Food as an Element of Ideological State Apparatus in Indian Family: A Case of Hunger, Desire and Appetite

Abstract

Can a woman eat to satiate her hunger? It has a provisional answer where the affirmative response
relies on the quantity of food. While western feminist researchers see female body as the site of
exerting disciplinary control and liberating desire through the consumption of food, South Asian
families (focusing on this paper on Indian families) act as the ideological state apparatus to contain
the appetite of women. The female body is shaped by patriarchal exploitation where women bodies
are affected by the cultural practices. This essay shall focus on three short stories: “The Trellis” by
Bibhuti Bhusan Bandyopadhay, “The Rock” by Ismat Chugtai and “The Curse” by Pratibha Ray.
The three stories focus on female body wherein their food is regulated to discipline their physical
body thereby maintaining their desirability in the society. This essay aims to interrogate the politics
of hunger, desire and appetite mediated through food in Indian families wherein it is primarily the
female body which is subjected to control. It also looks into how female body is conditioned by
patriarchy to maintain its sexual desirability to perpetuate certain cultural practices.