Culinary Cartographies: A Postcolonial Analysis of Indigenous Foodways in Arunachal Pradesh

This paper explores how indigenous cuisine functions as a vital cultural marker and a site of postcolonial resistance in Arunachal Pradesh, a region rich in ethnic diversity and culinary traditions.Framed within the lens of postcolonial theory, it investigates the symbolic, performative, and epistemic functions of food among tribal communities such as the Nyishi, Apatani, Adi, and Monpa.Indigenous food practices in Arunachal Pradesh are not merely matters of sustenance; they are deeply embedded in rituals, ecological consciousness, kinship structures, and identity formations.Through oral histories, ethnographic records, and literary representations, this study reveals how colonial disruptions and contemporary globalisation have threatened traditional foodways while also prompting cultural resilience.Drawing on theorists such as Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, the paper argues that food becomes a powerful medium through which marginalised voices assert autonomy, memory, and heritage.By examining fermented bamboo shoots, smoked meats, millet brews, and foraged herbs, the study situates cuisine as an archive of indigenous knowledge and as a living testimony to cultural continuity in the face of epistemic violence.Ultimately, this research affirms the role of food in reclaiming agency and decolonising identity within the Northeast Indian context.