Building Beyond the Bypass Road: Urban Migration, Ritual Eating, and the Fate of the Joint Family in Patna, India

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe anthropology of urban migration in South Asia has emphasized the plight of marginalized people and conflicts over public space. But the precarity of agriculture and inadequacy of basic state services has increasingly compelled rural middle‐class families in Bihar, India, to establish a foothold in the country's booming cities. Because they aim to remain located in both the urban and rural spheres, urban migration reconfigures kinship relations so that the joint family household becomes a non‐cohabitating entity. Constructing a house in the city depends on rural consumption practices that are distinct from the individual‐oriented consumerism of the urban middle class. The gr̥h praveś, the Hindu house consecration ceremony and feast, legitimizes this transition. The hosts negotiate their hybrid identity as urban migrants through the event's food practices. For instance, adulteration scandals have prompted concerns about provisioning milk in the city. The consumption of milk‐based specialty foods during the gr̥h praveś reflects the family's effort to deploy nourishing, familiar foods that reassert ties to their village community while also signaling aspirations to prosperity and a modern, cosmopolitan identity. Moments of ritual excess extend overflowing hospitality to guests human and divine, providing material proof of the family's unity and ambitions. [urban migration, feasting, house construction, ritual, kinship]