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Indian Express
3 days ago
- Indian Express
Vijay Nagar assault: People from Northeast continue to bear the brunt of ‘culinary differences'
We grew up in an India that celebrated unity in cultural diversity. Besides different clothing and cultural practices, each region of India has its unique culinary flavours, cooking styles, spices, ingredients and tastes. However, this diversity often becomes a means of social exclusion. The recent incident from Vijay Nagar in Northwest Delhi — a shop called the 'North East Shop' was vandalised by a mob on suspicion of selling beef — illustrates how food often becomes a tool to assert and impose cultural hegemony. The shopkeeper was beaten up, but the police, instead of taking action against the violent mob, sent a sample of the meat for testing to determine whether it was beef. Northeast Indian people have been at the receiving end of such attacks for years. The Vijay Nagar case brings back memories of the racist killing of Nido Tania in 2014. Tania, a 20-year-old from Arunachal Pradesh, was murdered in an allegedly racist attack in Delhi's Lajpat Nagar area. His only crime was his 'difference'. The otherisation of Northeast Indians begins with physical features, but it extends to their cultural practices. It is very difficult for people from the Northeast region to find accommodation in metropolitan cities like New Delhi. One of the primary deterrents is the prevailing perception of their food culture. Their foods are marked as 'impure', 'dirty' and 'smelly'. Consequently, they are often forced to live in segregated localities. Spaces like Humayunpur and Vijay Nagar are relatively safer and allow them to express and practise their culture more freely. But attacks like the latest one have the potential to make even these spaces unsafe. Films like Axone (2019) depict how cooking specific dishes like axone (a fermented soybean product that has a strong smell) can cause trouble for Northeast tenants. In 2007, the Delhi Police brought out a booklet highlighting how migrant food habits could foment civic order issues. Fermented food, especially, was treated as a law-and-order issue. Even after being otherised for their food practices, they carry the burden of being assimilated — as if it is their responsibility to soothe mainstream society's cultural anxieties. Both casteism and racism work together to make them feel like aliens. Moreover, Northeastern foods — rarely considered 'Indian' — are categorised as 'tribal' or 'ethnic' and are ignored in public functions, social ceremonies, and ritualistic celebrations. They are also often missing from the menus of hostels and canteens of central universities. They are only available in spaces that are earmarked as 'Northeast Hostel', 'Northeast Dhaba', etc. Policymakers in recent years have tried to include Northeast people in the mainstream imagination. There has been an increasing focus on the region's history and culture, including the revision of syllabi. But can we really talk about inclusivity if we keep demeaning and attacking the region's food and cultural habits? Incidents like what happened in Vijay Nagar only reinforce the existing racism in India. They instil fear in the minds of people selling and buying food items that are seen as 'different'. It ruins any and all efforts to make India inclusive. The writer teaches Sociology at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati
Mint
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
The new wave of North-East Indian food in Andheri
In Mumbai's western suburb of Andheri, a Naga restaurant has been running with packed tables on weeknights. Not far, a small eatery is popular for its modest thalis from the North-East. A few kilometres away, a cloud kitchen specialising in Manipuri food has just opened. And, an expert home chef has been familiarising Mumbaikars with the indigenous foods of Assam. There has never been a better time for north-eastern food in Mumbai, and that too in the heart of Andheri West. Since the pandemic, a renewed spotlight on hyperlocal cuisines across the country has seen young entrepreneurs from India's eight sister states reclaiming their distinct eating cultures through delivery kitchens and budget-friendly 10-14 seaters in the area. It helps that the suburb's booming F&B scene, backed by expanding infrastructure and popularity as a hub for the film and TV industry, draw migrants from the region, primarily seeking opportunities in the restaurant, beauty and wellness industries, and often for that one big break in showbiz. 'Amid Mech, who landed in Mumbai from Baksa in Assam in 2007, wanted to become an actor, but as things would have it, he ended up working at restaurants and spas. In 2023, he started The Taste of Northeast India. 'Like most of us, I missed my home food. So I decided to open a restaurant serving dishes from my region," says Mech, who travelled across Nagaland, Assam and Meghalaya for research, and runs it along with his Naga wife Thunchen Beni in Versova. Also read: Once derided as 'stinky', Naga food now fuels entrepreneurship The menu is simple—chicken curries with bamboo shoot and bhut jolokia chillies, banana blossom and fermented fish chutneys, zero-oil dishes and Assamese masor tenga (fish curry)—and modestly priced at ₹400-500 for a meal for two. 'Earlier people were wary of the flavours, but today they ask me to cook axone (fermented soybean)." For Lin Laishram, the Manipuri model and actor from the 2019 Netflix film Axone, starting a cloud kitchen was a way to channel her love for the food she grew up eating. Born in Imphal, she launched Akhoi last month in Versova. Laishram moved to Mumbai in 2001 and after graduating from Sophia College, she relocated to Andheri for work, as most of 'the production houses and casting agencies were in Lokhandwala or Versova." The thalis ( ₹550-650) are best-sellers, and include ooti, a dried peas dish, eromba, a chutney traditionally made of ngari or fermented fish and mashed veggies, the classic singju, a spicy salad, and a delicious chakhao, or black rice kheer. Although most of the ingredients like wood ear mushrooms, herbs like culantro, and heiribob, a pomelo-like fruit, are sourced from back home, she is happy to find seasonal items at the local Four Bungalows market. In nearby Juhu, Singju opened in January with its selection of Assamese, Naga and Manipuri food. Co-founder Raktim Roy, who came to Mumbai from Guwahati in 2009 to work in film production, says, 'There was always a vacuum of not having access to home food." The menu has a few Nepali/Tibetan and Chinese dishes too because the latter 'is the go-to food for Mumbaikars, and we thought they might serve as an entry point to our cuisines." North-East migrants once thronged Kalina-Santa Cruz, where the University of Mumbai campus welcomed students from the region. Old-timers remember Thotrin cafe for its pork specialities, momos, snails and fermented items. Archaeologist and culinary historian Kurush Dalal, who taught on the campus from 2011-19, remembers the premises being open to students from the North-East for Sunday mass. 'A hearty pork curry with potatoes and sticky rice remains my favourite at Thotrin," he says. In 2023, when the F&B industry was slowly bouncing back from the pandemic, two friends decided to open a restaurant that would serve simple, home-style food from Nagaland. Former flight attendant Watirenla Longkumer and fashion consultant Zhuvikali Assumi are from Dimapur, and moved to Mumbai for work. They had started Naga Belly from their apartment in the Oshiwara locality during the lockdown. 'We didn't take it seriously because we were sceptical about how people would react because our food is cooked without oil and spices, and often has a funky flavour," says Longkumer. But when orders started coming in, they had to step up. Today, Naga Belly (mains ₹350-500) is known for its fiery smoked pork and bamboo shoot curries and axone chicken wings, and an excellent anishi pork, a speciality of the Ao tribe. 'We wanted a space on the main road, and not hidden in some gully," she adds. Andheri also works for business owners as rents are comparatively lower than the city's southern neighbourhoods, and Bandra. Gitika Saikia, who has championed the foods of her Assamese community for over a decade, says, 'Considering south Mumbai's vegetarian population, it is tricky to own non-vegetarian kitchens there, that too for cooking pork and buff." Saikia, who runs Gitika's Pakghor out of her apartment in Andheri West, initially got flak for serving red ant eggs and silkworms that she grew up eating for festivals like Bihu. 'I'd say the attitude has changed. People now understand there is a cuisine different from Chinese or Bengali," she adds. In a sea of restaurants serving regional cuisines and global flavours, food from the North-East is clearly having a moment here. While Laishram says, 'we deserve it", Saikia believes, 'there is a long way to go." Also read: Weekend food plan: Sunday brunches and gourmet food gifts for Mother's Day
