Farm to Fingers
The Culture and Politics of Food in Contemporary India

This book studies food practices in contemporary India by situating them in their political, economic and socio-cultural contexts.

Kiranmayi Bhushi (Edited by)

9781108416290, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 March 2018

290 pages
24 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.54 kg

This book studies food practices in contemporary India by situating them in their political, economic and socio-cultural contexts. Widespread in scope, it explores the use of food for exercising power, as a marker of difference and as a potent symbol of expression of identity; studies how food practices are intimately connected to the corporeal self and the fashioning of the self; and examines food safety and its nutritional aspects and notions of hygiene and edibility that are culturally specific. The book looks closely at the political and economic institutions that are responsible for the production and distribution of food, and the role of the state and global policies that influence agrarian policies at home. It discusses meat-eating in India; fermented food from North-East India and how it does not fall within the representation of 'Indian' food; the ideas of health and food safety that inform the making of Bengali sweets; the growing role of fast-food eateries and blog-writing as middle-class identity projects; the nature of colonial discourse on what is an adequate diet for famine victims; who should grow food; and the importance of the concept of food sovereignty.

List of figures and Tables
Preface
1. Introduction Kiranmayi Bhushi
2. The making of 'edible animal source foods' and its contemporary reality in Delhi Estelle Fourat
3. Appropriating the cow: beef and identity politics in contemporary India James Staples
4. Eating Akhuni in India Dolly Kikon
5. Health, standardization and 'Bengali' sweets Ishita Dey
6. Treating children, feeding junk food: an inquiry into a middle class project Anjali Bhatia
7. Diaspora dish: cooking, writing, and creating identities in food-blogs Sucharita Sarkar
8. Measuring hunger: debates on 'adequate' diet in colonial North India Sanjay Sharma
9. Managing food: India's experience with the public distribution system Deepankar Basu and Debarshi Das
10. Food sovereignty: the future of food Radha Gopalan
Contributors
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Sociology [JHB], Food & society [JFCV]