Curry, Tins and Grotesque Bodies: Food, Cultural Boundaries and Identity in Anglo-Indian Life-Writing

Abstract

The British Empire in India is closely bound up with the topic of food, since its origins go back to the spice trade. In fact, culinary culture had a special significance for the British in India. Many Anglo-Indians—Britons who spent part of their lives in India—used food as a potent token of their Britishness. Yet, their eating habits displayed substantial Indian influence. This essay hence considers Anglo-Indian culinary culture as an important sphere of cultural adaption and rejection in which the British struggle for dominance as well as the hybrid character of Anglo-Indian identity come clearly to the fore. In order to investigate the connection of culinary culture and identity construction in British India, the essay explores the functions of food references in Fanny Parks' Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque (1850) and Emily Eden's Up the Country (1866), two prime examples of Anglo-Indian life-writing. Focusing on the symbolic significance of food as well as its close association with cultural boundaries and collective identity, the essay considers British India as an area that generally highlights the signifying functions of culinary culture.