Food and Namma Bengaluru: A Critical Approach
When my grandfather moved to the city of Bengaluru for a “fresh start”, as he called it, it was hard to travel to places and secure connections. The travel by bus back then was, as he called it, a smooth journey’ unlike being stuck in two to three hours of traffic today. It surprises me every time there is a free road where I can shift the gear from the first to the second. That shift in the city, the dynamicity, is what I will be highlighting. Through the years, from my grandparents to my parents to me, the constant shift in spaces and the evolution of the ‘culture’ of Bangalore, be it aesthetics, food, travel and so on, is what constitutes ‘Bengaluru’.
Bengaluru’s urban market space, KR Market, was one of the first places where electricity was introduced. This introduction led to the development of one of the busiest and most diverse places where people from all over the place stacked their produce, stock of products ranging from clothing, electronic goods, toys, plumbing goods, and so on (Refer to Fig. 1). The space has and continues to represent the dynamicity of Bengaluru as previous generations of my family have also described it to be a ‘happening place’. The roads are wide enough for cars to pass, but the hordes of people travelling daily in and day out make it almost impossible for smooth ongoing traffic. From an ecological standpoint, it is one of the worst places to visit. The supposed ‘Garden City’ is far from its name in this area (Refer to Figs. 2–3).
Through the marketplace goes the produce to the food industry of Bengaluru. This diversity in food culture mostly happened due to the setting up of IT companies in the city, but small food stalls did exist to provide meals for people who couldn’t afford them. Some of these stalls developed into their brand stores (but cheap), like Veena Stores and CTR (mostly known for breakfast) and MTR (for lunch and dinner) (Refer to Figs. 4–6). This then shifted to the high-class form of continental food commodified by society.
This can be seen from a postcolonial lens; the food culture of Bengaluru shifted from the stalls of thatte idlis (plate-like steamed rice batter), vadas (fritters), and dosas (crisp savoury pancakes) to established restaurants for kinds of pasta, pizzas, and burgers (Refer to Figs. 7–9). The social hierarchy has represented itself and dwelled in the narrative of a city. Most narratives of the city express gratitude for local foods and their effects on communities, but from my experience of living in Bengaluru since my birth, it’s usually the other way around. IT specialists are moving to the city from all over the world and different regions of India. Bengaluru has become more of a cultural melting pot due to this. This has resulted in a various mix of food from all over the world occupying its place in the streets of Bengaluru.
On the one hand, you’ll find opulent malls hosting the wealthy and affluent residents of the city. On the other, you’ll see rickshaw pullers, auto rickshaw drivers, and others buying at roadside stands. This difference in class and caste has divided the food industry as well. Due to the courtesy of capitalism, the same food is sold to a varied class of people for different prices, depending on the ‘quality’ of ingredients. This is where Marx comes into the picture.
Marx is directly more concerned with the nutritional intake of the vast bulk of the people, especially the working class, both urban and rural than he is with the consumption of food by the higher classes in his talks of food consumption under capitalism. With the social classes divided based on economy, the amount of nutrition received from these food places was considered by Marx. He reprinted, in the Capital, tables created by John Simon and his colleagues that showed the inadequate nutritional intake of workers in industrial towns, noting that Lancashire factory workers barely received the minimum amount of carbohydrates. In contrast, unemployed workers received even less, and both employed and underemployed workers received less than the minimum quantity of protein. Marx examined food deterioration, additives, and poisons, all of which are connected to the conversion of food into a commodity, in addition to the quantity, quality, and nutrition that workers ingested. These can be applied to the capitalist consumerism of food culture as well.
Looking through the lens of the food and culture of Bengaluru, the imperialist view also opens up due to the kind of food that is most popular. If you search ‘food places in Bengaluru’, the following two links show up (1 & 2). This shows that street food is classified as the oriental nature of food, that is, the local, authentic ‘Bangalorean’ food and the other is the typical, continental food which is ‘not Indian’. The capitalist view can again be taken through a postcolonial lens where ‘non-Indian’ food is usually found in restaurants, and typical South Indian food has been pushed to the streets.
But food streets such as those in VV Puram (Refer to Fig. 10), Koramangala, Sanjaynagar and so on have tried to break these barriers through quality and quantity. These food streets, which offer a variety of delicacies including South Indian, North Indian, bakery items, Rajasthani food, Chinese food, etc., are synonymous with Bangalore’s history, which shows a blending of tradition and culture whether it be from the British, the Mughals, or the Wodeyars of Mysore. These food alleys thus represent the city’s ever-expanding intangible culinary culture. In addition to some of the newest cafes and resto-bars, as well as some of the oldest culinary icons, Bengaluru is home to a unique street food culture that is growing in number as a result of the influx of visitors to these locations.
(All photos (except the last one) have been taken by the author or her immediate family)