Histories of Hunger & Shifts in Food Cultures: Understanding Caste, Health & Well-Being

Abstract

This paper draws from recent doctoral research in Public Health, engaging with the question of caste and its reflection in the health and well-being of Dalit women agricultural labourers in Raichur, Karnataka. ‘Dudi Beku, Una Beku– We work, we eat’- This seemingly simple statement, highlighting the unending cycle of labour and food, was a ubiquitous refrain across life histories of Dalit women. It puts into central focus the interlinkages between caste, labour, food and health. Food was a critical pathway to understand caste and embodiment. The paper draws from narratives of hunger, struggles for food, strategies of survival and looks at how these experiences are felt and reflected in the body-mind. We chronicle histories of foraging; of beef-eating; and gleaning in the community and what this means to the women. The region witnessed profound shifts in social relations and food cultures with the coming of rice to the dryland millet producing area. We engage with the seeming contradiction articulated by the women that while their sense of well-being had improved, their health had worsened. A loosening in oppressive caste-feudal agrarian relations with rice farming led to an increase in a sense of freedom and well-being. However, at the same time, Dalit women offer us a critique of this green revolution agricultural model by highlighting a decline in their health and its impact on their bodies. Rice, once termed as gold because of its scarcity, is now termed as poison by the women.