Introduction

Motherhood has biological and symbolical significance in different world cultures (Macquillan et. al. 2008). Mothers in the South Asian context in general and in the Indian context particularly are perceived as unconditional caregivers an epitome of divineness. This Weberian otherworldliness of the mothers here is also attached with the job role of multiple goddesses that inhabit the religious mind space of Hindusim. The multiple Hindu ‘devis’ are often seen as mothers and vice versa.

Middle-class households have invested a lot emotionally into this concept of divine-motherhood, making it a role laden with numerous dichotomies and moral judgments associated with the ‘performatory’ part of being the ‘Indian mother’. Popular culture (especially Indian cinema), tabloids, advertisements, and visual graphics tutor the females on how to be a perfect Indian mother. The public imagination is vastly dominated by the image of a mother serving food to her children.

The ability of this image to evoke sentiments of huge numbers is indeed a special superpower that has been well explored and put to work by two of the most dynamic and charismatic personalities of Indian politics – Mamata Banerjee and late Jayaram Jayalalitha. Just like motherhood, food has also been a social commodity with many sentiments. A meal cooked by an Indian mother is supposedly safe, healthy, nutritional and laden with emotions. The category of homemade food or ‘saada khana’ is important for sociological analysis because it is charged with symbolism.

Hence, the moment politicians like Jayalalitha and Mamata Banerjee initiate a public good distribution system in the name of ‘mother’. This essay strives to delve deep into this popular sentimentality around food and motherhood and analyses how politics cherry-picks the soft power of food and motherhood and forges them into one sociologically hit winning formula. The idea that public perception of both food and motherhood are actively constructed through various semiotic layers woven into everyday phenomenology is inspired by the constructivist methodological approach.

Food and politics

“Maa Kitchen” targets the category of urban poor in Kolkata primarily with an increasing coverage area spreading to distant other districts. The initial success of it during election days has made the government ambitious in its outreach and hence, there have been talks of outsourcing and implementation of the same in 50 other states.

The subsidized meal consists of rice, daal (lentil soup), mixed vegetable and egg curry. The canteen is hosted under the flagship program — Maa Scheme of Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The meal during the time of lunch is usually served from 1 to 3 pm on all weekdays. The modus operandi of such a large scale is usually supported by various members and volunteers of SHGs. The kiosks are not permanent structures, rather a make-shift arrangement with long queues in front of them. The food served is neither too spicy nor too stale, just like ‘barir khabar’ (home-cooked food).

The idea is to render a sense of homeliness to the working urban poor and all, by the Chief Minister of the state herself. Just like an ideal Indian mother. The foodscape of Kolkata is already dotted with myriad cheap food restaurants popularly in the name of ‘Hindu Hotels’ and various other subsidized canteens. However, ‘Maa kitchen’ resonates differently owing majorly to the idea of motherhood associated with it. The feel of homemade food resonates with the symbol of an Indian family. Therefore, ‘Maa kitchen’ sells a slice of Indian family full of satisfaction, nostalgia and safety. The minimum price and a peculiar taste of ‘Sada khana’ also keeps the cunningness associated with market capitalism at bay, making the ‘aam jaunta’ more at ease.

Similarly in Tamil Nadu, Amma Unavagms have been a successful anti-poverty initiative. Amma canteen and cafeterias started in 2013, offer low cost hygienic and tasty food. The platter primarily consists of idli, sambhar-rice, tomato rice, curd rice, roti, chutney, pickles etc. In Chennai, after witnessing the large demand for amma canteens, other food restaurants have often slashed their prices (Rajendran 2013). Electoral politics demand the announcement and implementation of such populist measures to garner more and more vote share. The Anna Unavagms scheme gave much-desired vote share, popularity and power to the then Jayalalitha government. The scheme was so popular that the rival party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam didn’t change its name after coming to power and instead unleashed plans of growing it in bigger folds. At present, about 400 canteens are running under the scheme. The mammoth reach of the scheme can be gauged by the fact that these canteens prepare about 4.5 million idlis and 1.2 million plates of pongal for breakfast, 2.5 million plates of sambar rice and 1.1 million plates of curd rice for lunch daily.[i]

Food has always been an interesting social fact when it comes to the Indian social fabric be it politics, family, marriage or any other social institution. The idea of home-cooked meals plays an important role in the production and negotiation of feelings of safety, security and protection amongst the public imagination. Hence, it remains a powerful political tool.    

The socio-political construction of motherhood

Judith Butler (2010) hails that gender is a tool of performance. While we perform our roles, we construct our identities through them. Motherhood is one such performance – a performance that has been heavily marketed and consumed by various stakeholders of state and political economy. Performing, constructing and preaching the idea of political personas as the ideal mother is an example of agency and performance. In fact, it negates the narrative that the idea of ‘being a mother’ is contracting and constraining in nature.

Charismatic leadership picks up the agencies already present in the body social and uses it to allure more people. Mamata Banerjee and Jayaram Jayalalitha both used the emotionally and sociologically powerful cocktail of food and motherhood to empower their political presence in the male-dominated scenario of Indian politics. B.M. Bass (1985) argued that charisma comes from a combination of emotional expressiveness, self-confidence, and self-determination and when thrown into this mix of sophisticated PR driven political campaigns, it becomes an invincible agency.     

Conclusion

The political campaign around the public distribution of food to eradicate poverty by using motherhood as a performatory agency has been an interesting social experiment. The mainstream love for the idea of a mother offering food has proved to be a more potent influencing factor than the commercial practices of the market economy. Motherhood isn’t always a debate about losing agency when it comes to South Asian society and often it can be used as a powerful secret ingredient to wield greater power on society (Martin, 1990).  The yearning for a mother’s affection and thus, a safety valve never ceases to diminish, a lot like the one ooze from John Lennon’s song ‘mother’.   

References

1. Rajendran, S. (2013).  Amma Unavagams of Tamil Nadu: Panacea for Urban Food Insecurity? Economic and Political Weekly. 48(50).
2. Butler, J. (2010). Performative agency. Journal of cultural economy, 3(2), 147-161.
3. Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership: Good, better, best. Organizational Dynamics, 13(3), 26-40.
4. Martin, J. (1990). Motherhood and power: The production of a women’s culture of politics in a Mexican community. American Ethnologist, 17(3), 470-490.
5. McQuillan, J., Greil, A. L., Shreffler, K. M., & Tichenor, V. (2008). The importance of motherhood among women in the contemporary United States. Gender & Society, 22(4), 477-496.

[i] https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/governance/how-tamil-nadu-s-amma-canteen-scheme-stood-the-test-of-time-77776, accessed on 13^th September 2021.

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Sritama Chaudhuri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology in Asutosh College Kolkata, under Calcutta University and is pursuing her PhD on food, technology and identity formation at Calcutta University. She also runs the social content blog/website, Cosmopolitan Pilgrim (www.cosmopolitanpilgrim.com).