From Hearth to Spectacle
The Commodification of Wazwan and the Crisis of Food Culture in Kashmir
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70042/eroth/1001231Keywords:
Kashmir, Culinary Spectacle, Waxwan, Culture, Commodification, Taste, Food, ConsumptionAbstract
This paper aims to shed light on how a significant social and cultural shift has occurred with the advent of fast food restaurants in Kashmir. As a result, people are eating less in the familiar and safe environment of their own homes and more in the public arena of gastronomic spectacles. The culinary traditions of Kashmir have largely revolved around home kitchens, with the bigger community gatherings known as wazwan (a Kashmiri feast) or niyaz (offering) reserved for more inclusive occasions. Wazwan and other restaurant meals have become ubiquitous and commercialised, making dining a social performance, a type of recreational tastemaking, and a form of performative consumption. By looking at the spoilt meat scandal of 2025 in Kashmir via a critical lens, this analysis presents this change as a sign of cultural alienation and fetishisation rather than just a public health issue. The article utilises ideas of spectacle, differentiation, and food security to analyse how the modernity of taste has altered class identities, dismantled traditional foodways, and introduced new health hazards in a political context that suppresses and neglects alternative, more complex narratives.
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