In her book Turmeric Nation, Shylashri Shankar investigates how food in India interlaces with identities

Turmeric Nation: A Passage Through India’s Tastes by Shylashri Shankar, Delhi-based senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, is a book based on a collection of essays by the author published in Open Magazine that explores India’s gastronomical culture and tries to create a biographical account of food in this diverse country. It explores food through popularly known metrics of history, religion, tradition, pop culture and habits. It also takes a few lesser thought-of routes – geography and genetics, among others. All through, the book draws on a wealth of academic research (unsurprising, considering Shankar is a political analyst), and applies concepts attached to philosophy, caste, ritualism and medicine, and others, to better understand and make inferences about Indian food. As I tapped towards the end of the book on my Kindle, I looked forward to the chance of interviewing Shylashri Shankar, who participated in the recently concluded Jaipur Literature Festival 2021. I began my interview by asking her why a political analyst would veer towards food when asked to write a column for a magazine. “Writing about politics and courts is my day job and I wanted to experiment with my own mind. We tend to get tethered to certain boundaries and don’t allow our minds to go beyond those, simply because of the way our disciplines are constructed. I really wanted to allow that to happen, and chose to do it with food,” Shankar says. Plus, she adds, the censorship levels back then weren’t what they are now. Our food cultures – a result of mosaic building It is evident from around us that food and identity are inexplicably intertwined, especially in the Indian context. Shankar applies Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor’s idea of mosaic bundling to better understand the chaotic connections between the two. She explains how each one of our food habits is a mosaic bundle infused with our personal experiences with religion, culture, travel, regions, food and more. The mosaic is dynamic considering experiences continue to build an individual over time. I asked her then, if a clearer picture of Indian food may possibly emerge from such diverse and dynamic mosaic bundling, or if its understanding would likely get more complex. Shankar feels that being confined to one’s home due to the pandemic made us think and cook more than we ever would have. The internet facilitated things. “As dishes go, I would say that it is even harder now to pinpoint what Indian food is. But then, looking at our food from a ‘dishes perspective’ is wrong. We need to examine what our diverse food shares in terms of its approach to equilibrium and balance, how people understand flavour and how local food merges with history”, she says. She wonders, at this point in the conversation, whether such exposure to the range in food will make Indians more accepting of diversity. “Politically, there is a whole move away from diversity right now, but, will the exposure the pandemic has facilitated make us more accepting or more insular? It is something to wait and see," she says. Food: unifier or segregator? Can food ever be the unifier then, I ask. “I think it divides and unifies us,” she responds. “It depends on who uses it and how. A unifying aspect is the ‘McDonaldisation’ of the world – a burger can be a conversation starter around the world. In India, food was used to unify, but, it was also used to divide in some ways. One example was the creation of a unified Hindu identity for the nationalist movement against the British. This was an instrumental view of food, one which has existed for centuries before. The problem is, after a cause is fulfilled, the same people and thoughts remain, she asserts. Today, these identities are being used to divide vote banks and it seems to be the way in which the public is adapting too, adds Shankar. Food has a strong foundation in the past Throughout Turmeric Nation, Shylashri places food in a context of the past. Take, for example, the mention of ancient cookbooks and recipe records being based in medicinal practices like Ayurveda. We know a lot of this knowledge holds good even today, even if the world is discovering turmeric latte centuries since it has been a norm. But, I wanted to know, in prevailing times with changing lifestyles, do these ancient foundations still hold relevance? “I believe that the point has always been nothing is dangerous if consumed in small doses. Research has shown that as Indians become richer, their diets go bad. Going back to some traditional diets is a good idea provided you know why you are going back to it and what you want to achieve,” she explains. Shankar believes that genes have something to do with it too. For example, a Punjabi, having grown up on his native cuisine, will be able to process traditional Punjabi food, unlike someone from another region trying to do so. Simply including turmeric in your food, without making other dietary changes, is not going to help. Eating well makes the exercise complete. Of course, there are a lot of culinary traditions and rituals we follow without knowing why we do it. Going back to understand why these food traditions were followed is good, “but I find, given the current context, it could be dangerous because it might end up pushing people into particular traditions and enhancing the differences between traditions and that can be bit problematic. On the other hand, given how much science is a fountain of information, I would find it more useful to understand why certain spices or foods are used and their impact on the body. So, it would be interesting to research along those lines and then bring tradition into it and see if they are based in similar reasoning." And so, with the writing of this book, how has her own food philosophy evolved? How has it affected her mosaic bundle? “I actually learnt that there is a strong connect between what my body processes and what my forefathers ate. Now, my food habits are similar to the regimen my parents and grandparents followed. My food philosophy would be to listen to the signals of my own body and not have taboos,” she says. Shylashri Shankar ends our chat saying, “I hope we are more accepting of diversity. We cannot be like everyone and everyone cannot be like us. That is what India is about – the pluralism and the hybridity. People need to realise that, and that is what has allowed India to remain India for so many centuries”.