Shahu Patole’s Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada, originally published in Marathi as Anna He Apoorna Brahme and translated by Bhushan Korgaonkar, does exactly what the likes of Bama’s Karukku, Arjun Dangle’s Poisoned Bread, and Om Prakash Valmiki’s Joothan: An Untouchable’s Life did in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries for Dalit literature. Dalit Kitchens’ message is clear from the outset: food and discrimination in India are shaped by vegetarianism versus non-vegetarianism, lower caste versus upper caste. Food belonging to lower castes, specifically the Mahar and Mang, two Dalit castes in Maharashtra who suffered untouchability, are thus significantly under-represented in historical and contemporary writing on Indian cuisine. To address this lack of awareness, Patole chooses to begin a “social conversation” about the food that he and his ancestors ate.
Patole is well versed in the food practices and culture of these aforementioned castes, and Dalit Kitchens provides...
University of California Press