Masculinity and Going for an Indian
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The British practice of "going for an Indian," particularly as described in the 1960s and 1970s, intertwined deeply with notions of masculinity and colonial nostalgia. "The newly emergent social ritual Taylor described was an overwhelmingly young, male, and working- or lower-middle-class phenomenon. “Going for an Indian,” he recounted, was “very much a boys’ thing, a boys’ night out” for the younger members of an increasingly affluent postwar society with money to spend on leisure and consumption," (Buettner, 153). This ritual was the act of dining at Indian restaurants for young men to assert their masculinity, often through competitive behaviour, such as daring each other to eat spicy dishes like a vindaloo or engaging in rowdy manners that demonstrated their "toughness". The setting of Indian restaurants facilitated a kind of playful yet problematic behaviour where displays of power were commonplace. Taylor narrates, that part of the ritual involved teasing the often "servile" waitstaff, who were dressed in formal attire reminiscent of colonial service uniforms. This dynamic mirrored the power relations of the British colonial past, where dominance over colonial subjects was the norm. In this sense, "going for an Indian" became an opportunity to play out a soft version of colonial nostalgia revelling in the perceived superiority over the restaurant staff, who were often immigrants or people of South Asian descent. The "boys' night out" was not just about food but about performing a kind of masculine solidarity in spaces associated with Britain's imperial history. The casual racism seen in the way young men took pleasure in mocking or belittling waitstaff, reflected the racial hierarchies of the colonial era, in a more socially accepted form.