How does this course relate to the programme curriculum: Does it develop on a prior course in the programme or is it a foundational or standalone course?

While taking some of previous elective courses on food as a reference point at NLSIU, Bangalore, (such as – ‘Capital and Food: Making of Culture and Politics’ (CCF215), ‘Foodways: Understanding Food Stories, Practice and Politics’ (CFU215)), this proposed course aims to extend the scope of food studies to address the larger question of – ‘What does food and its societal practices tell us about democracy?’

In recent times, from increasing intolerance towards diverse food habits to the framers’ protests in India, intervention of technology in food provisioning to questions related to food security and sustainability of the human and more-than-human world, food today has become a legit aspect of democracy. To highlight this integral relationship between food and democracy, the concept of ‘food democracy’ was introduced by Tim Lang in the 1990s. Furthermore, Hassanein (2008) has argued that most contemporary struggles over the future of the agricultural and food systems, such as debates over genetic engineering or labelling foods as to their country of origin are fundamentally about democracy. However, the study of food is usually deemed as a domain of anthropologists/sociologists and democracy as a distant concept related to ‘macro’ issues to be addressed by political scientists and policy makers. This course aims to advance an interdisciplinary approach by bridging this gap and bringing together scholars who otherwise might not be in conversation. This would not only transcend the mechanical relationship between the state, society and people but rather aid in developing a consciousness among people to act against ‘othering’ as well as sectarianism. Hence, the

proposed course calls attention for an interdisciplinary approach to understand these interlinkages and which would reveal societal inequalities, power disparities and economic imbalances that shape democratic discourses and vice-versa. With democracies around the world going through major changes in contemporary times, the study of the nuances related to lived experiences around food would initiate new conversations around food, democracy and society