‘Why do we know so little about Dalit food?’: A Wknd interview with author Shahu Patole
Hindustan TimesIf we are what we eat, then shouldn’t eating sattvic make one sanatan like a Brahmin, asks Shahu Patole. Amid the rise of urban living and migration to cities, Patole says he represents the last generation that remembers the days when the community subsisted on “tamasic” food. Patole hopes the book will encourage people from other Dalit and non-Dalit communities and other regions to start writing about their cultures and food habits “without any shame or guilt”. Except to say that what we ate was ‘stale’.” He submitted stories about the Mang food of Marathwada to Marathi newspapers, but they were uniformly rejected, underlining, in a way, he says, why it is still so hard to find references to Dalit food culture. “Now, if future generations ever wonder what their forefathers ate, they’ll find it here.” SUM AND SUBSTANCE * Shahu Patole, 62, was born in the town of Khamgaon near Osmanabad, to a peon and a farm labourer.
History of this topic
‘Our future generations should know what we (Dalits) ate... and the treatment we received in society,’ says Shahu Patole
The Hindu
The poor man’s plate: An excerpt from ‘Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada’ by Shahu Patole
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Essay: Food writing in India during the pandemic
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