Food Politics in South Asia & Beyond
This course delves into the intricate dynamics of food practices, systems, and politics in South Asia, with a particular emphasis on India's diverse religious, regional, class, and caste groups. It aims to foster a nuanced understanding that food is never merely sustenance but serves as a potent vehicle for constructing and expressing individual, familial, regional, and even national identities, with profound social and often discriminatory consequences. The course begins with an exploration of religious perspectives on food production, preparation, consumption, and commensality, focusing on dietary prescriptions and proscriptions in Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. From there, the content transitions to contemporary issues, events, laws, and policies that illustrate how food is weaponized in projects of social demarcation and oppression. Key topics include the rise of vegetarian Hindu nationalism, the pure/impure dichotomy, gender and "women's work," colonial influence on production and consumption, the contemporary Westernization of South Asian foodways, “peasant” resistance movements, and the differentially-impactful ecological ramifications of increasingly industrialized food systems. The course culminates with a brief discussion of specific gastropolitical debates in Central, East, and Southeast Asia, as well as in the South Asian diaspora in North America, providing a comparative and transnational perspective. Upon successful completion of this class, students will be able to:Describe (with examples) how integral food is to identity formation.Locate significant features of regional food politics.Identify the intersections of religion, gender, race, class, and caste in conflicts around food production and consumption.Compare and contrast Jain, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim, and Christian foodways.Discuss the impacts of colonialism, Westernization, and industrialization on South Asian food systems.
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