Some time ago when filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri wrote a presumptuous tweet proposing the idea of a vegetarian ‘wazwan’ — the traditional Kashmiri meat-based meal — social media erupted in spontaneous protests. What an oxymoron, people said. The Twitter tempest petered out in a day, but the idea that prompted the tweet is an old and enduring one, and deeply rooted in the country’s food politics.
The perception that the cuisine of Muslim Kashmiris — the ultimate embodiment of “the other” — is a meaty monolith has been shaped primarily by cultural conditioning on both sides of the socio-religious-culinary border. This is not to imply that Kashmiri food is predominantly vegetarian or that wazwan is but the figment of a carnivore’s imagination. The culinary grandeur of wazwan must indeed be experienced to be believed, but this multi-course meal isn’t all there is to the Valley’s culinary heritage.
