Food and Love: Navigating Intimacy, Cultural Practices and Social Hierarchies

In India, food is a significant marker of social distinction and hierarchy, tightly governed by caste, as it serves as an important site for intimacy. The regulation of intimacy, central to the endogamous caste structure, enforces strict rules around bodily contact - both direct ( through touch) and indirect ( through food). This policing dictates who one can physically touch and with whom one can dine. Inter-caste intimacies, by crossing these boundaries of bodily contact, challenge the caste order. In this paper, I explore such inter-caste intimacies, particularly between Dalits and members of the other castes, to examine the relationship between food and love. Using ethnographic data, I delve into how young couples from different caste backgrounds, specifically in rural South India, decipher food and navigate their different food tastes and cultural practices. The paper also looks at how non-Dalit partners perceive the caste-based division of food, which relegates and stigmatises Dalit food as 'polluted' and how these relationships challenge the hierarchy of caste through their intimate bonds. In doing so, the paper highlights emerging possibilities for inclusivity, both in the private and social spheres.