Can we use the power of food to motivate people to find common ground? In these turbulent times, when food is a combustible issue, it is tempting to be sceptical. But there are safe havens where food’s restorative and healing powers reign supreme amid the cacophony of clashing ideas of India and the Indian cow.
To this Bengali, living far from the hometown, one such refuge this week was the Durga Puja pandal. As every visitor to such hallowed sites knows, food and the festive spirit are seamlessly intertwined and there is no contradiction at all between revering the goddess and revering good food.
Most important, the ambience in the pandal is such that it does not really matter whether you are an atheist, a devotee of Goddess Durga, a vegetarian, a non-vegetarian or even a non-Bengali. No one asks what you stock in your fridge, whether your secret fantasy involves fish, fowl or red meat. Sitting cheek-by-jowl, enthusiastic eaters enjoy the dish of their choice. There is a wide range of delicacies to choose from. At the end of the day, what matters is that the collective might of fish cutlets, mutton chops, Mughlai paratha, luchi (puri to north Indians) and alur dom and all the other fare trump the noxious food fights in the world outside.
The uniting powers of food are legendary. Today, the message needs to be underlined to take on the dividing power of food preferences, since the divisive forces are trying to dominate the national debate. A few days ago, an assistant professor of English at Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College found a great way to drive home the message. N.P. Ashley, a Muslim, put up a post on his Facebook page offering a treat of pork dishes to the first five people who expressed an interest. Islam prohibits eating pork.
But as Mr Ashley explained in an article: “Despite being a Muslim and a non-pork eater for religious, personal and cultural reasons, my point was to give the militants a lesson in respecting and living with people with different faiths, food habits and cultural practices.”
Going by the media reports about the meal, it was a success in taste, syncretism and good conversation. At the Tibetan settlement of Majnu ka Tila in north Delhi, Mr Ashley’s guests talked about politics, culture and books over a variety of pork, chicken and vegetable dishes along with thingmo, the Tibetan bread. The diners were people from diverse walks of life, from diverse faiths.
This was Mr Ashley’s way of expressing his anguished awareness about the need to reject the current frame of discussion about food, meat in particular. This was his way of responding to the sharp polarisation that is taking place in societal attitudes in the wake of the savagery in Dadri.
It is a tragedy that the point needs to be made at all, especially with so much noise. But that is the nature of the times we are living in. As everyone knows, Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, barely 40 km from the heart of New Delhi, was the place where Mohammed Akhlaq, a middle-aged Muslim man, was dragged out of his home and beaten to death by a mob merely on the basis of a rumour that he had consumed cow meat. One of his sons was seriously injured in the attack. The home was vandalised and the fridge where the alleged cow meat had been kept was broken. The case has generated widespread outrage.
More recently, a young man, Zahid, was set afire and killed at Udhampur following a rumour that the truck in which he was sleeping was carrying slaughtered cows. As it happened, it was carrying coal. Police investigation later showed that some cows had died of food poisoning; none had been slaughtered.
And then in the heart of the national capital, a couple of people sprayed black paint on a Jammu and Kashmir legislator just after he had finished addressing the media to explain why he had thrown a “beef party” in Srinagar. He had also been beaten up by a Bharatiya Janata Party legislator in a separate incident.
It is not the first time that sensitivities about cow meat have led to such barbarities. But coming as it does in the wake of a series of bans and restrictions by state governments on various types of food, there is more reason to worry that such intolerance about eating preferences may have the tacit backing of at least a section of the authorities.
The reaction to this has also occasionally taken on a horrific hue and deserves equal condemnation. A recent report says, Prashanth Poojary, an anti-beef activist who got an abattoir closed down in Mangalore was killed, allegedly by out of work butchers. This can lead to a frightening downward spiral, and all violence from all sides needs to be stopped at once.
Does it really matter who eats what or who doesn’t eat what in this country of over 1.2 billion people? As Mr Ashley’s little experiment proved, it doesn’t have to matter. But intolerance about others’ food habits is fast emerging as a symbol of overall intolerance of “others”.
It is now necessary to break the stereotype, to bust myths. It is heartening that the President, followed by the Prime Minister and the finance minister, have reiterated the need for inclusivity and tolerance and that some BJP leaders have been pulled up. Stronger and quicker messages would help more.
People can share a meal even if they don’t eat the same food. Over centuries, food has been a unifier. It helps break the ice between strangers and is a way for people to share. Today, more than ever, there is a need for a counter-narrative that challenges the assumptions underlining the vicious food fights. Food can be a problem, but it can also be a solution. In this festive season, it is necessary that we highlight its ability to heal, restore, unify and bring together.
Food’s healing capacity has been recognised by professional conflict analysts. Recently, the breaking of bread between American and Iranian negotiators has been seen as the starting point of a successful nuclear deal. Johanna Mendelson-Forman, senior adviser at the US-based Stimson Centre is quoted in an article in eater.com, “That breaking of bread... That was culinary diplomacy. And it had, at some unconscious level, an ability to show that we share these human characteristics.” Even if we do not all eat the same food, it is time to share more meals.
The writer focuses on development issues in India and emerging economies. She can be reached at patralekha.chatterjee @gmail.com
