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The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School College of The The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts CULTURE OF FOOD IN COLONIAL BENGAL A Dissertation in History by Utsa Ray © 2009 Utsa Ray Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2009 ii The dissertation of Utsa Ray was reviewed and approved* by the following: Mrinalini Sinha Liberal Arts Research Professor of History, Women’s Studies, and Asian Studies Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Kumkum Chatterjee Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies Joan B. Landes Ferree Professor of Early Modern History & Women’s Studies Nancy S. Love Director, Interdisciplinary Studies Program & Professor, Government and Justice Studies Appalachian State University Carol Reardon Director of Graduate Studies in History & Professor of Military History * Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii Abstract In “Culture of Food in Colonial Bengal ” I seek to relate the rise of a new middle- class in colonial Bengal to the development of a new gastronomic culture. I argue that the colonial transformation of the relations of production contextualized the cultural articulation of a new set of values, prejudices, and tastes for the Bengali Hindu middle- class. These cultural values, together with the political and economic conditions of colonialism, formed the habitus of this class. I investigate the historical specificities of this instance of class-formation through an exploration of the discursive and non- discursive social practices that went into the production of a new “Bengali” cuisine. Drawing on government proceedings, periodical literature, recipe books, and visual materials, I demonstrate that the Bengali Hindu middle-class created a new cuisine, one that reflects both an enthusiasm to partake of the pleasures of capitalist modernity and an anxiety about colonial rule. The Bengali Hindu middle-class gave a double-faceted response to these new gastronomic possibilities. A distinct enthusiasm for the satisfactions of modernity was counterbalanced by an agonized awareness that this specific cultural innovation arose within a political context that was fundamentally alien, racist, and exploitative. This double-faceted response resulted in a discursive project, the articulation of a set of values, prejudices, and tastes that I have called the “rhetoric of cuisine” of the Bengali Hindu middle-class. The “rhetoric of cuisine” was an aesthetic choice tied to the upper caste and patriarchal agenda of middle-class social reform. My dissertation investigates how this rhetoric made possible certain social practices, including the imagination of the act of cooking as a classic feminine act and the domestic kitchen as a sacred space. These acts of imagination possess important elements of continuity from pre-colonial times, especially evidenced in the reinstitution of caste- based norms of gastronomy. Thus, the deployment of the “rhetoric of cuisine” was simultaneously anti-colonial yet capitalist, cosmopolitan yet gendered and caste-based. iv Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ---------------------------------------------------------- 1 Chapter 1. INTRODUCING “FOREIGN” FOOD: A NARRATIVE OF COLONIAL AGRICULTURE IN BENGAL -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 Chapter 2. AESTHETICIZING LABOR? AN AFFECTIVE DISCOURSE OF COOKING IN COLONIAL BENGAL --------- 79 Chapter 3. EATING “MODERNITY:” CHANGING DIETARY PRACTICES IN COLONIAL BENGAL ---------------------------- 116 Chapter 4. CONSTRUCTING A “PURE” BODY: THE DISCOURSE ON NUTRITION IN COLONIAL BENGAL ------ 162 CONCLUSION AND AFTERTHOUGHT ----------------------------------- 202 BIBLIOGRAPHY ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 217 v Acknowledgements I am indebted to Professor Mrinalini Sinha, my supervisor, for this dissertation. She has been the best possible mentor. Her knowledge of the field and her supervision has guided me through this dissertation. I am also immensely grateful to Professor Kumkum Chatterjee for her suggestions and support. Professors Joan Landes and Nancy Love have enlightened me with ideas and suggestions that transcend the field of South Asia. Overall, I was blessed with a great committee. Professor Paul Zeleza also guided this project in its infancy, and I am thankful to him for critical comments. This dissertation could not have been conceived without Professor Gautam Bhadra’s help who has not only provided fantastic references but also helped me think beyond a simple narrative of food history. As always Professors Hari Vasudevan and Samita Sen have taken time off from their busy schedules to read my dissertation and provide me with excellent suggestions. I also owe to Professor Tapati Guhathakurta much of the theoretical scaffolding that holds up this work. Professor Rochona Majumdar has been kind enough to offer me her suggestions whenever I turned to her. In India, the research for this thesis was conducted chiefly in Kolkata. I take this opportunity to thank the staffs of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, the National Library, the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, the West Bengal State Archives, the Agri- Horticultural Society, and the West Bengal State Secretariat Library. In addition, I would also like to thank the staff of the India Office Library in London. Kamalika Mukherjee at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences made my research there exceedingly smooth. Sanjit Chaudhuri has lent me his personal collection for this dissertation for which I am grateful. I owe a lot to friends like Bodhisattva, Bindu and Kamalika for intellectual stimulation. Srabasti and Srijita have always offered their shoulders to lean on whenever I needed them. Srabasti kept encouraging me with her pep talks whenever I lost my confidence. Simanti, Anamika, Subhadeep, Rujuta, Carol and Uma have made State College seem like home. In Chicago the friendships of Vaidyanatha, Souvik, and Mona prevented me from feeling homesick and helped me persevere.Jennifer Gilbert has provided all sorts of help with the office work, sometimes even over emails. My in-laws have been extremely supportive and encouraging. I thank them for their love. Kaka, Kaki and Pishimoni have filled my life with their love and their confidence in me. I would also like to thank Dada, Borda, Chhorda, Soumyada, Rima, Bitopidi, and Swapna for all their support. Love always to Ahona, whose laughter makes the world seem like a wonderful place in which to live. Auritro, Irabati and Abhilasha came to this world when I was writing this dissertation and have provided tremendous joy. I am also grateful to Kaki and Neelu for giving me useful references. My father who strongly motivated my interest in academics has been most enthusiastic about my project. My mother has always taught me that the primary purpose in life is pursuit of independence. Her tremendous capacity for hard work has encouraged vi me to pursue this dissertation with zeal. My sister, the best imaginable has been a constant support. Finally, I would like to thank Rajarshi. I have no qualms in admitting that this dissertation would not have seen the light of day had it not been for him. He kept me going whenever I lost confidence in myself. This dissertation is written for my parents, my sister, and Rajarshi. 1 Introduction The Telegraph , one of the popular English language dailies in Bengal, has a regular food column. I am one of its regular readers, not just to further my research or to enhance my culinary pleasures but also to enjoy the prose of its author, the food critic and musician Nondon Bagchi. In one such column, Bagchi describes his meeting with Yvonnick Jegat Deniau, the executive chef at the Park, a five star restaurant in Calcutta. Yvonnick Jegat Deniau who hails from France accompanied Bagchi to the market to buy Bengali vegetables; after making his purchases the chef used them to stuff kumro phul (pumpkin blossom) with prawns and a stuffing made of patol (wax gourd), onion, garlic, tomato, and a basil pesto sauce to make a steamed French dish. 1 I have chosen the above column as an introductory narrative to a similar history of hybridity, the formation of a so-called authentic Bengali cuisine in colonial India. This hybridity of food is a product of capitalist modernity which would not have been possible without the “Columbian exchange.” The emergent cuisine generally utilized Bengali ingredients and British modes of cooking, but sometimes these basic elements were reversed or rendered more complex by the addition of others. Whatever the degree of heterogeneity, the resulting dishes were presented as the products of an “authentic’" cuisine.Bengali cookbooks and recipe columns discussed even such hybrid dishes as “guava jelly” in these terms. Over time the Bengali Hindu middle-class constructed a 1Nondon Bagchi. “French flavors from Bengali bazaar.” The Telegraph (April 25, 2006). It needs to be mentioned here that both pumpkin blossom and wax gourd predates Columbian exchange in Bengal. For reference see K.T. Achaya. Indian Food: A Historical Companion (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994) p.129. 2 modern discourse on taste. I maintain, therefore, that colonial conditions produced a new, hybrid “Bengali” cuisine, which however was cast in an idiom of authenticity and a specifically modern understanding of the “traditional.” The contestation of hybridity and authenticity is not surprising, given the contradictions inherent in modernity itself. The cuisine produced from it reflected
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