Drought effect: When Dalits embraced upper caste cuisine
Editor’s note: In 1972, a terrible drought in Maharashtra affected 25 million people—the worst in 20th century India. This excerpt from ‘Dalit Kitchens Of Marathwada’ by Shahu Patole—translated by Bhushan Korgaonkar—looks at how the calamity shaped the cuisines of two Dalit communities: Mahar and Mang. The surprising bit: The famine opened the door for upper caste ingredients and dishes—including oily chapatis, curry leaves and tomatoes. Excerpted with permission from HarperCollins India.
About the lead image: This is the closeup of Rajyashri Goody’s installation titled ‘Picnic’ which shows hundreds of ceramic objects resembling food items. The art installation is inspired from a text written by Dalit writer Sharankumar Limbale—who pens down his experiences of being ostracised and discriminated against as a young school student in the 1960s in Maharashtra. Mint has lots more about the art and the artist—and also highlights the work of Dalit theatre artist Sri Vamsi Matta.
During the 1972 famine the scarcity of food grains was much more than that of water. Hence wheat, saatu (buckwheat), maize, milo hybrid jowar and rice were imported. Along with this came gaajar gavat (congress grass), yedi babhal (a variant of acacia), besharam (Ipomoea carnea), jalaparni (water hyacinth) and also wildflower seeds from other countries. Even today, on grasslands, yellow and multicoloured Mexican flowers are seen, which have adapted to Indian conditions.
Along with cheap edible oil, milk powder was also imported. Post famine, corn, saatu and milo disappeared from the diet. Hybrid jowar, called 'hybret' colloquially, remained in the diet. It survived because firstly, the crop matured very quickly in the kharif season; secondly, it was not a bad alternative to the local jowar when fresh; and lastly, because it was easy to adulterate the 'real local jowar' with it while selling in the city or to the middlemen.
The diet of the Mang and Mahar castes in this region contained a negligible quantity of wheat. It was used mainly for making puran poli during festivals, chapatis when travelling and for making kurvadya, shevaya, botave, gara and kheer. As jowar became scarce in famine time, wheat was preferred over other grains, and a new item named 'dushkali roti" (famine roti) emerged! Dushkali roti is a dry chapati made without using oil.
But after the famine, since cheap edible oil was available, the trend of oily chapatis caught on. Such oily chapatis were seen everywhere such as school children's lunchboxes or as tiffin for anyone travelling. There was a time when only Brahmins would eat chapatis. The changed dynamics made it possible for other people to follow suit. Jowar took a back seat and eating wheat chapatis became a status symbol.
Similarly, there was no prominent place for rice except during festivals. Such occasions arrived hardly twelve or fourteen times in a year. There was a misconception about rice that it would build flatulence and pus in wounds. Although chapatis have developed a stronghold now, despite giving rise to complaints of stomach pain and bloating, eating rice has not become a trend here even today.
Some of the grains, pulses, oil and other things, which were eaten out of compulsion during the famine, later became part of the diet. Things that were liked, affordable or were consumed by the upper castes were accepted. Jowar bhakris needed more gravy and eating them with dry curries created discomfort in the throat. Now with the option of chapatis, even dry curries could be consumed. Chapatis would not get dry and rough in the tiffin like the bhakris would.
Along with chapatis, it became commonplace to purchase the previously scarcely seen vegetables like potato, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower and capsicum. Curry leaves also acquired a place in the kitchens of the Mangs and Mahars. The preparation of these vegetables was a mix of convention and modernity.
Tomatoes, which actually had arrived in India 150 years ago, became part of the diet only after the famine. Nowadays vegetarian and non-vegetarian food is considered incomplete without tomatoes. In earlier times, if there was nothing else in the house, kandavani (onion chutney) would be prepared. The same recipe is followed now to prepare chutney with raw or ripe tomatoes. Gravies are prepared now using cooked potatoes and peanut crush. In wedding food preparations, the potato was upgraded to the level of brinjal. The recipe for stuffed brinjal was followed to prepare stuffed capsicum.
Households which had looked down upon even tea, considering it a foreign habit, now started waiting for the bread-seller's cycle to stop by every morning. The milk of animals owned by them, which used to be consumed by children in the house, was now sold to the dairies. Before, the buying and selling of eggs would take place in the village itself. Now the production and scale increased and egg-collection vehicles started coming from outside the village. Non-vegetarian food was typically prepared once a week before the famine; now the frequency increased due to availability of cheap and infertile chickens from the poultries.
With the advancement of transportation systems and advertising media, one could see other fruits like grapes, apples, sweet limes, oranges, chikoo, pineapple and pomegranate, along with the usual local ones in the diet. Licensed liquor shops and bars started operating. Eating in a restaurant was not considered prestigious carlier but now it earned social status. The use of jowar lost its dignity, oil-slapped chapatis took over and their name also was upgraded to polya, which was common only amongst Brahmin families
The changing times saw the progression from earthen fire chools (stoves) to kerosene stoves to gas burners in the kitchen. These kerosene stoves killed many newly married girls and provided a way to cover up the murders of many other women. A bhakri prepared on the traditional earthen chool in a dhaba or a restaurant was now costlier than the chapati. People were bored of yesur and started going to restaurants to eat oily, garam-masala-influenced meat curries. They didn't mind waiting there for these trendy curries but they couldn't stop feeling nostalgic for chanya (dried meat preparations) and lakuti (animal blood preparation).
