• What role did food play 1) for the New York Indians in their dietary and culinary lives, and 2) for the relations between Indians and other people in New York, especially white folks?
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Food played an important role in establishing a community for New York Indians who were able to enjoy a diet they appreciated. For example, they could eat hot dogs because “they always knew it was safe to eat from other Indians’ wagons,” as they never contained pork. This feeling of trust through food and similar diets translated into safety on the streets, where children like Felita felt secure knowing “her brother-in-law Saad’s friends would keep a watchful eye on her” (referring to the hot dog vendors). Today, many young girls are still fearful of walking the streets alone; therefore, having a community present is an invaluable feeling, knowing there are people to protect them.
Additionally, restaurants provided a space to “eat familiar food, converse in Bengali or Punjabi, and discuss the events that were unfolding on the subcontinent in the turbulent years that followed Indian independence and the partition of India and East and West Pakistan.” This kept them connected to home and served as “important communal spaces”. As a result of these restaurants, not only were businesses able to start, but people also gained a sense of home in a country so different and far away from India.
These restaurants may have been a sanctuary for immigrant families who, without the food they were familiar with and the people they could talk to in their mother tongue, would otherwise feel isolated and different from everyone else around them. For example, “since these were some of the first halal restaurants in Harlem, they also became spaces where South Asian and African American Muslims met and interacted.” Food therefore helped maintain religious teachings by providing Muslims with a space to gather while eating food that is permitted in their religion, where they know they will not be judged or questioned. Similarly today, in communities with shared backgrounds and religions, food serves as a way to unite people and bring them the joy of home.
This may be why having “large numbers of non-Indian customers, starting around the beginning of 1921, [was] an event that created friction with the Indian seamen and students who had previously been able to sit at Kira’s tables for hours at a stretch eating, drinking, and discussing the political situation in India.” This change impeded their sense of community and the luxury of being able to converse peacefully in a space they felt familiar and comfortable in, especially as it made way for white customers who perhaps brought in more income. This shift could be seen as a move toward Western values of individualism and profit-driven prospects, as opposed to the collectivist mindset that had been preserved through the restaurants and the food and space they provided.