Sweet Excess
Crafting Mishti in Bengal
1st Edition
Published on 9. September 2025
Book
Hardback
242 pages
978-1-032-29186-4 (ISBN)
Description
This book is an ethnographic work on excess. Based on a decade-long field work of a single food substance - sweets - it follows sweet-making in sweetshops, domestic spaces, fairs, festivals and its representation in recipe books to understand how caste, religion, science and law inform the life of a food item with an extremely short shelf life. It shows how food items of conspicuous consumption find a meaning in everyday lives of people through its socio-cultural meanings - ritual, pride of craftsmanship, heritage and cultural identity. It also shows how sweets continue to be a ubiquitous part of 'Bengali' diet in a geography that has been witness to acute hunger, starvation, food movements and social welfare programmes to ensure food security.
As a multi-sited ethnography on sweetness in diverse settings and its associated meanings in West Bengal and Bangladesh, this book explores everyday workplace hierarchies between artisans that reveal how caste and religion inform the choice of who is hired into this line of work. It also highlights how discourses on food safety and the overpowering presence of World Trade Organization have affected the life of the Bengali mishti.
The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of ethnography, sociology, history, and South Asian studies. And if you, dear reader, love mishti, you will love this, too!
As a multi-sited ethnography on sweetness in diverse settings and its associated meanings in West Bengal and Bangladesh, this book explores everyday workplace hierarchies between artisans that reveal how caste and religion inform the choice of who is hired into this line of work. It also highlights how discourses on food safety and the overpowering presence of World Trade Organization have affected the life of the Bengali mishti.
The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of ethnography, sociology, history, and South Asian studies. And if you, dear reader, love mishti, you will love this, too!
Reviews / Votes
The most difficult thing to do in South Asia is to cross its virulently policed borders, made worse by state-based religious fundamentalisms. This book is a rare exception that manages to cross borders, and do it not for some grandiose nationalist project, but to reveal the quotidian aspects of connected histories. As a result, Dey tells us an intimate and rarely told story about the making and consuming of sweets, the harbinger of good and bad news, unsurprisingly called sandesh, sometimes.Professor Krishnendu Ray, Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, New York University
Dey investigates the central role of sweets in Bengali culture on both sides of the political border. As she does so, she opens up new horizons into the study of foodways, using mishti (Bengali confectionary) as a compass to explore the human need for sustenance that transcends mere physical requirements. The volume is an invaluable contribution to the literature on the intersection of food, culture and society from an author with deep and expansive knowledge of her subject.
Michael Krondl, food writer, culinary historian, cooking teacher and artist.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate
Illustrations
40 s/w Abbildungen, 36 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder, 4 s/w Zeichnungen, 10 s/w Tabellen
10 Tables, black and white; 4 Line drawings, black and white; 36 Halftones, black and white; 40 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
573 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-29186-4 (9781032291864)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
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E-Book
09/2025
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download
E-Book
09/2025
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download
Person
Ishita Dey is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, South Asian University, Delhi. Her research interests are food, labour, and senses. She has co-anchored an art research project on Smells of the city with a focus on Delhi supported by Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi and collaborated on an art installation Dawakhana as part of Seema Kohli's solo show Khula Aasman.
She is an editorial board member of the journal Society and Culture in South Asia (Sage), Gastronomica (University of California Press) and has published her work on food in edited volumes, Oxford Compendium to Sugar and Sweets and journals such as Contributions to Indian Sociology, South Atlantic Quarterly, The Sense and Society and Gastronomica. She has coedited a book Sustainability of Rights After Globalisation (Sage, 2011) and co-authored a book Beyond Kolkata : The Dystopia of Urban Imagination (Routledge, 2013).
She is an editorial board member of the journal Society and Culture in South Asia (Sage), Gastronomica (University of California Press) and has published her work on food in edited volumes, Oxford Compendium to Sugar and Sweets and journals such as Contributions to Indian Sociology, South Atlantic Quarterly, The Sense and Society and Gastronomica. She has coedited a book Sustainability of Rights After Globalisation (Sage, 2011) and co-authored a book Beyond Kolkata : The Dystopia of Urban Imagination (Routledge, 2013).
Content
1. Sweetness as Excess 2. Following Sweetness 3. Mapping Sweetness 4. Making Sweets 5. Navigating work 6. Regulating Sweets 7. Authorship 8. Value and Excess