Sunday, December 4, 2011

English Curry Connoisseurs

A good friend and I are planning a study abroad trip in England next year. He's lived there before and has prepared me for all that I should come to expect from English culture. A few things he said I found interesting. Including the prevalence of Indian immigrants, and "I hope you like curry." How does this relate to Spivak's "subaltern", especially in terms of colonized India?

It seems a strange paradox that now, because of England's colonial tenure and cultural influence in India, Indians are finding it desirable and easy to immigrate and adapt into English culture. Why would they come to England? Well, I have never been to either place, but I can only assume it deals with the extreme English presence in Indian culture. Though England, through colonial subjugation, created the Indian "Other", it would now seem that those "Others" are somehow returning the favor.

By immigrating to England, these children of a colonized India are certainly having a reciprocal effect on English culture. I find this paradox very interesting, that England's influence on India is now causing Indian influence on England. And although I don't think the Indian immigrants are creating an English "Other" (in no way is their immigration a part of colonization), would it be safe to say they're limiting, even in the smallest sense, English peoples and culture, by taking over their jobs?

Maybe it's just the upper-class Indians that are immigrating, and, if so, maybe their is no subaltern presence coming full circle. But if it is assumed that one in England must have a taste for Indian curry, if my friend feels swayed enough to make a point of this when speaking of English culture, then I think it's easy to see India's influence and limitation of their previous colonizer's culture/voice, at least of the English culinary voice.

Though I think I'll be alright; I love me some curry.

2 comments:

  1. I suppose that this is what would be an example of a subaltern group obtaining voice and influence and becoming a non-subaltern group. It somewhat speaks to that fact that even while the subaltern group is oppressed and has no influence or power, it still has a very real connection with the entire society and culture. The fact that India now has an influence on the food served in England is really interesting. Once the subalternity was done away with, the cultures meshed in some ways, and even traveled great distances to extend its influence. Its definitely a success story and goes to show that subaltern is not a permanent state, at least some of the time. Just like everything else we talk about in this class, nothing ever really has a definitive answer.

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  2. I'm not sure that the Indian people really have a voice here, but I could be totally off base. Back home (chicagoland) there is a large Latin American population. From my friends that are 1st or even 2nd generation immigrants, they ususally tell me that even the most "authentic" Latin American restaurants have American influences on them and change how these dishes are made. This reminds me of Cooper, who's main problem is that the people doing the representation were people who may not have actually had enough knowledge of the culture to accurately represent that culture.

    I don't know how I would explain Indian Nationals making curry in England, and I admit I am totally ignorant as to how those businesses are organized, but if it's anything like the Latin American restuarants from home, then there must be people involved in the preparation of these dishes who cannot possibly accurately recreate these dishes because they have major aspects of American culture in their persona.

    It reminds me also of the first film we watched Good Copy, Bad Copy because once we bring a text(in this case food) from another culture and remake it ourselves, is it still Indian/Latin or is English/American? I feel like this is an extent of colonization where the metropole brings raw materials from the colonized nation, and recreates it for the metropolitain consumer. There might not even be anything necessarily wrong with this except that to call this "Authetic Indian Curry" would be just false. It's English Curry.

    I hope that makes some sense by the end of it I start to feel like it doesn't. Feel Free to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about

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