SOCIAL RESTRUCTURATION, GASTRONOMIC TRANSITION

AND SOCIAL MOBILITY

A CASE OF UDUPI RESTAURATEURS

- Ganesha Somayaji, Goa University

WHO WERE UDUPI RESTAURATEURS?

Originally keepers of vegetarian restaurants from the erstwhile Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka State

Pioneer Keepers/Proprietors were from various Brahmana sub-jatis.

Public eating houses selling food are referred to in Kannada as hotels.

Hence, Udupi Restaurants were also popular as Udupi Hotels

WHO WERE UDUPI RESTAURATEURS?

Initially they were invariably Brahmins due to jati ranking and rules of food acceptance – In karnataka, Hotel names categorically mentioned ‘Udupi Brahmanara Phalahara Mandira’

Brahmin is the one from whom any body can accept cooked food.

Their enterprise in food is novel and the result of gastronomic transition and migration

Out-migration from the erstwhile Dakahina Kannada District started and continued due to various reasons since the dawn of 20th century

WHO ARE UDUPI RESTAURATEURS?

Now there is jati diversification among proprietors The Udupi food chain has almost become a

sought after place by the vegetarian tourists and has not only spread in the length and breadth of India but also extended abroad.

The Udupi restaurant food chain is very diversified due to transformations of many kinds

Given the magnitude of the Udupi food chain this presentation is a case study of a micro-region in the Udupi district of Karnataka.

BROAD SCHEME OF PRESENTATION

Udupi restaurateurs and my sociological interest in them

The Context: The Great Universe of Kota, Feasts and Public feedings, and Udupi Restaurants

Gastronomic transition: Anna Dana and Anna Vikraya

Food chain, Mobility, and Community wellbeing Consuming Modernity, Second gastronomic

transition, and Community pressure Re-orientation to Tradition and reasserting

community identity