. After reading the articles, taste feels like luxury or privilege only for the higher castes because something as basic as food was looked at by dalits as only a means for surivival and never to relish and enjoy. 

Dalit food culture still does not find it's place in the common society and is looked down upon by the larger majority because of the unfamiliarty of the ingredients and cooking style. 

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