Prithiraj Borah

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will examine notions of ‘belongingness’ and ‘neighbourhood’ through an understanding of food habits of the ‘indigenous’ and ‘tribal’ communities from the northeast in Kalyan Nagar. Prithiraj Borah will be the Coordinator for this project. 

Prithiraj Borah is a researcher and scholar based in Vellore. He has a PhD in Sociology from IIT Bombay, where he has also been a postdoctoral fellow. He is the recipient of the Zubaan-Sasakawa Peace Foundation Grants for Young Researchers from the Northeast. His research interests include visual ethnography, ethnicity and race, post colonialism, political organisations and gender. His academic work is widely published. He currently teaches in the Department of Social Sciences and Languages at the Vellore Institute of Technology. Given his experience, he is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA. 

In the last decade, Bangalore has experienced a massive influx of students, skilled and unskilled labour, and other professionals from the northeast who have migrated to the city in search of better opportunities. Many of them have settled in groups in specific areas in Bangalore, Kalyan Nagar being an important one. Consequently, Kalyan Nagar has seen the mushrooming of ‘ethnic’ and ‘authentic’ northeastern restaurants and vegetable shops that have been set up specifically to cater to the needs of this community. These restaurants serve two functions – one, of serving food to the customers, and second, of providing space to people from the community to congregate. Food becomes an important reason for people from various communities across the northeast to come together and feel a sense of camaraderie and belonging, while they stay in Bangalore, far away from their homes. 

In this project, Prithiraj will examine identity formations and negotiations through the lens of food of the ‘indigenous’ and ‘tribal’ communities from the northeast in Kalyan Nagar. The project will attempt to unpack ideas such as a) identity formation and exclusion through food; b) negotiations around belongingness and identities through food habits, by ‘tribal’ communities from different ethnic groups; c) constructs of identity, caste, class, gender and race that are based on food; d) redefining of gender roles within the public space of these restaurants. The category of ‘ethnic’ and ‘authentic’ (which is how most northeastern restaurants in Kalyan Nagar define themselves) food culture will also be investigated. 

For this project, Prithiraj will employ methods like collaborative ethnography, interviews, observations, photographs and video narratives. He will also engage with the predicaments of being both an ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ in Kalyan Nagar. His own Assamese identity places him as an ‘insider’ within the larger northeast community; however, regional differences in food habits make him an ‘outsider’ as well. Through this project, he will question the fixed binaries of ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ while doing ethnographic research. 

The outcomes of this project will be a photo exhibition that will capture narratives around northeast food in Kalyan Nagar, and a short video documenting northeast food stalls in that neighbourhood. Within the term of the project, Prithiraj will possibly write a couple of op-ed photo articles as well. In the near future, he plans to publish a detailed research article and present this work in national and international conferences. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be photo and video documentation of the process and the final photo exhibition, a copy of the documentary video, and any writings / articles that might emerge from this project. 

This project suitably addresses the broad framework of IFA's Project 560 programme in the manner in which it interrogates ideas around migration, labour, identity and belongingness in the microcosm of a neighbourhood, thereby enabling a layered understanding of the city. 

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is made possible with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund and BNP Paribas India.