Éhezés, élelmezés és modernitás a gyarmati Indiában, 1920–1950
Starvation, Nutrition and Modernity in Late Colonial India, 1920–1950

Summary/Abstract: While devastating famines are part of historical memory in South Asia, the issue and social history of food availability is one of the cleavages of politics in contemporary India. The paper addresses this dichotomy by discussing the modernity of late colonial India considering ideas and politics of nutrition and its relation to industrial labour. Literature on industrial labour and practices of a large industrial complex show that ideas emerging about the role of women in nation-building and of coolie labour limited food related welfare policies in the period after 1920. These limitations became part of governmentality in South Asia and this partially explains early 21st century cleavages of food politics. Moreover, the history of the reception of the science of nutrition indicates that modernity in India was specific and was not the story of adapting practices associated with the Global North.

• Details
• Contents