International Journals

`AS MOTHER MADE IT': THE COSMOPOLITAN INDIAN FAMILY, `AUTHENTIC' FOOD AND THE
CONSTRUCTION OF CULTURAL UTOPIA
Author(s): TULASI SRINIVAS
Source: International Journal of Sociology of the Family, Vol. 32, No. 2, Globalization and the
Family (Autumn 2006), pp. 191-221
Published by: International Journals
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23030195
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Journal

International

of the Family,

of Sociology

Vol 32,

No.

2 (Autumn)

2006

MADE IT':
'AS MOTHER
INDIAN
THE COSMOPOLITAN
FOOD AND THE
FAMILY, 'AUTHENTIC'
OF CULTURAL
UTOPIA
CONSTRUCTION
TULASI
Fellow

Center

paper

examines

consumption

in the

class

the

in Boston,

community

pragmatics

of packaged

communities

of the

It investigates

USA.

the

food

urban

middle

middle class

construction

of an

identity in a multicultural field through ritualized food

ethnic 'Indian'
consumption,

focusing

consumption,

the anxieties

the

upon

South

among

provisioning

World

city in south India, and the diasporic

in Bangalore

Indian

and

University

and

aesthetics
transnational

twin

Peace

for Religion,
Georgetown

Affairs

This

SRINIVAS

between

relationship

of motherhood
/ argue

Asians.

and
that

'authentic'

the politics

severed

of family

narratives

are

at

and consumption of "Indian" food. Food

play in the provisioning
provisioning is fuelled by a "metci-narrative of loss" in which food
consumption is seen as a "narrative of affiliative desire" that affectively
recreates

micro

caste,

over

"authentic"

create

other

mother

foods-"as
a performance

into

transformed

and

regional

Indian family. Fuelled

the cosmopolitan

cultural

of

of ethnic

Utopia

made

social

identity

them"-the

ness

that

invest

made"

foods,

as

packaged
examined

of

preparation
cosmopolitan

models

acceptable

adding

the

of

these

South

domesticity.

packaged

Asian
The

women

eating

is

attempts

to

of

that

is conceptually

linked from the Indian nation state. Finally, "narratives

often

for

of anxiety"

act
"

"gastro-nostalgia

Indian-

groupings

by a "narrative

de

of subterfuge",

heat-and-eat
attempt

to be

"home
socially

transnational

burgeoning

such utopic eating is

food industry that enables
terms to complement the perspective by
in socio-historical
Indian

the component

of the economic

sub-structure

that

underpins

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this

192

INTERNATIONAL

meaningful
cultural

eating.
exchange

structurally

The
in

JOURNAL
analysis
the

turns

upon

close

in these

of eating

OF THE FAMILY
examination

commodities

of

anthropology

traditions

convergent

OF SOCIOLOGY

two

of

through

communities.

If America is a melting-pot, then to me India is a thali, a selection of

sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not
mix with

necessarily

the next,

but they

belong

on

together

the same

plate

... That, to me, is the notion or metaphor of the Indian identity.

Shashi Tharoor. Under secretary United Nations, author. 1997.
As

we

to

get

characters

know

slowly,

Europe
countries

of different

you

the

tasting
begin

wines,

cheeses,

that

to realize

the

and

important

determinant of any culture is after allthe spirit of place...

Lawrence Durrell. N.Y.Times Magazine, June 12, 1960.
Introduction

When I went to do fieldwork in Bangalore city in South India in the spring of

1998 I found middle class housewives and working women excited about
packaged foods that had begun to flood the urban Indian market1. When I
returned to Boston in the fall of 1999 I found working women of the Indian
excited

about

the

same

products

that

had

begun

to enter

the

diaspora

equally

'Indian'

markets in the United States. My fascination with why these women

were

attracted

global
world

so

to these

'instant'

foods

has

led

me

to a questioning

food flows construct identity in a cosmopolitan

and

consumption.

the
So

social
here,

and

symbolic

in a context

devoted

contours

of

to understanding

of how

and multi-cultural
transnational
the

family

food
in a

transnational world, I revisit the question that has bothered social theorists
since the time of Marx: How are relations among people shaped by relations
between people and things? In this exploratory paper, the focus is upon recent

trends of consuming a variety of packaged and pre- prepared "Indian" food

among Indian families, and the convergent symbolic trends among two
twinned transnational Indian communitiesurban, middle class professionals
and their families in the South Indian city of Bangalore, and the same urban,
middle class, diasporic professionals and their families in the city of Boston, in
the United States. This article addresses two interrelated questions, one
pragmatic and the other affectivethe radical transformation in the manner of
food consumption occurring due to globalization and concordant development
of the packaged food industry in India; and the anxiety over identity loss
experienced by South Asians both in urban India and abroad.
Globalization, the consequent warping of time and space through media,
travel, and other modes of access, perforce leads to pluralism. This in turn leads

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'AS MOTHER

MADE

IT'

193

to a consequent and important questioning of identity. Identity is no longer a

"taken for granted" (Berger, 1961) but becomes an all absorbing project that is
often

enacted

through

Recent

consumption.

work

ethnographic

describes

cultural consumption among the Indian middle classes (Osella and Osella, 2000;
Fernandes, 2000; Mankekar, 1999; Rajagopal.
1999; Bidwai, 1984; Varma,
link
it
to
the
1998; Kothari, 1991)
repeatedly,
shaping of a nation, imagined or

otherwise. But how this consumption actually plays out in the everyday lives of
the middle class (see Wessel, 2004), whether in urban India or among the Indian
diaspora, and what it means to them, is rarely explored.
Globalization
has been seen by theorists as the dominance

of the culture

of Euro-America

1996; Barber, 1995; Berger, 1997; Friedman,

(Appadurai,
i.e. the center upon the periphery. This paper seeks to expand on an
understanding of a network form of cultural globalizationwhere
goods and
1999)

ideologies move through the network in many directions, leading perforce to

I have argued for earlier
plural forms of cultural globalizationthat
in
Srinivas
and
which
stands in opposition to
(T.
Berger
Huntington, 2001)
this cultural homogeneity model. In her discussion of the globalization
of
Bombay cinema, Lakshmi Srinivas argues that Bombay films "convey sensual
and emotional experiences-the
most immediate and embodied
effects of
through what she terms "feeling rules." She suggests

globalization,"
films
global,

act

as

"a

medium

is communicated

of

where

translation",

through

"a

structure

the

local

of feeling,"

as

opposed

where

the

that the
to

the

local

is

"the known, the taken for granted and the tacit" (L. Srinivas, 2005: 324).
Following her lead, I conceptually "map" (L. Srinivas, 2005) the affective
contours of cultural globalization
through an examination of how Indians,
and in diasporic contexts
particularly women in urban India, (in Bangalore)

(Boston), engage this emergent world of prepared packaged foods. This article
argues that food provisioning is fuelled by what I term a "meta-narrative of
loss" engaging several narratives within it. Food consumption is seen as a
"narrative of affiliative desire" that affectively recreates caste, micro regional
other social identity groupings for the cosmopolitan
Indian family.

and

Fuelled

by

a "narrative

of anxiety"

over

'authentic'

foods"

as

mother

made

them"the

act of eating is transformed into a performance of 'gastro

that
nostalgia'
attempts to create a cultural Utopia of ethnic Indian- ness that is
conceptually de-linked from the Indian nation state. Finally, "narratives of

heat-and-eat
subterfuge," often invest the preparation of these packaged
"home made" foods, as South Asian women attempt to become socially
models of domesticity. I further argue that a two habits are
acceptable
powerful paradigms in shaping the women's emotions over food; one is the
nostalgic desire to prepare food as their mother or their spouse's mother made
it, and to keep tradition alive in the hope of giving their children a sense of

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194

JOURNAL

INTERNATIONAL

OF SOCIOLOGY

OF THE FAMILY

their "Indian self' by cooking the foods of their particular local caste and
ethnic group in India; and secondly, and somehow oppositionally, to engage
the transnational world of speed and economy that they live in, where the
emphasis is on work and play and where food preparation and eating is the
rapid "heat and eat" variety.
The

data

that

suggests

women

in Bangalore

and

Boston

are

torn

over

the

"right" thing to do for themselves and their families, and I explore what these
conflicting changes in food preparation and eating mean for the role of the
mother in the South Asian family. What are the desires that these foods
articulate and fulfill? How do Indian women see these foods? What emotions
do these foods create or engage? And most importantly, what is the dynamic
between women and family that these foods articulate? These and other such
questions form the central framework of the paper.
I suggest that the movement of Indian packaged prepared foods across
international borders allows for a "utopic consumption"
by cosmopolitan
Indian families, where "local" food is culturally inserted into the "global"
space (Appadurai, 1996; Hannerz, 1992). This insertion enables South Asian
families to conceptually 'sidestep' the confrontation between the local and the
global, and engage what Lakshmi Srinivas calls, the 'translocal' (L Srinivas,
2005: 319-21). I agree with Appadurai (1996) that cultural mediation lies at
the center of the problem of transnationalism. I suggest that the packaged food
becomesin
its familiarity and its distancea
mediating model for these
cosmopolitan families and is, simultaneously seen as of a place, and placeless
(Giddens, 1991: 26) leading one not only to question the empirical value of
these

categories2,

but

also

to

question

the

nature

of

embeddedness

and

authenticity.
Much of the material for this chapter is based on ethnographic work in
Boston and in Bangalore, both in observation of families and what they eat, as
well as in informal and formal interviews of women as they shopped, cooked,
and fed their families. I began the study of Indian packaged food in 1998 as

part of a ten nation study on globalization3, but it is only in the past three years
food in India
that I have actively thought about the world of packaged
products both in
primarily because of the growing number of packaged
Bangalore and in Boston. Secondly, my Indian friends and colleagues, are at
an age when they all have young children, and I find that Indian mothers, both
in urban India and in America, struggle to find foods that their children will
eat,

that

have

what

they

consider

both

nutritive

and

'cultural'

content.

between the urban Indian and diasporic

Indian
The comparison
community is useful since both the Bangalore community and the Boston
arising
community are dealing with similar problems of cosmopolitanism
from being an integral part of a transnational world. From an outsider's

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'AS MOTHER

MADE

one

perspective

may

IT'
say

that

these

two

communities

are

roughly

similar.

Both

to the global economy

through their dynamic
and IT services and
in
software
knowledge capital industries,
participation
biotech advancements. But the similarity between the two communities hoids

these

cities

are

195

central

The local patterning of the diasporic

up only in a first approximation.
community is in its complex relationship to the dominant Western Judeo
Christian culture of the United States. As a group one could argue that Indians
in America are marginalized, both politically and socially by the dominant
culture4, even though they, according to Kibria, suffer from the label of a
"model minority", derived from their "cultural programming for economic
(2003: 11). Nationally, their median income in $68,500, double that
of the national average income.3 This "programming for success" has made
South Asian immigrants "a part yet apart" of the larger society; separate even
from other Asian immigrant groups.6 In the 1980s and 1990s, with increasing
visibility due to the overwhelming successes of Indians in Silicon valley, in
success"

in literature, and a few in the political arena and in films, this

marginal position has been contested in the public arena.
Boston is the academic Mecca in the United States, and has its fair share
of South Asian intellectuals, along with a substantial community of venture
academia,

software engineers, biotechnologists,

doctors, and technology
specialists. By and large, immigrants to the New England region tend to be
well educated, middle class, cosmopolitan
professionals and their families.
to
the
U.S
census
for
the
2000
the city of Boston showed
According
year
in
the
to
the
of"a
growth
immigrant groups
point
minority as majority"
capitalists,

where

minorities

were

over

50

percent

of the

total

Asian

population.7

Indians

were in fact the fastest growing ethnic minority in New England-up

110
percent in 2000 from a decade previously, and numbering roughly 76,000 in
2000 (Allis, 2005). This expansion in Asian Indian population increases as
one

moves

towards

the suburbs

where

the hi-tech

industries

are

located.

Asian

Indians gravitate between the technology firms on Rt. 128, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, the medical research complexes and hospitals, and
the many laboratories and research facilities in the region. Indians in Boston
lead a cosmopolitan life, often meeting for Mexican dinners accompanied
by
margaritas during the week, and for South Asian dance and cultural recitals on
the

weekend.

The middle class professionals in Bangalore lead a similar cosmopolitan

in
life
which they too are an essential part of transnational culture. In the late
1980s Bangalore became one of the 'hot zones' (Friedman, 1997; Heitzman.
2004) of technology in the country attracting the new software companies and
their employees.8 Today Bangalore
is a center for all those interested in
software
engineering,
technology, chip building, information technology and

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INTERNATIONAL

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JOURNAL

OF SOCIOLOGY

OF THE FAMILY

related fields (Heitzman, 2004). Engineers and other professionals

have
poured into the city, and the population of Bangalore has grown from 3.4
million in 1985 to 5.5 million in 20009 and is projected to reach 7 million in
(Heitzman, 2004 quoting Bangalore
Development
Authority 2000
There
are
believed
to
be
more
information
statistics).
technology engineers in
2011

(150,000) than in Silicon valley USA (120,000) (See Kripalani and

Engardio, 2003: 69-70). As a result of this economic spiftt and increased
monetization, a significant and growing Indian middle class10 has been created
Bangalore

with the power and cultural capital for global consumption. It is important to
note that this middle class is a minority as over one third of the Indian
per
population is illiterate and the country's per capita Income is $460.00
annum (Kripalani and Engardio, 2003).
But this middle class has significant social

and economic clout as they

loom large in the public imagination of urban India. Journalists often extol this

new

revolution'

'consumer

in

India.

The

Wall

Street

Journal

writes:

'a

thriving middle class is changing the face of India in land of poverty; its
buying spree promises economic growth' (19lh May 1988). Popular news
magazines

have

several

focused

stories

on

the consumption

mores

of the

new

for example; 'The New Middle Class' (Hindustan

Times, 7 June
and
'The
New
Millionaires
and
How
Made
it'
(India Today, 31
1987),
They
October 1987), and 'The New Gold Rush' (Sunday, 13 December 1987). The
India

popularity
bars,
as
are

of new

discotheques,

single

restaurants,

coffee

shops

location

a cosmopolitan
often

Italian

within

or young

people

and

Thai
pubs,

India.

food
has

The
who

couples

and

restaurants,

created
new

the

image

Bangalore"

often

find

ubiquitous

of Bangalore
cosmopolitans

themselves

far from

their home and larger family. This "spatially mobile class of professionals"
1988) creates a small (by Indian standards) but culturally
(Appadurai,
important

consumer

base

known

for their

often

knowledgeable

"westernized"

(Srinivas, 1962; 1989) taste and is characterized by its "multi ethnic, multi
caste, polyglot" (Appadurai, 1988: 6) taste.
But I have strayed far from the issue with which I began; the complex
links between culture, motherhood, family dynamics, food consumption,
identity and loss. Excavating these hidden links, the paper traces the social
history of these packaged foods'2. Since there are few sources on the social
history of food in India, and even fewer on the eating habits of the Indian
middle class or the Indian diaspora, much of this data comes from an analysis

of "unorthodox"

primary

texts

such

as

based

community

newspapers

South Asian community in the United States, English language

Bangalore
of many

that carry
of these

food

growing

product
food

and

restaurant

corporations.

reviews,
This

and

reconstructed

for

the

newspapers

the internet

in

sites

gastronomic

social history centres on the problem of home; How is the concept of "home

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'AS MOTHER

MADE

197

IT'

made" constructed in an increasingly

world

of

foods

packaged

in

India?

industrialized,
How

is

the

corporatized

"home"

and urban

constructed

in

the

increasingly plural and transnational world of food for the Indian diaspora?
And how does the eating of packaged Indian food relate to identity? I consider
this problem in emic terms and conclude
and

rich

form

of consumption

can

expand

with the way in which this peculiar

and

enrich

our

understandings

of the

family, motherhood and the construction of a cultural Utopia.

Figure

The Indian

1: Packaged

Family:

pre-prepared

Mothers,

Indian

Domesticity

non Vegetarian

Food

and Commodity

According to Lamb and Mines, co-editors of a volume titled 'Everyday Life in

South Asia', the family is "the site of everyday life in South Asia" (italics
mine). A familiar term for family in India is samsara, which means "that
which flows together" in which "flows" is used to denote relationships
between family members, as well as the flow of daily events. The assumption
commonly made and not incorrect is that South Asians, particularly Indians in
India, live in joint families comprising of many members related by networks
of kinship. According to Shah, the family in India has undergone rapid change
in the past fifty years. A "patterned widening of the connubial field" (1998:
ones.
10) had led to 'contextual' marriages rather than 'caste circumscribed'
Thus, inter-caste, inter-regional and inter-religious marriages form new
alliances and "create a new class which is cosmopolitan"
(1998: 11). As time
this
class
widens.
Shah
that
Hindu
on,
goes
suggests
joint family (HJF) while

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INTERNATIONAL

198

JOURNAL

OF SOCIOLOGY

in urban areas and in non

enduring in surprising ways is giving way, especially

business

to the nuclear

castes,

OF THE FAMILY

family.13

The family in America is also changing. As more and more immigrant

families from Latin America and Asia become part of the United States,
family structures change. Add to that the aging population of the United
States, and the economic instability that these elders face, and American
families will, according to Zolli (2006), "get bigger and bigger." Zolli
suggests that the American family will be redefined from being a single
parent, or two co-parents and their childrena 'nuclear family'to being
multi

sometimes

generational,

even

"a

three-

or even

affair,"

four-generation

return to the beginning of the 20th century, ironically

like the Indian joint

family.
But in all these families, multi-generational or otherwise, the image of the
good mother is conceptualized as a nurturing relationship between the mother
and child, where this dyad is a metaphor for relations of caretaking and
dependency. It is obvious that mothering relationships are much like other
social relationships and, like them, are bound to take shape from the broader
political and economic order within which they are forged. In South Asia, as
elsewhere, feeding the child and provisioning the family are key components
of the role of mother and wife. The "good" mother is one who feeds the child
of the particular
on demand with wholesome home made complex.foods
ethnic and caste based group of the patriliny. Renowned
Sudhir Kakar states:
The

Indian

the Indian

mother is intensely
infant is greeted

attached

to the child

... From

Indian psychologist
the moment

of birth

ministrations
by ... relentless physical
Indian
in traditional
families
serves
to

and surrounded

of nurturing
sensuality
An Indian mother is inclined towards
amplify the effects of physical gratification.
whether these be related to
a total indulgence
of her infant's wants and demands
the emotional

Moreover
she tends to extend
sleeping or being kept company.
feeding, cleaning,
is ready for
to well beyond
the time when the 'infant'
this sort of mothering
functioning in many areas. Thus, feeding at all times of night and day
independent
and 'on demand'

(81).

With the growing economy in India from the 1970s, the Indian family has
undergone rapid and enduring change, and more women have entered the
of
work force in urban India. One would assume that the expectations
and wifeliness

motherhood

would

argues that while employment

outside

the home,

there

was

have

shifted. But Desai

for women

little

increased

if no change

in home

(1996:
100)
in
the
1970s
rapidly
Desai

management.14

states:
Traditionally
cleaning

food processing

grinding,

drying of fish once

was women's

work. Women
and condiments:

and powdering

grains

it comes

and preserving

ashore;

have

been

cleaning

involved
salting

fruits and vegetables.

Thus

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in
and
in

MADE

'AS MOTHER

IT'

199

education
spite of increasing
citizenry rights and employment
the familial role still gets precedence
over the work role (1996:

in the workforce
107).

Desai, the economist Amartya Sen (2005: 235) states that unequal
of
household chores has remained part of the Indian family tradition.
sharing
Women were, and are, still primarily responsible to looking after the home,
Echoing

the children, the provisioning

Sen says:
It is quite
naturally

common

and the preparation

of food.

in many societies
man will
to take for granted that while
the home, it is acceptable
for women to do this if, and only
in the work in addition
and unequally
to their inescapable

work outside

if, they can

shared

of the household

engage

duties

household

238).

(2005:

However

Sen does concede that "in reality women working outside the home
and earning an income tends to have powerful impact on enhancing women's
standing and voice in decision making, both within the household, and in
238). While the Indian family has remained resistant to
society" (2005:
and
the
primary roles for women in India are as wives and mothers, in
change,
the past five years, there have been signs of more men learning to look after
children and keeping house15. But still, domestic cooking
and family
and
a
female
realm.
remains,
provisioning
by
large,

As Dharamjit
Singh, chef and expert on Indian food notes, Indian
are
complex, often using many ingredients and spices, and many
recipes
different cooking methods, such as roasting, baking, flash frying, steaming,
and

so

on,

in

combination

so

they

fuse

into

complex,

flavours

layered

(Singh, 1970). Often, in traditional joint families in India, many women of

the family would gather together; sisters-in-law, mothers-in-law,
young
adult women and aged female relatives, to create the meal for the family.
Faced with the daunting task of preparing a complex, many tiered meal of
time

consuming

themselves

ordering

foods or asking
cook

preparation

and

servants

food

from

alone,
local

family members
to help

contemporary
restaurants,

Indian

or relying

on

women

find

'heat

eat'

such as mothers and elderly

and

relatives

to

them.

In the diasporic
Indian family, the links between motherhood
and
are
somewhat
as
nuclear
Indian
families
find
provisioning
engaged
differently
themselves

with no family members, extended kin or servants to help. With

most Indian families having two working parents, and children engaged in
extracurricular activities required to get them into 'good' colleges, the family
is constantly harassed for time. But Indian women, in the diasporic context,

are usually expected both by their families and by themselves, to run the
household whether they work outside the home or not. In Boston, Indian
women often tried to cook Indian dishes but chose easy recipes that could be
done in a few minutes often substituting frozen vegetables for fresh, to cut the

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200

JOURNAL

INTERNATIONAL

preparation

time.

Some

OF SOCIOLOGY

I interviewed

women

confessed

OF THE FAMILY
to preparing

a whole

worth of food on Sunday, and freezing it so that an Indian meal was

microwave
seconds away during the hectic weekday schedule.
just
The "time crunch" for both urban Indian women and their diasporic
week's

is very

counterparts
Food

and

real,
Amin

manufacturer

food

states,

manufacturers
"We

are

recognized

into

tapping

that

more

and

this

demand.

more

couples

were working and had less time to spend in the kitchen. Now we get so much
fan mail saying that these prepared meals are a lifesaver"16. The overwhelming
pressure that most Indian woman feel to get an Indian meal on the table in a
few minutes, is underlined by author Lavina Melwani in her article titled
"Retouch of Curry". Melwani (2004) says:
for Indian

families

to give

up the cultural

tradition

of

Indeed,

it must be hard

cooking
servants

fresh food every day, but in this new world you don't have the retinue of
meal from
nor do you have the time to always
whip up an elaborate

scratch,

weeping

as you chop

the onions.17

The fear of loss of the 'real'

poignantly echoed in Melwani's
But what about

"real"

foodthat

food that this 'quickie'

article. She states:
authentic

home cuisine,

cuisine

those heavenly

family hands down, those wonderful

food that tastes like no other food in the world? What about those
Indian

which each

is

implies
delights

pots of comfort
flavorful South

American

The layered, perfumed Hyderabadi

rasams..?
biryani that has been made
in the frenetic
for generations
in your family? Are all these an endangered
species
where time and attention spans are short and where for
hustle bustle of America
Indian

many cooking means simply pressing

authentic regional home food become
As

we

can

provisioning

see

from

the excerpts

of the South

Asian

what

the microwave

button?

Will

the cooking

of

a lost language?18
I term

families.

'meta-narratives

Fears

of loss

of loss,'

of a rather

invest

loose

the

concept

of "Indian" culture and family values tends to drive food choices. It is better to
eat Indian food than any other food. This explains the ready acceptance of pre
packaged foods by the cosmopolitan Indian family. Melwani ends her article
with a paen to the grocer who stocks ready to eat Indian food.
So the next time you're

on deadline

and have

no time to cook

and don

t have

the

or slice of pizza, holler for your invisible

to eat yet another turkey sandwich
all
the exercise your fingers have to do is
need
to
and
chef.
No
cut;
chop
personal

desire

button. Huge succulent samosas

stuffed
open up the boxes and zap the microwave
with cheese and jalapeno
peppers, plates of steaming claal makhani. palak paneer
rotis and naan. Or perhaps
and an array of crisp paratltas,
you'd
prefer fluffy
and some spicy rasam?
dosas, uttampams
out your fit for a king feast on the dining
prayer of thanks to your Indian grocer!19
idlis, golden
box. Spread

No problem, it's all in the

and then say a silent

table

Prepared and packaged Indian food has become the food of the everyday in the
cosmopolitan Indian urban family, in Bangalore and in Boston. That these

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'AS MOTHER

MADE

IT'

foods are consumed

urban

contexts

consumption
allow

for the

201
knit 'ethnic

within loosely

allows

for

a fluid

semiotics

open

communities
to

in diasporic

innovation

to

invest

of the food. These are changes that are legitimated because

travel

of the

food

across

the

world,

and

the

foods

are

not

or
the

they

subject

to regulatory strictures of purity and pollution of caste and religion based

authenticity and 'orthodox' consumption of their 'original' sending contexts.

Figure

The Social

2: Ashoka

History

Brand

of Indian

Packaged

Packaged

Indian

style Chinese

Food

Foods

A whole range of social, economic, and cultural changes have taken place in
India over the past fiftyyears, culminating in the economic boom of the past
decade20. In 1989 the Indian economy was 'liberalized'
after nearly fifty
years of independence

and Soviet style protectionism. Perhaps by design or

perhaps coincidentally, since then the Indian economy has seen significant
growth rising from 2 percent in 1990 to 7.8 percent in 200121. Emergent
during this sudden liberalization, was a new packaged prepared food industry

that has grown rapidly in the past decade and a half. However, the prepared
food market in India is still in its nascent stage, with only 5 percent of the
food market is packaged and branded. Indian players see a staggering 95
percent of product still to be packaged and enormous profits to be made. The
Indian Tobacco
announced

Industry22, a recent entrant into the world of packaged foods,

that they see a huge market potential for these foods among the

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202

INTERNATIONAL

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OF SOCIOLOGY

OF THE FAMILY

of urban India and among NRIs (Non Resident Indians, the

term for the diaspora). Ravi Naware, head of the Indian Tobacco
Industry ( ITC) food development sector projected the growth of the ITC
middle classes
local

alone

segment

of

the

food

packaged

to

industry

be

Rs

500

crores

$10 million). He stated in a press conference:

(approximately

there is a close linkage (between

economic
and food). As
development
the disposable
income goes up, standard of life improves
and consumers
... start
for
food
that
are
reliable
and
of
looking
packed
good quality'....
Firstly, the

Certainly,

market for food is simply

is also

consumers'
packaged

huge

for two main

growing

ability.

spending
food because

and estimated
reasons:

to be Rs 500,000

population
more

Consumers,

of hygiene,

nutrition

and

crore

and

growth

are

more,

It

annually.

in

improvement

for

looking

and convenience.23

The indigenous packaged food industry takes Indian recipes, simplifies them
for fast production, and decreases the time and cost to the consumer. The
industry includes food products for immediate consumption, as well as pre
prepared foods such snacks, spice powders, lentil wafers, pickles and
chutneys. The Indian pre-prepared food industry is divided along caste and
ethnic and micro regional lines of affiliations. Preparation of these indigenous
prepared

foods

has

(many

become

home

of them

makers

a local

cottage

and

widows)

larger local food preparation companies

of them

many
ethnic

group

markets

often

women,
to prepare

in urban

India

employ

the product
over

three

and lower middle class housewives

industry
who

for cooperatives
subcontracted

(Srinivas, 2002).
women

poor
so

are

it has

hundred

from

the

targeted

taste.
do

for

Local entrepreneurs,

an authentic

companies

of women
to work

business

caste

Today
and

or

in local
middle

rely on these mixes and snacks to provide

food for the family.

The prepared food industry has an eager large clientele in urban America
in the South Asian diaspora. According to Neil Soni, vice president of House
of Spices, for "wholesalers to retailers, it's possibly a $15 million market,
while for the retailers it could be a $25 million market. It's a good component
with lots of growth opportunities." The February 2006 issue of Little India the
self proclaimed 'largest circulated Indian publication in the USA', aimed at
the South Asian diasporic readership ran a feature article titled "The
Immigrant Thali" by Lavinia Melwani. In the article Melwani quotes Madhu
Gadia, the health editor of 'Diabetes Living' the article states that Indians have
started eating far more prepared foods than ever before. Gadia states that
Indian food is catching on even in the 'heartland'
town

of Ames,

Iowa

where

"many

of the supermarkets

of America.
and

coops

In her home
carry

frozen

Indian foods," Gadia states: "these are becoming part of the

everyday home food of busy Indian families." She says that she knows of
many friends who "carry the shelf stabilized ready Indian meals to work
and canned

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'AS MOTHER
often

In

MADE

the

IT'

same

203
Julie

article,

Sahni,

chef,

food

author,

historian

and

culinary celebrity, states:

is that they (Indians)

I think what has happened

of ready

made

foods

because

people

with

are buying
busy

a tremendous

schedules

still

amount

need

to have

nice to put on the dinner table.. .These

are family people buying ready
something
made food. So there is a need and it is being fulfilled. There are some very good
out there very tasty and authentic
and
products
tasting in both shelf stabilized
frozen.

Food manufacturers in India and in the US scour the Indian food market for
prepared foods that can be marketed to the growing Indian diaspora.
Patel of Raja Foods says:
Our best bread

go, such

as college

made

to be something

with papad

out with paneer

coming
(home

is going

a paratha

Paratha,

and potato

which

we discovered
it. Trust

wraps.

in Delhi,

called

me, it's unbelievable!

These

the Papad
We're

will be great for people

and the taste is really

delicious.

students,

cheese)

inside

good.

It's solid

Shwetal

Indian

also
on the

paneer

tastes

Most of the packaged food in the urban India and diasporic market is sourced
in India. MTR (The Mavalli Tiffin Rooms) one of the oldest players in the
in South Indian cuisine. The Bangalore
packaged food market specializes
based24 MTR prepared food line is owned and operated by the Mayya family;
an

Udupi

Brahmin

family

from

coastal

western

Karnataka.25

Members

of the

Mayya family have gone through rigorous hospitality and hotel management
courses in Europe and America, and^bring modern ideas and technologies to
increase the MTR market share. In the past few years MTR has come to
dominate the South Indian niche of the prepared food market. With their wide
range

of product

products,

the

categories
brands

of

and
MTR

with
have

a consistent
made

track

substantial

record

of good

in-roads

to

quality
markets

overseas such as U.S.A, U.K., Gulf, Far East (Singapore, Malaysia), Australia
etc. Other Indian companies
that have product lines that are sold
(for curry powders), Maya,
transnationally are Gits (ready mixes), MDH

Mothers and Priya (pickles and sauces).26

But not all Indian food packaged food comes from India or even from the
subcontinent. Patak is an international family owned packaged food company
started by a twice immigrant in London, U.K., that exports packaged Indian
food all over the world. Patak's owns several manufacturing facilities - a

frozen food factory in Dundee, an Indian bread factory in Glasgow, the head
office in Haydock, Lancashire and an 18 million investment in a new state of
the art food processing factory in London which at 164,000 sq ft,is believed to
be the largest Indian food factory in the world. Within a year Patak's project
that they will manufacture 30 million jars of Indian sauce, produce over 1.5
million ready meals, over 1 million Indian snacks, and use 2,700 tons of spice

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204

JOURNAL

INTERNATIONAL
around

from

the

world.

Patak's

OF SOCIOLOGY
that

states

it

OF THE FAMILY

manufactures

its

primarily for the Indian women 'who needs more time'. The Pataks'

products

website

states:

for creating
make

at home

authentic

sauces,

cooking

popular
pappadums
dishes

brand name

ahousehold

'Patak's,
the world

it easy

in the UK,

Indian

curry

is fast becoming
around
recognised
and easy to prepare. Our

food that is quick

chutneys,

pastes,

for food lovers

in less than 35 minutes.'21

everywhere
(Italics

naan
bread
and
pickles,
to prepare authentic Indian

mine).

The biggest overseas manufacturer of Indian food in the US is believed to be

Deep Foods. Deep Foods has a 100,000 square feet facility in Union, NJ,
where it produces several Ymes-Mirch Masala, Deep and Curry Classics, as
well as the Green Guru International Cuisine line, other frozen food lines such
as Maharani and Kawon Malaysian parathas. Raja Foods, based in Skokie, 111,
a suburb of Chicago has been in business since 1992 and imports frozen foods
from India under the ubiquitous Swad label. According to Swetal Patel of Raja
in the market,
has the largest variety of frozen vegetables
valor
ethnic
papdi, chauri and
products like, tindora, papdi lilva,
especially
tandal jo ni bhaji, vegetables which are a part of traditional Gujarati cuisine.
These come fresh from the farms in Gujarat and are much easier to prepare
Swad

Foods,

since

they

are

already

cleaned

and

cut.28

Swad

is

part

of

the

latest

trend

in

prepared frozen Indian food and ingredients. According to Ms. Melwani in her
essay titled, "The Cold Revolution", flash freezing techniques delivers 'fresh'
Indian food to your door in any part of the world making Indian food quick

and easy to prepare.29 'Ethnic' grocery stores, which previously stocked

varieties of raw ingredients are turning more rapidly to flash frozen, packaged
and prepared foods. According to Neil Soni, vice president of 'House of
to
Spices', frozen prepared foods are the 'next big thing'; "Wholesalers
retailers, it's possibly a $15 million market, while for the retailers it could be a
$25 million market. It's a good component with lots of growth opportunities."
Soni believes that the Indian market is evolving into what the mainstream
consumers

already

The Anxieties

expect

from

and Unintended

their

supermarkets.30

Consequences

of Cosmopolitan

Consumption
Multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism creates anxiety because they expose us
to new ways of being in, and seeing the world. In the contemporary world,

large populations of people live in diasporas, in exile, in migration for all sorts
of reasons, self-chosen or not. Clifford describes this condition as a world
where syncretism and parodic invention have become the rule rather than the

exception, where everyone's "roots" are in some degree cut, and therefore it
has become "increasingly difficult to attach human identity and meaning to a

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AS

culture

coherent
an

MAUh

MOTHbK

existing

the

For

who

people
the

19s8:

(C lirrord,

multicultural

physically,

culture",

205

11

context
and

memory
live

idea

the

abroad

1 he

lJ5).

is that

as

imagination

or

from

away

of "homeland"

local

becomes

of that

place

what

becomes

ot the

paradox

the

an

less

significant

become

stronger.

consider

they

their

nucleus

important

in

cosmopolitan

"home

for

nostalgic

family

appears

sentiment.
lhe

ot cosmopolitanism

anxiety

in the

case

or the

Indian

to be centered on food consumption. Food provisioning and food consumption

in South Asian families are couched in what I call 'narratives of anxiety'
who is eating, how much, and what they are eatingare
for South

anxiety

When

Asian

questions

laced with

both

the

parents.

1 interviewed

Prabhakar

and

his

wire

Sathya,

from

in South India, they expressed anxiety about their children's

habits. Prabhakar said: "Pasta, that's all they eat. Night and day...pasta.
can

they

cultural

eat

I don't

it,

and

know."

The

second

children

aestheticgetting

problem

to

eat

appropriate Indian food. Sathya, Prabhakars'

children

don't

eat

and

macaroni

Indian

cheese

all

for Indian couples

naturally
"right"

the

at all,

time.

Or

food.

to the

South

of getting

"The
want

They

a Diwali

party

the talk turned

2005,
their

caste

upper

food.

I attended

in November

Indian

regionally

Indian

When

pizza."

'problem'

a south

Uma,

is
based

wife, spoke to this concern:

let alone

and their children,

the women

among
Indian

food

and

eating
How

encounter

parents

caste

of

city

Chennai

children

woman

to eat

said

of

her

the
six

year old son Vijay: "He will eat Indian food only if it is from the packages,
Kannan

(her

and

husband)

I go

weekend

every

to the Indian

store

and

we

so

stock

up on palak partner, malai kofta, chola pari and all that. All North Indian food
he likes. My mother was shocked when she came to visit us. She also tried
convincing him to eat 'home' food (i.e. South Indian Brahmin food) but he
refused.

She

told

disappointment
preferring
food.

She

me
that

the

packaged

felt she

was

'How
her

can

child

alternatives,
a bad

let

you
not

mother,

only
but
and

him

do

refused
that
had

this"?
to

eat

he

refused

not

provided

".

Uma

home
to eat
proper

voiced

her

cooked

food,

South

Indian

direction

to

his choices of ethnic affiliation, allowing him to eat North Indian Punjabi food
when he was a South Indian Tamil Brahmin. These 'narratives of affiliative
desire' where South Asian mothers see their children's choice of food as a
desire for affiliation with another ethnic community, are contentious. With
adult

children,

Indian

parents

often

feel

that

they

have

lost

the

battle

to

inculcate the children into eating 'their' food. Sanjay, a young adult lives with
his parents while he goes to college. While his parents come from a strict
Brahmin vegetarian family, Sanjay eats only non vegetarian food. His mother
Saraswati often buys him food from Indian restaurants, and packaged food of
the 'heat and eat' variety from the Indian grocery stores. "That's

all he eats".

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206

JOURNAL

INTERNATIONAL

OF SOCIOLOGY

OF THE FAMILY

she said matter-of-factly while picking up twenty frozen Indian chicken and
lamb

entree

at the

dinners

local

Indian

store.

"He

won't

eat

our

south

Indian

rasam, sambh. Avanakei ishtame illai. He does not like it. If he doesn't have
this, he'll heat up a pepperoni pizza."
For the children on the other hand, the eating of Indian food, especially in
the company

either

of others,

not

of your

own

culture

or ethnic

or those

type,

who are 'hipper' and more westernized than you, presents a series of shameful
moments. For example, Anjana Mathur editor of 'Food Matters' recounts her
own shame filled tale of desiring a tuna salad sandwich in her lunchbox in the
hope that it would make her just like her white Australian classmates. She
states:
In April

1982,

my family

and

dahl

and

container.
"weird"

rice

and

white

My
lunch

moved

into

yogurt

of Strawberry

losing
believed.
My

pack

a tijfin-dubba,
would

Malaysia.
a lunch

When

consisting

a split-level
metal
on in curiosity

look

I first
of rice
lunch
at my
the

by
the snickering
and odd looks
and to let
my mother to buy me a plastic lunchbox

Shortcake.

me have tuna fish sandwiches.

Over

Eventually

that 1 had tuna for lunch,

arrived

would

container.
in a "strange"
My rice and dahl were nothing like
adorned
they would carry in their pink plastic lunchboxes

too much, and I begged

became

from Penang,

classmates

Australian

tuna fish sandwiches

the likes

away

my mother

lunch to school,

started carrying

1 was

time,

she relented,

visibly

excited;

and when
I was

the day finally

that much closer to

and becoming
like my white classmates,
or so 1
my status as "Other"
1 found something
But upon opening my lunchbox,
entirely different.

mother

sandwich

had

a bright yellow
tuna fish
my lunch and created
with green chilies, cilantro, chopped
onion, and turmeric.

"Indianized"

filling spiced

Anjana's chagrin at the Indianized

about her 'otherness'.

tuna is captured in a poignant paragraph

setting, food was a visible way to mark ethnicity and difference.

I look back on my curried tuna sandwiches,
they were my mother's attempt
"Western"
with apparently
fare. I wanted them to help me
to combine
Indianness
In my school

When

try to assimilate,

but ironically,

they merely

reinforced

my otherness.

As the cultural critic Frank Wu notes, our ideas of diversity conflict with our
actual practices of tolerating diversity, and what the mainstream might
consider intolerable, unethical, unpalatable, and inedible, determines what we
eat. The articulation of the real difficulties involved in confronting difference

foodways is central to the story of the negotiation of

cosmopolitanism. Wu concludes, "Our festivals of diversity tend toward the
superficial, as if America were a stomach-turning combination plate of grits,
in understanding

tacos, sushi, and humus. We fail to consider the dilemma of diversity where
our principles conflict with our practices" (216).
food becomes, as
So in a multi cultural arena, the Indian packaged
Appadurai states, "chimerical, aesthetic, even fantastic objects" (Appadurai,

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'AS MOTHER

MADE

207

IT'

1990: 299) where strong feelings of longing are located for the displaced.
food

"an

important

of these

foods

represents

Consumption

symbolic
becomes

anchor
in some

to
sense

The

homelands"31.

imagined
"sacramental"

(Berger,

So as
return to a "taken for granted" identity of the homeland.
local
Indian
a
caste
based
asserts
increases,
identity
cosmopolitanism
hyper
2001)a

itself in consumption located affectively in gastro-nostalgia. In this globalized

state of re-territorialization, imagination and fantasy become a necessary
alternative for "the real thing" (which is also imagined as Anderson points

(Clifford,
out). I want to emphasise that, in multicultural cities, 'parodic'
have
foods
substituted
for
the real
inventions
such
as
these
1989)
packaged
food of the homeland. It would appear that authenticity is not questioned, as
long as the copies that appear authentic are provided, as symbolic
which identification can unfold.
Authentic

Mothers,

Narratives

of Subterfuge

and False

anchors on

Memories

But authenticity is central to the problem ot multiculturalism in more ways

than one. In Bangalore the packaged Indian foods serve other social desires
linked in part to anxiety over authenticity. In May 2004, when I was in
Bangalore, I was invited to a dinner party at the home of an old friend, Rashmi,
who is now a manager at a Fortune 500 software company. She had invited
several, elderly, family members and some friends for dinner. The food was
excellent; cooked in a traditional manner, and the meal comprised of many of
the traditional South Indian, Iyengar, Brahmin, vegetarian dishes that were
part of festival menus such as Bisibelebhath, Puliyogare, Kootu, Kosambari
and so on. I was surprised at her choices since I knew her to be a cosmopolitan
eater

who

was

not

very

interested

in

traditional

cooking.

Everyone

complimented her on the meal discussing how well cooked all the dishes were,
and how they tasted "just like her grandmother used to make them". They
asked for her recipes, which she coyly refused to divulge. When all the guests
had left, I helped her clean up and went into her kitchen where I found twenty
from MTR Packaged
food division, known for their
opened packages
'authentic' tasting South Indian cuisine, strewn all over the kitchen counter.
Rashmi winked at me to keep the secret of her "home cooked" meal. I found
Rashmi

was

not the only young working woman who resorted to MTR

packaged foods when they wanted to create an impression of having cooked
authentic, traditional, home cooked meals for their in-laws and other visitors.
was Punjabi woman from Delhi in North India, had lived in
Kalpana,
Bangalore for twenty years. In 2004, her in-laws visited her from Delhi, and
for weeks before their visit she asked all her South Indian friends for recipes.
Apparently,
Bangalore,

in-laws were convinced

that since she lived in
Kalpana's
she must know how to cook South Indian food. But Kalpana

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INTERNATIONAL

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JOURNAL

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OF THE FAMILY

herself never bothered to learn the intricacies of South Indian cuisine because
she

surrounded

was

Kalpana

an

enormous

When

her

breakfast

of

in-laws
idlis,

I found

arrived,
and

dosas

other

that
South

for her guests and they praised her "authentic Madrasi"

hai rial So good...
almost she can.start
Madrasi

Indian delicacies
food"Kithni

it everyday.

by

made

had

acchi

restaurant in Dilli (Delhi)."

Kalpana herself confided in me that she had
bought the whole MTR line of packaged instant South Indian food before they
and

arrived,

had

spent

the

past

week

the

mastering

amount

of water

and

ghee

(clarified butter) she needed to add to each dish.

In Bangalore the MTR 'heat and eat' south Indian line of dishes

have

the modern housewife's

food
guilty secret. The MTR packaged
promotes secrecy and subterfuge among certain women whereby a facade of
authenticity and traditional eating is maintained when in fact multiculturalism
become

have changed both eating and cooking habits. These

and cosmopolitanism
"narratives of subterfuge" allow South Asian women to remain socially
models of domesticity, when in actuality the loss of traditional
knowledge of recipes, cooking ingredients and methods, is wide spread and
inter-generational. When I asked an older friend of mine for her rasam (lentil

acceptable

broth)

spice

that she

got

powder
it made

that I thought
to order

she

by a caterer

made

from

and

had

at home,

scratch
never

even

she

thought

told

me

to ask

the

recipe. She added: "Oh, now I don't even bother to ask him. I just go to Food
World (the local supermarket) and buy the MTR rasam powder mix".
However,

Figure

in the

larger

3: Packaged

society,

and

bottled

the

expectations

Indian

food

and

of women

Sauces

still

Imported

able

being

from

India

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to

MADE

AS MOTHER
produce

an

available,

is kept

Authentic

Mothers

accurate,

alive

based

and

expectations

culturally

tradition

caste

regional,

societal

between

continuous

209

micro

'authentic',

disjuncture

readily

IT'

the

packaged

for these

is still

meal,

are

reality

foods.

The

The

evident.

bridged

the

by

of a

parody

cosmopolitans.

and Gastro-Nostalgia

to
So this raises the problem.of the authentic in cosmopolitan
consumption:
most people authenticity resides in the ability to recognise it. Regina Bendix
a folklorist who argues for a legitimation of the discipline
of
(1997),
folklore, states that; 'in an increasingly transcultural world, where Zulu
singers back up Paul Simon and where indigenous artists seek copyright for
their traditional crafts, the politics of authenticity mingles with the forces of
the market', and that declaring that something is 'authentic', legitimates it,
and by reflection, adds more status and legitimacy to the authenticator as
well (Bendix, 1997: 10). The problem for Bendix is 'what does authenticity
do?' both for the authenticator and the authenticated. So while authenticity
can be the search

for something lost as in the case of Shaila, it is also,

the legitimation of something existant such as in the case of

paradoxically,
Rashmi and Kalpana.

The question of the authentic arises primarily about how it is created or

manufactured. Rachel Laudan argues that culinary authenticity, (Laudan,
2001) is framed in the terms espoused by the viewer, or eater: as she says,
Americans tend to say it's authentic if it is artisanal, pre-industrial, uses
indigenous ingredients and no processed foods. It is also to us "historical" meaning, what people
and

now,

this

checklist,

grey

natural

industrial

and

she

says,

present."

used to eat, preferably familial, rural, regional

organic
because
Italians

are

added
we
too,

to the

contrast
according

list

the

of requirements.

"sunny

days

to Alessandra

We

of yore
Guignoni,

foods,
set

with

up
the

travel

to Sardinia for a taste of an imagined past, for what she calls "nai ve" cooking,
simple, genuine, the core of "what Italians really are" (Guignoni, 2002). The
retrieving of a pre-modern self located in earlier caste based and agricultural

rhythms located in the highly local through cuisine, is part of the push against
the anxiety that modernity and globalization bring. As globalization erodes the
traditional notions of hierarchy, breaking down caste barriers through

and marriage (see M.N. Srinivas 2003), the anxiety over

commensality
identity becomes rooted in the symbolic value of consumption (Giddens,
1997). The retrieving of the self through the eating of the cuisine of one's
caste, ethnic group, region, and locale, becomes a precious experience. So in
as in Boston, foodways and the eating of ethnic Indian food
a
epitomizes
personal, a local, or a caste based Utopia, a cultural Utopia that can
be either the pure and simple peasant like (whether Tamil rasam32 or Gujarati
Bangalore

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210

INTERNATIONAL

OF SOCIOLOGY

JOURNAL

OF THE FAMILY

rotli nu shaak3), or the high aesthetic culture of the elite (Mughlai cream
Burra kebab). The Utopian ideal of a lost time is engaged through gastro
nostalgia and the eating of foods that symbolize this lost golden era, thereby

catering to the gestalt of loss and memory that is part of the cosmopolitan's
narrative. Loss and retrieval are built on the idea that there is something to

retrieve that is unchanged; that is essential, and essentializing the narrative of

self and other is at the core of fighting anomie in a multicultural space34. As
Lindholm argues so convincingly in his work on authenticity, the search for
a "moral imperative as the performance of difference
new
and
authentic
foods is seen as valuable in itself'. Further,
through
recovering and maintaining the authentic food of any ethnic group, caste,
new taste becomes

family, locale, region etc. is seen as a "good" enterprise leading to knowledge

and awareness35. Creating and exploiting nostalgia yearning, for a local culture
and cuisine perceived as all but lost makes travel to such places both a pleasure
an

and

urgent

duty.

One of the key ingredients of the descriptions of foods that appeal to

gastro-nostalgia is the evoking of "home cooking" or as "mother made it". The
Indian diasporic market and the urban Indian market are dynamic because

Indians like Indian food. Melwani argues that Indian immigrants "cling to the
food

as

and

talisman

mantras,

mother

substituting

and

father.

How

vitalized

they feel when they cook daal chaval just like mother! Or the kaju barfi that
grandma specialty. They hold that wonderful taste in their mouths, lose their
and

eyes
of

are

delivered
made

door

dear

by your

Melwani

home."
and

dosas

kachoris,
to your

idlis

in California,

states:

- made

in

or Dubai,

London

and

"millions

India

and

almost

millions
frozen

quick
as fresh

to "foods

as those

AmmaV'36

as

my

made

mother

them".

One

of the

internet

largest

sites

with over 36,000 recipes is called "Ammas.com"'

{omnia meaning Mother).
Ammas.com begins with a narrative about this "authentic" grandmotherly
character behind all the recipes for south Indian cooking on the site.
Amma
Her

is the original

advice

"Amma."
Amma
South

the prepared food industry, Indian internet sites have chat rooms

Besides
devoted

back

transported

samosas,

and

recipes

"Amma"
was bom

Indian

powerful

on the Internethaving

are

culled

from

started her web

the

mind

site in 1996.

of an
means

authentic
"mother."

near Vijayawada,
in the
(by Indian standards)
In fact, Amma comes from a long line of
for their strength both in and outside the kitchen. Her
village

of Andhra
known

authentic,

India (and many other parts of Asia)

in South

in a small

State

women,

Amma

Pradesh.

is
She
was a freedom
("Ammama")
fighter and revolutionary.
grandmother
remembered
for her efforts to protect women's
rights. She was well
especially
in tamarind sauce) and dry fish
known for her Kalagoora
Pulusu (mixed vegetables
or mutton
threshing

curries
season

which
(known

she would
as Kuppalu)."

prepare

for the field hands

(Excerpt

during

the rice

from ammas.com)

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MADE

'AS MOTHER
familial

The

211

IT'

link

of

mother

and

mentioned

are

grandmother

to

and legitimate the recipes and the food. Food and its emotional
association
with mothers and grandmothers, is the fodder for eager food
merchants, as they recreate in a public realm what was previously the food of
authenticate

the

home.

Images

of mothers

become

touchstones

for the

of thee

authenticity

cuisine. Gastro nostalgia as related to mothers' home cooking is paradoxically

the crux of the prepared food industry, as the symbolic and affective value of
As more and more cosmopolitan
women are haunted by a sense of loss of what they cannot reclaim, they turn to
"authentic" food to reclaim their identity.
Shashi Tharoor states that Indian expatriates and migrants live in a
of memory...his
nostalgic world: "... nostalgia is based on the selectiveness

"foods as mother made them" is invaluable.

(the immigrants) perspective is distorted by exile... his view of what used to be

home is divorced from the experience of home. (Tharoor, 1993). He writes
with sensitivity of the migrants' response to a dominant culture is a reiteration
of the latter's own culture. Tharoor says: "But his nostalgia is based on the
selectiveness of memory; it is a simplified, idealized recollection of his roots,
often reduced to their most elemental - family, caste, region, religion. In exile
amongst foreigners, he clings to a vision of what he really is that admits no
foreignness" (Tharoor, 1993).
Salman Rushdie argues that fantasy helps the Indian living in diaspora and
migrant Indians to relive the India of the imagination (Rushdie, 1991: 10)
based

on

semi

truths,

stories

and

heard

accounts

that

are

based

strongly

on

the

local. For the Indian cosmopolitan, fantasy is an important narrative structure

to assuage the ambivalence
of the cosmopolitan over the loss of family and
place.

As

cosmopolitanism
cultural

number

growing

identities

gets
of

of

broadened
all

kinds.

claim

groups
to

include

Therefore

the
the

status,

cosmopolitan
growth

of

"cosmopolitan"

particularistic
has

come

to

rooted in
"signify a transnationally situated subject who is nonetheless
It means the
particular histories, localities, and community allegiances"37.
world (or a big part of it) is a field of interaction where people's identities can
escape

the confines

of nationalism,

allowing

for both a local

and a global

identity simultaneously.
Are We What

We Eat?

Some

thoughts By Way of A Conclusion

as the local
fades further and further away for
paradoxically,
the memory and the imagination of family, mother and place
cosmopolitans,
become more powerful. Self consciously searching for their rootsethnic,
So,

local and caste basedthese

memories become

located in the emotional

and

gustatory link between mother and family, symbolically located in a cultural

Utopia of loss. The prepared food industry packages authentic foods of their

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212

INTERNATIONAL

4: Teas,

Figure
Easy

caste

particular
women

can

and

come

ethnic,
home

gastro-nostalgics,

authentic
and

and

'Ready

OF THE FAMILY

to Eat'

Sauces

Stacked

for

Stores

identity for themselves

circumscribed

OF SOCIOLOGY

Foods,

Packaged

Pre-prepared

ill Grocery

Access

JOURNAL

and

regional
cook

group,

so

'home

cooked

that

and their children. This

experience.

support

the

While
diversity

these
of caste

cosmopolitan
meal'

to

produces
food
and

working
reclaim

companies
regional

their

a limited
cater
foods,

and
to
they

(unwittingly) support a conceptual division of India, into micro regions,

religious and caste based groups, which runs counter to the discourse of
that pervades the anthropological
literature on South Asia
Mankekar,
Inden,
1990;
1988;
1999).
(Appadurai,
The overriding narrative of loss for cosmopolitans is detailed through the
emotional loss of "home cooked" food that migrants feel. The availability of
nationalism

packaged "authentic" Indian food that echoes micro regional, caste and ethnic
variation of India enable urban Indians and diasporic Indians alike to indulge
in 'gastro-nostalgia' where the food recreates a cultural Utopia exemplified by
mothers' home cooking, located in the collective imagination of the ethnic
community. The 'narrative of affiliative desire'of wanting one's child to eat
the food of one's ethnic group is a powerful desire for these mothers.
It is clear that in the spaces of a global consumer-capitalist cosmopolitan
society, mothers provide for their children primarily by providing purchased

food (Seiter, 1993; Miller, 1998). Motherhood offers unique practices that
resist ready analysis since they reveal, by the "very manner in which they
transgress"38, the contours of a deeply rooted ideological opposition between

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'AS MOTHER
that

which

MADE

is

IT'

213
as

recognized

"real,"

motherhood

good

and

the

"corrupting"

influence of consumption (Gordon. 1994; Ladd-Taylor and Umansky. 1998;

Ragone and Twine, 2000; Roberts, 1997). Because of this 'deep rooted belief
in the opposition between consumption and motherhood', the rules governing
consumption, especially the choices made by the mother on behalf of the
child, are often the 'cause of much anxiety for mothers' (Warner, 2001). South
Asian mothers I have shown, are no different in their anxieties over
consumption and they face new challenges in a cosmopolitan world as they
or
i.e., of Indianness
attempt to retain a sense, not of nationality;
or
Pakistaniness, but more of regional and local identity i.e., Punjabi-ness
The
'narrative
of
food
that
consumption.
subterfuge'
Bengali-ness,
through
runs through the preparation of a 'traditional' meal points to the complete
pragmatic acceptance of caste and regional based packaged foods by South
Asian women, while they attempt to remain socially acceptable models of
feminine domesticity.
Rephrasing the nineteenth century gourmand Billat-Savarin s assertion
"you are what you eat"I have attempted to shed new light on consumption,
memory and identity, through stories that might speak to the ways in which

migrants and their families use food to explore the classed, ethnic, caste based,
regional and gendered dimensions of their personal and collective identities.
The consuming of these packaged foods point to a new way of "being" Indian
in a transnational

space.

NOTES
1.

This

but is also

cook,
2.

See

is dedicated

essay

L.

Srinivas

the locally
3.

This

research

food
scapes

World

of

and

of Boston

his
as

Bangalore

been

in

University,
paper

discussions

with

for this paper.

Social

and Economic

the Bangalore
Banga

lore

and

food

Srinivas

would

like

Change,
industry.

that led me to look

Lindholm

and

to thank

Bangalore,
Dhanvanti
at packaged

of these

Professor

Gopal

Nayak
food.

did

cultural

at

this

through

were

the fuel

of Institute

of

in understanding

research

Kadambi

has

Boston

me in writing

help

the initial

Jyothi

of

enormously
Karanth

in

the gastro

collection

colleagues

discussions

for his unstinting

of

Study

of my interest

study

benefited

the Smith

the

data

for supporting

I have
many

my

and

for

to study

Subsequent

1 thank

on

argument

Trust

Center

comparative

1999.

College.

incarnations.

the

I decided

nation

and

a great

her argument.

for his support

when

ten

Charles

its many

Lakshmi

I also

provoking

from

Charitable
of

University

in 1998

Wheaton

by

White

Merry

and for reading

of

part

that he directed
part

deal

Berger

is not only

landscapes.

thought

a great

encouragement

globalization
funded

Peter

who

Srinivas,

cultural
and

I draw

I thank

Affairs

in Bangalore

and

in part by the Pew

supported

Foundation.
and

Religion

the global.

and

was

Richardson

in culinary

for a comprehensive

(2005)

situated

Rukmini

to my mother,

interested

and

on food
Aruna

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in
and

INTERNATIONAL
Chidambi

Krishna
Sunder

4.

See Kibria (2003).

5.

Statistics

6.

I borrow

7.

and

newspapers

drawn

and

For a more

phrase

from

Srikanth

(1998)

foods

packaged

to my attention.

out interesting

me newspaper

Kala

articles

on food

in the

Asian

Americans

clippings.

(2003).
the

of a book

title

on

South

to my attention

brought

account

detailed

of these

sending

OF THE FAMILY

OF SOCIOLOGY

by pointing

from Kibria

this

Shankar

some

brought

me enormously

helped

Bangalore

JOURNAL

census

of the US

by Nazli

as related

by

Kibria.

to the city of Boston

refer

http://www.ci.boston.ma.us/BRA/pdf/publications//pdr_547.pdf
8.

it is estimated

Altogether

and

employees

70

statistics

Population

10.

In

recent
1990s

of

the

central
12.

I have

13.

Shah

(1998)

family

For
while

wives
15.

See

in

The

is about
of

history

Taskforce

of

the

International

the

from

greatly

class

between

anywhere

100 to 250

in

the

cosmopolitan
and
Culture

in Food,

creativity

adaptive
multi

food

national
cited

paper

above.

innovation

in the face

firms-socio

historical

however

Here,

in the transnational

for identity

quest

the

for Bangaloreans

eating
and

of

gastro-scape
from

Society)

what

is

frame

is

in Bangalore.

activity

conversations

and
Nair,

the

endures

and

a fuller

scholarly

women

worked
because

mothers

have

had

with

my

colleague

the joint
The

the case.

new

in fact many
nuclear

family

outside

is

the home

felt these

less

positions

while

growing

and

complex
created.

urban

Shah

(1998).

1 percent

had

a long

conflicted

with

their

it

Yet

in

especially
see

family

than

are

by

accepted

is far more
families

joint

on the Indian

exposition

they

family

situation

term

roles

as

in the home.
"Behind

Deepti.
March

of

decline

is not quite

the cosmopolitan

strategy,

Metrolife

that

argues

that

But

are Indian.
however,

a comprehensive

that non domestic

of

is that the moral

in India

appears

career

quest

domination
I examine

the joint
India.

150

employees

Srinivas.

sociologists

14.

I suggested

benefited

firms

and

by any standard.

in which

to gustatory

Lakshmi

100

500

industry,

For

67).

middle

of the Indian

a moral

to note

important

over

in Bangalore

Megacities

to the present.

that

software

(2001).

the changes
to be published
2007

attempted

processes

1996:

23rd,

300

between

have

in the software

I chart

paper
(Srinivas

has become

which

of the companies

from

number

a significant

Bangalore
early

per

of

and

i.e.

http://www.megacities.uni-koeln.de/intemet/

put the number

Scholars
million,

11.

March

derived

Union,

Geographical

cent

of total investment

(Economist,

150

between

are medium-sized,

city, refer to S. Srinivas

Bangalore
9.

10

than two-thirds

component

percent

of which

about

only

More

(interviews).
foreign

that there are about

the majority

in Bangalore,

7,

2005.

every
"Amit

Successful
Heri,

musician,

Woman..."
is

married

Deccan
to

noted

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Herald.
dancer

'AS MOTHER
Madhu

MADE

Heri
the

with

Natraj.
I don't

Madhu

and

believes

go by what

Lavina.

Melwani,

215

When

housework

traditional?
16.

IT'

Little

is away
call

you'd

India.

Hot

and

Heri

travelling,

it is but

a natural

has

always

"What

thing.

chipped

in

meant

by

is

traditional."

Cold.

http://www.littleindia.com/october2004/hotcold.htm
17.

Lavina.

Melwani,

India.

Little

Hot

and

Cold.

http://www.littleindia.com/october2004/hotcold.htm
18.

Lavina.

Melwani,

Little

India.

Re touch

of Curry.

2003.

September

http://littleindia.com/september2003/Retouch%20of%20Curry.htm
19.

Lavina.

Melwani,

Little

Hot

India.

and

Cold.

http://www.littleindia.com/october2004/hotcold.htm
20.

The

Indian

years,

and

instituting

investment

this parallels
1980's

and

Deccan

diversified
Herald

the entry

in

Jagdish

the

United

into

prepared

Bhagwati,

But

cautiously
and

of tobacco
States

two

as

are

has

burst

market
trade

interests

into

unless
the

pursued

the economy

external

RJR

well

and

Lai,

Deepak

may

India

opening

that

internal

in another

China

of this economy

policies

that cover

1970s

as

The

at over

growth

1990.

government.

though

economic

and

Historically

companies
23.

new

driven,

such

with

inflation

in the decade.

potential

be on par

since

that the bubble

vigorously

India's

and

5 percent

the lowest

1999,

will

the Indian

by

rate of about

report

not occurred

economics,
warn

Varshney

alternatively

figures

economy

that has

thoroughly

trade

a growth

in November

Bank

the Indian

in Indian

Specialists

pursued

reached

percent

Development

20something

Ashutosh

22.

2.8

whereby

percent

21.

to under

Asian

latest

has

economy

has fallen

free

carefully

friendly,,

private

relations.
food

prepared
and

Reynolds

other

in the

tobacco

foods.

July 21

http://www.itcportal.com/newsroom/press_july21.htm
24.

'Mavalli

Tiffin

cooking

their

utensils,

practices
Rumours

ways.
famous

This

region
and

joke

in Karnataka

Mt.

sour

Everest

coffee

and

Dakshina
in south
and

ingredients

acknowledging

you
the

and

find

in a spotless
business

both

caste

from

dhoti.
characterize

The

and

climbs

of sweet,

The

popular

to the top

a cup

of

of steaming

cleanliness,

commitment

the

Brahmin

Udupi

is

of Karnataka.

chefs.

with

with

and

specific

mixing

of their

ready

food
of the

chutneys,

coast

for

silver

Brahmin

region

is that if one
there

in

the kitchens

fruit

curries,
micro

India

are fed everyday

pilgrims

acumen

hotelier

cotton

acumen,

upper

came

for their innovative

their ability

an Udipi

'pure'

on the western

the business

south

serving

is very

Kannada

over

customers

5000

and

all
their

vegetarian

was

India

famous

recipes
over

salads,

is called

would

was
and

'good'

where

rice,
cuisine

one

to greet

quality

at Udipi
of

is famous

hot,

with

MTR's

accompaniments.

known
butter

that the Mayya's

temple
kinds

in what

it was

clarified

associated

Krishna

located

in

swirled

different

fifty

as

Rooms'
food

enterprise.

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

to
food

INTERNATIONAL
25.

the political

Daring
suspended

in was

brought
found
low

rights

food

by the Food

enforced

and
and

business,

sambar

and

its very

rasam

started

instant

This

27.

http://www.pataks.co.uk/about/index.php

28.

Melwani,

Lavina.

Hot and

that the

for a cup

food

Act.

But

in order

idli, dosa,

to keep

chutney

government
MTR

funds
into

got

hotel

other

flowing

the instant
a range

mixes.,

packaged
and

Gandhi

at the ridiculously

Sadanand

with

Indira

of coffee.

standards

occupied,

of

mixes.

illustrative.

list but merely

26.

when

measures

high

rimenting

expe

powders,

is not an exhaustive

Control

the cooks

to keep

OF THE FAMILY

seventies,

the price

and control

to maintain

into his business,

the mid

of the populist

one

to standardize

it impossible

prices

in India

Emergency

Individual

OF SOCIOLOGY

JOURNAL

Cold.

http://www.littleindia.com/october2004/hotcold.htm
29.

http://www.littleindia.com/october2004/hotcold.htm

30.

Ethnic

Indian

International
President

is

Pillsbury

have

food

and

a factory
that's

products

layered

parathas,

stuffed

31.

See

32.

Lentil

33.

Unleavened

34.

Robbins

they
the

for

the next

and they have

United

States-a

and

Says

Kostos

one

the experts

the recipes."

developed

and

lines,

ready

Vice

is Indian.

in the field

of Indian

puff

has

seven

frozen

roti,

spring

onion

tawa

whole

wheat

naan

for the

Adraki

Alu

parathas,

naan

and

a paneer-filled

masaledaar

in the
Kostos

of them

Pillsbury
to

market

in India,

line.

Pillsbury

ethnic

niche

big

naans

making

the

has many

parathas,

alu

spicy
market.
other

'Imagining

actually

Bombay

Malabar

American

regular

near

into

parathas,

considered

is now

"Pillsbury

how

coming

is also

distributor

national

Jay Parikh,

They

food

prepared

to go mainline.

US

Graversen.

by Rebecca

places'

November

2001

at

http://www.geocities.com/udeifelten/imaginingotherplaces

idea

spicy

bread
(1998)

of

with rice.

eaten

soup

with lentil

eaten

rooted

35.

Thanks

to Charles

36.

Melwani

Lavina.

37.

See

38.

For

a review

but

belonging,

or attachment

attachment,

soup.
to cosmopolitanism

that the alternative

argues

strongly

(dlial)

at a distance"

Lindholm
The

Cold

of Rajan

and

"a

Sharma

of

is not a romantic

(re)attachment,

multiple

(1998:3).

(forthcoming,
Revolution.

reality

2007).

Little

(2006)

India.

by Frances

Assissi.

March

17,

2006.

http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=030106070622
a

complete

analysis

of

consumption

and

motherhood

see

Tayler

et

al.

(2004).
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