Food Love and Resistance: Exploring Gastronomic Narratives in Sekhar Mukherjee's 'The Magical Kitchen of Maria Alfonso Caramelo Lobo'.

<p> </p> <p>Sekhar Mukherjee’s <em>The Magical Kitchen of Maria Alfonso Caramelo Lobo</em> uses magic realism to craft a compelling socio-political critique, positioning gastronomy as a powerful medium of resistance and cultural solidarity. This paper will argue that Mukherjee’s narrative leverages food as a battleground to confront sectarian ideologies like gastro-nationalism — where food is politicised to enforce exclusionary identities — and to challenge corporate exploitation of culinary traditions, and propaganda such as “love jihad.”</p> <p><br></p> <p>The narrative centres on Auntie Maria, a “Freedom/Humanist Chef,” whose culinary journey from Goa to Ahmedabad symbolises defiance against moral policing and corporate control over food. Maria’s romance with Tanvir, a lower-class Muslim boy, challenges the divisive construct of “love jihad,” revealing how it weaponises fear to fracture India’s pluralistic fabric. Her confrontation with regressive food mafias—clad in cutlery armour—becomes an act of culinary resistance, where food transforms into a weapon against oppression and corporate homogenisation.</p> <p><br></p> <p>This paper presentation will focus on two critical arguments: first, how Mukherjee critiques the commodification of culinary traditions as a tool of cultural nationalism and religious discrimination; second, how love and gastronomy serve as counterforces to “love jihad.” Lastly, it will discuss how this work reimagines food as a revolutionary localised medium for secularism, justice, and collective resistance to authoritarian homogenisation.</p>