Flavours Across the Borders: The 1947 Partition and the Reconstruction of the Bengali Foodscape

The Partition of 1947 was a catastrophic moment of change when the people of British India gained independence and faced bifurcation into two nations: India and Pakistan. The event marked crucial changes in political, social and cultural spheres which displaced people across national borders rendering them homeless.

The rehabilitation and resettlement processes brought about substantial changes in the food cultures on both sides of the border, for instance, introducing fresh techniques, and transforming the raw markets with new ingredients. Displaced people grappled with changing materialities while meandering through loss and resorting to remnants of displacement. The multisensory aspect of food transcends borders through taste and smell. Memories of the home left behind are revisited through the recreation of the foodscape through the practices of cooking and eating. The food practices not only helped the migrants reclaim their identity and reconnect with their roots through everyday practices, it also assimilated into the culture of the migrated land and proved to be resilient.

This paper aims towards cultural reconstruction of the foodscape, focusing on the Indo-Bangladesh border, in the aftermath of the 1947 Partition for people who lost homelands but remembered the flavours. Through the use of literary sources, archival documents, memoirs and oral historical accounts I aim to put together the exchanges in food culture through an epochal moment in the history of South Asia, which also marked the beginning of postcolonial nation-making.