Food fundamentalisms in India can be classified along regional lines. The North- South divide is becoming less and less pronounced among the younger generations who are born into a more cosmopolitan cuisine not just in the metros but even in the small towns and interiors. But older palates are still very picky. I can speak with a degree of authority only on South , esp. Mallu food fetishes, as I personally suffer from some of them.
The general love of rice and rice and more rice in its myriad avatars morphing into breakfast , lunch, tea time snacks , dinner & supper is the most important of them. In this passion , the annachis are also with us. Rice extremists wont have any truck with chappathi, porotta or any wheat / maida creations. In whichever part of the world they find themselves they will look for idli,dosa, uthappa as they are made in Palakkad , Coimbatore or the original Udipi or Mangalore – not the type served in Udipi restaurants in Mumbai which are mongrels ! They would also condemn any sambhar that does not taste like their traditional fried-ground coconut , coriander, chilli,onion plus, plus masala concoction !
I mention Palakkad specially because that is where the idli had reached perfection in the form of the famous Ramasseri idli, though nowadays Ramasseri idli has only the appearance. The melting in the mouth and the out of the world taste is just a memory. It is just business and material for TV cookery shows, now. But folks raised in PGT have a higher standard in the matter of idlis than others. My Valiettan used to even surmise that we – the typical Palghatties especially of our family, Kenath – were born out of a giant idli ! The same could be said of our Thekkan friends vis-a vis puttu and kappa or about the Vadakkans and their pathiri…Mention of pathiri does not merely cause a craving in me but also triggers memories of my hostel life at Providence College, Calicut.
Next to food, come clothes and personal appearance.
The attraction of jeans and tops and such western wear for young girls is seen as a threat to Indian culture by the traditional Indian male. Hence sartorial and related fundamentalisms about what women should wear. Many Mallu males, for instance, hate lipstick and what they call ‘ the painted look’, abhor the ‘off- shoulder ’ tops, spaghetti straps & short skirts . Their fantasies are only about long hair, oiled and adorned with jasmine , figures fully draped in sarees or ‘set mundus’, and faces fair, shy and coy ! Among women there are the silk fundamentalists – the Kanjeepuram ,Pochempalli ,Benares, Murshidabad types- and the cotton queens, collectors of handlooms from all over the country . They are quite snooty about their taste and look down upon all other females who don’t share their textile theology.
Among the young I notice a new fire for the olden, golden practices, the aggressive championing of what was just routine in ancient / not so ancient times, like Yoga, Ayurveda , organic farming and so on. Last week a Mumbai-raised youngster gave me a sermon on the allopathic evil and the superiority of our own systems of medicine But he doesn’t seem to have heard of Ashtangahridayam on which the preparation of the kashayam he showed me was based ! Home birthing , I think , is the latest female fundamentalism that is catching on. On Amrita TV , I happened to listen to a young mother waxing evangelical about it. Home birthing was the norm some forty/fifty years ago in India and hospitalization was the exception. But now it is coming back , in a more self conscious and sophisticated garb. Very much like organic farming. There was only natural manure and natural farming in the 40s and even the 50s. Chemical fertilizers and insecticides were seen as saviours by farmers , then. But now they stand exposed as the enemies of the good earth and her children . Hence organic farming. Old wines in new bottles. Going back to nature , to the fundamentals of life. Not a bad trend . The only catch is the new bottles are a bit too expensive.
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