Kiran Kakati

A Piece of the Ethnic Pie Aditya Kiran Kakati

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland Across the ‘Chicken’s Neck’ (the tiny strip of land connecting the region to India) : The multi-ethnic Northeast in India

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21573130-not-treated-equals-indias-north-easterners-can-still-feel-foreigners-another-country?frsc=dg%7Ca

Map of Assam along with the other Northeastern States (except Sikkim, now the 8th state in this group) and India’s neighbours

The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, http://mdoner.gov.in/ Tribal motifs in a Naga restaurant (Naga Kitchen, Guwahati) © Aditya Kiran Kakati Tribes of Assam

Barmans* Kukis** Bodo (Bodo People or Bodo Kachari)* Mech* Deori* Mising (Miri)* Dimasa Kachari* Nishi ** Garos** Rabhas* Hajongs* Rengma Nagas** Hmars** Santhals* Jaintia** Singapho * Karbi** Sonowal Kacharis* Tai Phake (Phake)* Khamti* Tiwa or Lalungs** Khamyang* Zeme Nagas** Khasis** Khelma*

[*Denotes Plains Tribes ** Denotes Hills Tribes] Source: Government of Assam portal (http://assam.gov.in/)and www.wikipedia.org (In Tribal Societies, it is common to have one or more sub Tribes or Clans. Therefore the list above cannot be regarded as wholly comprehensive or accurate.) Colonial cartographies: A ‘tribal’ map of Upper Assam by the Quartermaster General of India http://pahar.in/mountains/1883-tribal-map-of-upper-assam-by-quartermaster-general-of-india-jpg/ An image of a Mising tribe stall at the North East ‘Mongolian’ ethnic food festival in Guwahati © Ratnajit Choudhury (at http://www.twylah.com) Colonial terminology such as ‘mongoloid’ continues to persist in discourse, which can have an ‘Orientalising’ (E. Said) effect on representations

Entrepreneurs, actors and brokers of authenticity and hybrid amalgamations An Assamese lunch platter consisting of chicken with black sesame seeds, prawns with mustard paste, sour fish curry with jujube berries, yellow lentil soup, pumpkin leaves cooked with alkali, fiddlehead fern with gram lentil and tomatoes, mashed aubergine, poppy seed cakes, lemon, onion rings and rice. ‘Traditional’ Assamese food is heavily fish based and even chicken (especially the style in which it has been prepared here) may be absent on many occasions. Picture © Jacky Pasha Zaman (https://www.facebook.com/assameserecipes) Another ‘Assamese’ platter served on traditional bell metal plates. These three images are indicative of ‘traditional’ Assamese food, that of caste Hindu Assamese. There is a significant presence of fish, especially in the last two images with at least two fish- based items Picture © Sharmin Pasha(https://www.facebook.com/assameserecipes) Picture © Jacky Pasha Zaman (https://www.facebook.com/assameserecipes) Titled ‘Delhi'r Goromot Asomia Axaaj!’ (roughly, ‘an Assamese meal to ‘survive’ the summer heat in Delhi’). Here, we can posibly see food being invoked as a means to negotiate the harsh climatic environs of Delhi. Such representations are in tune with Assamese cuisine often being seen as healthy and relatively ‘light’. Picture © Mousumi Gogoi (https://www.facebook.com/assameserecipes) In contrast to the previous slide, this pork skewer served in an ‘ethnic’ Assamese restaurant, Khorikaa (literally a bamboo skewer) is characteristic of ‘ethnic’ or ‘tribal’ cuisine. Restaurants in Guwahati are beginning to serve such food under the label of ‘ethnic’ cuisine. The bamboo skewer has become the popular symbol of consumption in the ethnic food festivals.

On Paradise restaurant “The lunch thali at Paradise is considered by many to be the archetypal Assamese spread”

On Khorikaa: “restaurant may be canteen-style but it has authentic Assamese cuisine.” http://www.lonelyplanet.com/india/northeast-states/guwahati/restaurants/other/khorika-restaurant#ixzz37YLTj42A http://www.lonelyplanet.com/india/northeast-states/guwahati/restaurants/indian/paradise#ixzz37YL8gMbM Heritage Khorikaa This image on a Facebook ‘group’ dedicated to the ‘love’ of Naga food came with the heading, ‘Tag yourself....especially if you are away from home and missing pork’. This kind of cut, with a layer of the skin, a bit of fat and meat, is a characteristic way that ‘tribals’ prepare pork in many parts of the Northeast. © Taliakum Pongener(https://www.facebook.com/groups/54248340934/ Ethnic Food Festivals in Guwahati (image courtesy facebook.com) The ethnic festivals occurring frequently in Guwahati throughout the winter season were described on social media as ‘North-East Mongolian Food Festival cum Traditional Dresses Exhibition 2012-13’.

A Facebook post related to the same festival describes the ethnic variety thus , ‘55 varieties of pork. Unbelievble (sic)’, highlighting the upwardly mobile Assamese caste Hindu’s newfound fascination for the meat.

From my own experiences of visiting such festivals while conducting my fieldwork, ’55 varieties’ seems like a tall and unfounded claim. Most stalls sell the same generic kind of food (almost every stall sells open-flame and barbecued fatty pieces of pork on skewers, fish and river crabs. Some stalls sell fried snails and silkworm cocoons.

Though many stalls claim to sell distinct ethnic dishes of their ‘own’, there is usually an overlap between the kinds of food sold. Also, most of the stall-owners and peoples represented at these festivals belonged, quite tellingly, to the ‘plains’ tribal communities .

The North East Mongolian Food Festival http://www.twylah.com/guwahaticity/tweets Drinking of liquor, mostly in the form of rice beer, is also part of the daily life-world among the non-caste Hindu populace of the region. The majority populations see this practice as ‘primitively’ indulgent and inferior. In fact, this consumption has deep roots in magico-religious and cult traditions, festivals (harvest or otherwise) and dance, as well as being an everyday social norm. During Bihu, rice beer is served to visitors as a compulsory offering among the tribal populace (even among the Hindu groups like Miris, Ahoms and Kacharis).

Pork skewers served with rice wine © Chandan Baruah Pork skewers go from the street to restaurant tables. Image of fried pork with rice beer at an Assamese restaurant , Axomi in the city of Bangalore (the latter hosts a lot of migrants from the Northeast region including Assamese). Here we possibly see a mainstreaming of new consumption patterns that originally belong to ‘marginal’ populations. © Pranjal Arabinda Medhi Momo Ghar features in a promotional for Metropolis 2014, Urban Winter Festival , organized by the Metropolis artist’s collective.

With inclusion in such frameworks, Momo Ghar seems to have made it into the modern urban culinary heritage discourse. Any youngster having grown up in the city in the late 1990s and 2000s would have been familiar with this erstwhile ‘dingy’ landmark. They even have a website, where they claim to sell ‘ethnic Assamese momos’. This is also exemplified by stating that ‘its a culture for all Assamese people’. Momo Madness!

A plate of momos being served at the ‘Manipur’ stall at Dilli Haat (New Delhi)

A typical roadside momo stall at the India Gate monument park (New Images by © Trisha Monica Das Delhi). © Aditya Kiran Kakati Playing with fire: ‘Bhoot jolokia’ , literally meaning ‘Ghost Chilli’ in Assamese also known as the ‘Naga Chilli’. These chillies are claimed to be one of the ‘hottest’ in the world, its potency identified by the Defence Research Laboratory in Tezpur, Assam The Bhoot Jolokia are becoming increasingly popular across the world and thus there are emerging concerns about retaining the product’s ‘indignity’ to the Northeast. Within Northeast, there are competing claims to its ownership. The Government of Nagaland applied for Geographical Indication (GI) status, and in 2008, it was registered as a GI of Nagaland. This means that the current proprietors can file infringement charges against other cultivators, let’s say in Assam (despite the fact that the chilli is grown abundantly in Assam and the name ‘Bhoot Jolokia’ is an Assamese. Only now, ‘Naga’ can be found added as a prefix, thus terming it ‘Naga Bhoot Jolokia’. Assam seems to have lost out on the claims to this chilli which is increasingly promoted along with Naga identity (see Jupi Gogoi, ‘Bhut Jolokia and GI’, The Assam Tribune, Sunday, 31st March 2013, p.6 for more information). The chilli is popular as an ingredient for preparation of condiments. Bhoot Jolokia Thank you and bon appétit!

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