Culinary Orientalism: Media, Food Stigma, and the Construction of Naga Identity in Contemporary India

Abstract

Food is a critical marker of cultural identity, yet it also operates as a site where power, hierarchy, and exclusion are negotiated. This paper examines how representations of Naga cuisine within Indian media and public discourse produce forms of internal Orientalism, positioning the community as culturally “other” within the nation. Drawing on qualitative interviews (n = 40), media discourse analysis, and theoretical insights from Said, Hall, and Bourdieu, the study develops the concept of culinary Orientalism to explain how food becomes a medium of symbolic domination. Through three case studies-the Axone controversy, the 2020 dog meat ban, and COVID-19 related misinformation the paper demonstrates how stigma is constructed, internalized, and resisted. The findings reveal that food-based stigma operates through sensory hierarchies, mediated representations, and everyday interactions, while digital platforms enable counter-narratives and cultural assertion. The paper contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship on food, identity, and power by theorizing food as a key site of intra-national othering in contemporary India.