Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

Culinary Culture in Colonial India: A Cosmopolitan Platter and the Middle-Class

by Utsa Ray
Sold out
₹9,510.00
Original price ₹9,510.00
Original price ₹9,510.00
₹9,510.00
Current price ₹9,510.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 18-21 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Hardcover
  • ISBN13: 9781107042810
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • Publisher Imprint: Cambridge University Press
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 280
  • Original Price: USD 91.0
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 635 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Asia / South / General

This book utilizes cuisine to understand the construction of the colonial middle class in Bengal who indigenized new culinary experiences as a result of colonial modernity. This process of indigenization developed certain social practices, including imagination of the act of cooking as a classic feminine act and the domestic kitchen as a sacred space. The process of indigenization was an aesthetic choice that was imbricated in the upper caste and patriarchal agenda of the middle-class social reform. However, in these acts of imagination, there were important elements of continuity from the pre-colonial times. The book establishes the fact that Bengali cuisine cannot be labeled as indigenist although it never became widely commercialized. The point was to cosmopolitanize the domestic and yet keep its tag of 'Bengaliness'. The resultant cuisine was hybrid, in many senses like its makers.

Ray, Utsa: - Utsa Ray is assistant professor at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She is primarily interested in looking at how taste and consumption aids in the construction of class. She has published widely in journals such as Modern Asian Studies and the Indian Economic and Social History Review.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us