A study of the countries of South Asia reveals a closely linked set of histories concerning food as people have moved, lands have shifted, and new ingredients have been discovered and put to use. Tea, a staple in China, over the years became associated with the British owing to colonialism, and came via that route to India. Now, chai, or cha, or kahwa, to list just a few ways tea is known, is as much a part of food habits in South Asia as in China, and has adapted itself to the climate, ingredients and social customs of the specific regions where it is consumed. Biryani, the indulgent, rich, multilayered rice, meat, vegetables, saffron and spices dish, takes on new forms every few hundred kilometres: from Madurai to Hyderabad to Lucknow to Lahore to Turkey. Said to be introduced into India by the Central Asians and Iranis, it took on a local flavour, revealing a culture of movement and travel. Even coffee, in the nineteenth century a drink for “Europeans” and “higher classes,” changed in Tamil Nadu, taking on an enjoyable, affordable, every day part of life, available in every roadside stall, restaurant, and home. Salt, chillies, potatoes, rice – all the components of our food come from different parts of the world. Food moves through people, through culture, making it what theorist Arjun Appadurai calls a “highly condensed social fact.” 
 
As we explore the cultural history of South Asia, we will turn our focus in week two to Food Histories of South Asia. What do histories and origins of food reveal about the confluence and interaction of communities in south Asia? How does migration, exploration and change impact what we eat today? And, most importantly, can a region so diverse, and multicultural ever be defined by a particular type of food?  

This is the second session of Cultural Encounters: South Asian History in the 'Third Space,' this year's edition of our annual summer learning series, taking place virtually over June and July. Over four sessions and with panels of experts, we will explore the ways in which cultural similarities, hybridity, and interaction have shaped South Asia. The programmes focus on the colonial vs. local; food histories; religious histories; and histories of freedom. For more, visit this link. 

SPEAKERS

Sonal Ved is the group digital editor based in Mumbai, India.

She was the first food editor at Vogue India. Her second cookbook Tiffin was listed in the New York Times as one of the must-have cookbooks for Fall 2018. Her third book Whose Samosa Is It Anyway? is an Amazon bestseller. Her next two cookbooks- India Local, The Vegan India were also about Indian cuisine. Her words have appeared in publications such as The Guardian, Saveur, Food52 and Thrillist. Apart from writing about food, she has also hosted a cooking show for Tastemade.

BOOK INFO: https://rolibooks.com/digital-magazine/book-launch-india-local-by-sonal…
 

Saba Imtiaz is a freelance journalist, researcher, and author. She writes about culture, urban life, human rights, religion, and food. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, SAVEUR, Roads & Kingdoms, and Vittles, and she has reported features from Pakistan, Jordan, and Lebanon. She is the co-author of a non-fiction book called Society Girl (Roli Books, upcoming) and the co-host and co-producer of the related Notes on a Scandal podcast, about the life and death of the late Pakistani poet Mustafa Zaidi. Her first novel Karachi, You're Killing Me! (Penguin Random House India, 2014), was adapted into an Indian feature film called Noor. She is currently based in The Netherlands.

sabaimtiaz.com 

Jo (Jayeeta) Sharma is an Associate Professor of Food Studies and Environmental History at the University of Toronto. She studied at St Mary’s and Cotton College, Guwahati, before heading to Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College, and Delhi University North Campus for her BA, MA, and MPhil in History (under the supervision of Professor Sumit Sarkar). She was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship for her PhD in Modern History at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Sir Christopher Bayly. 

She is the founder-director of the Feeding City Lab at the university’s Culinaria Research Centre, which engages with socially just, culturally relevant, and ecologically sustainable food infrastructures and socio-ecological transitions worldwide. 

Jo’s food research ranges across interdisciplinary themes and transnational spaces connected to mountain environments, commodity capitalism, food labour, city foods, heirloom crops and seed conservation, urban growing, and agrobiodiversity. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a Board Member of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS).  

Jo’s Food History Publications include:

2024 “Seeing Histories from the Margins: Indigenous Labour Force on Everest.” In Other Everests. One Mountain, Many Worlds, ed. J. Westaway etc. 

2023: “Global Mobilities and Local Immobilities of Tea.” In Food Mobilities and Making of World Cuisines, edited by D.E. Bender and S. Cinotto, 188-209. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 

2023: S. Lambert-Hurley and J. Sharma (Co-Editors and Joint Authors). “Introducing Forgotten Food Histories of South Asia.” Special Issue: Global Food History, no. 2 (7). 

2021: “Food Cries, Historical City Sounds, and Twentieth Century Silencing of Street Vendors.” Food, Culture & Society 24, no.1 (2021): 16-30.

2020: “Nature’s Tea Bounty: Plant Colonialism & Tea Garden Capitalism in the British Empire.” In Commonwealth Forestry and Environmental History, edited by Vinita Damodaran & Rohan D’Souza, 165-188. Delhi: Primus Books.

2018: C. Bégin & J. Sharma (Co-Authors). “A Culinary Hub in the Global City: Diasporic Asian Foodscapes across Scarborough, Canada.” Food, Culture & Society 21, no.1: 55-74.

2012: “Empires of Food.” In Oxford Handbook of Food History, edited by J. Pilcher, 241-257. New York: Oxford University Press.

2021-2011: Empire’s Garden: Assam and the Making of India. Duke University Press, 2012 (South Asia Edition) (subsequent Open Access editions – 2017 & 2020), and Open Access Editions from Knowledge Unlatched & Internet Archive, 2017 & 2021.  

(Her research on tea labour histories was recently showcased by BBC Radio 4 in episode 6 of the Empire of Tea series which is available to listen online).  

As the founder-director of the Feeding City Lab, Jo now combines her historical research with a deep commitment to being a scholar-activist engaged in community-engaged collaborations that work toward the advancement of food sovereignty, food justice and socio-ecological sustainability. Her research team works closely with community organizations, municipalities, social enterprises, small businesses, academics, and cross-sectoral partners on qualitative research projects and knowledge dissemination activities worldwide, especially helping to re/build food sovereignty through research and action on resilient, climate-smart food and farming futures. https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/projects/feedingcity/

A number of those community-engaged research  activities – for instance with grassroots networks of women farmers- are publicly showcased via the recent podcast series: Voices from the Food Frontlines (now on the Spotify app): 

https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/projects/feedingcity/food-frontline-voices/

https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/projects/feedingcity/sustainable-foodways/…;

Jo is also a founder-member of the Culinaria Research Centre of the University of Toronto, a multidisciplinary centre that blends research excellence with community engagement and research experience to provide new insights into such important issues as the place of food in cultural identity and expression; and the links between food systems, health, gender, family, and food futures.

https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/culinaria/about-centre 

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