142077 PS Beef Biryani or Pure-Veg Thali: Food, Religion, and Politics in South Asia (2021S)

Anyone who has been to South Asia knows that food is crucial. It plays a very important role as a biological necessity, as an economic commodity, as the primary ingredient of ritual and social transactions, as medium of social and familial interaction, as a marker of social boundaries, as a principle of classification, and as a focus of ethical concerns of both religious virtuosi and common people, food has always been and continues to be at the heart of Indian ritual practice, social behavior, common etiquette, and theological speculation.
In this seminar we will explore different examples were food and religious concepts weave the social realities of India. We will look at different religious communities –such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam– and their relationship to food. We will study food in its daily consumption, as well as special feasts that mark religious events in the calendar of different religious communities in India, or other special occasions such as the food consumed during life-cycle rites. We will also look at the different ways in which food is exchanged: begging, fasting, feasting etc. Most importantly our main focus will be on how food can be both the medium and the message of social conflict and how it gets mediated in the context of South Asia.