Is this plate [meal] not Indian?

Dalit histories and memories of food

This book is a compilation of the work done by students of Krantijyoti Savitri bai Phule women's studies centre, Pune University in 2009 under the course on 'Caste and Gender in Modern India'. Through the course, the students have sought to “recognise the histories of caste and gender 'usually forgotten' in offical structuring of curricula”. Through life narratives of eight dalit women and two dalit men emerges the centrality of hunger and food in memory of pain, humiliation and articulations of self respect. The distaste for brahminical 'blandness' points to the limitations of anthropologial discourse and sanskritizationmodel of understanding.

Articulating that food as a category cannot be reduced to an either or understanding of gender or caste alone, the compilation tries to continously operate in an dynamic framework.

Part 1 of the compilation, translated here is a brief introduction to the centrality of food in the history of the Dalit movement. It gives a short historical sketch, rasing pertinent questions and further gives excerpts from various Dalit writings to  exemplify the need to look at food struggles as a marker of the everydayness of the struggles and assertions within the Dalit movement.

Introduction:

The unequally 'distributed' nature of  rights, entitlement, power, property and dignity in the Indian social structure as also the naturalisation of this unequal distribution [deliberate] has been the core reason for the exploitation of Dalits and [making] them untouchable.

If one looks at the history of Dalit communities, one realises that their struggles were as much about   food as about preserving [reclaiming] their dignity and self respect. Because this dalit struggle for food is not a short two – three generation struggle but a longer seven- eight generation struggle. As Uttam Kamble says, “ My seven generations have khaple [struggled and done everything possible] for this bhakhri *”

If one looks at the foundational writing of Dalit literature, 'hunger' is a fundamental issue. In Indian social structure, on one level there is the question of what to eat? And on the other, there are books written on the choice of eating.  On one hand, there was no freedom of choice of food and on the other, food specialities salient to different caste groups became a marker of  gati shilta [forwardness] in different communties. What to eat in the society - vegetarian or non vegetarian, even within vegetarian – fresh or stale?  Within Nonvegetarian – of which animal? Which part of the animal? All of these decide the status of people in the society. In a casteist patriarchal society, this is  contrary.

In Indian societal structure, the politics of food and food items divided on lines of caste was such that it protects those siding with the powerful castes and relegated  the other [excluded] caste groups  as unclean and untouchable. This has to be called the politics of caste played around food [emphatic tone]. As such the gender facet of this politics also has to be taken into taken into consieration. .

Cooking is associated with women, therefore, food besides being a caste construct, is also a gendered construct.

For instance: Women eat after the men, (there are) rules around how to serve food while eating , if non vegetarian food is cooked, there is a difference in what portion is given to a man and what portion is given to a woman, as also, on occassion of festivals, who is served what food and why – all of these are intrinsically gendered questions embedded in the caste structure.

In our (culture), this is how it happens, not in yours (culture) , while saying these, women come forward as the vehicles of food differences that are jatidhishthit [divided on lines of caste].

Historically, there have been varied perspectives on food in the nationalist discourse . While Gandhi emphasised on fasting,  Dr. Ambedkar attacked the heart of food politics. He commanded the Dalit not to eat the meat of dead animals and preserve [reclaim] their self respect.

It is important here to analyse the community eating programmes [feasts] orgainsed by the nationalists. In the community feast /eating orgainsed by the either Indian national congress or Savarkar, the food items are so called upper caste (jalebi, varan, bhaat **, etc) Goat and wild ox meat as well as pork is not seen to be eaten together [included] in the meals. 'We upper caste, shall include you Dalits in our feasts but only after you eat in our way' such politics of inclusiveness is clearly seen.

On what criteria does one decide that one food item is superior and the other is inferior? And who will decide this? When such prime questions arise one can safely assume that the one who has the rabbit  is the owner, meaning history is hers who writes more than the one who has been a part of that history. But if this history is unacceptable to us then there is no need to be awe of it as the institutional structures do not have any ground or proof of this history.

The ideologies of Phule, Shahu and Dr. Ambedkar have inspired the Dalit communities. On the strength of these ideologies, Dalit communites have interrupted the flow of the existing social structure. To give examples, today in areas of politics, education, literature, science, etc... dalit communites are self reliant to enter [participate]. It protests the nakaratmak adhikar – negative rights [disentitlements] imposed by the caste based society and brings forth the history of retaliation by several generations against these nakaratmak adhikar.

From the status accorded [forcibly] by the current structure (to dalit communties), they have turned it around and claimed their own status, which is a arjit [victor's status] and through the medium of dalit literature, dalit paksh [organisations], dalit newspapers, dalit movement, dalit weekly – pakshike, an alternative structure premised on equality has been constructed. In short, today Dalits are not only participating  in all sectors but creating (new sectors) as well . Several generations have starved, struggled yet, when it comes to the area of food, the history of Dalit struggle and regeneration is still to be pointed out. Because even today, if one visits the cook book stalls or looks at the menus listed in restaurants, Dalit art of cooking is not to be seen included anywhere. But in Dalit  narratives of history and memory, food struggles are central.

Before Dr. Ambedkar's times, the issue of nakaratmak hakka  - negative rights [disentitlement], sakti -  strictness (in terms of caste rules followed) and memories of halapeshtha – humiliation are seen in the narratives.  Also, the smruti [memories] of newer understanding of food, developed during the Ambedkarite movement tell us the day to day history of the movement.

   * Bhakri – a food item made of rice flour/any flour, a staple food in marathi culture.

** Jaleb -is a sweet dish repared of maida, fried in oil and dipped in sugar     syrup

     Varan – is a water residue left from dal generally eaten with ghee. It is rich in protien.

     Bhaat – is the local word for rice.