Food: Cool or Uncool? (The trajectory of Maggi)

Culture is ubiquitous, and penetrates everything. One would think that a realm like food would be untouched by cultural biases and hegemonies. One would be incorrect in this presumption. In the youth culture of today, certain food items are essentially deemed "cool" and "uncool", of high culture or of low culture. This forms a hierarchical structure that is not vertical but rather horizontal. Let me explain. The bhakri (jowar bread) as a food item can be perceived as uncool by a certain aspirational neo-liberal youth born in the world where KFC is cool. This, however, goes backwards when we go further in this circular hierarchy where a more privileged, the higher cultural elite will perceive KFC as uncool and re-brand the bhakri as a "jowar delight" and "an integral part of a balanced diet."

Looking at this from another example, we go from collecting milk from the cow for consumption to bagging this milk for mass distribution to franchising and collectivizing the milk, to bottling it in the "pride of cow" initiative (individually delivered and vaguely reminiscent of the milk-man), to ape the western symbol of progress, to maybe having a vegan revelation where we start educating others on how the milk industry is evil and proposing alternatives like “almond-milk” and “soy-milk”.

The cream of the cream of society (pun intended), will however say that drinking milk directly from the cow's nipples is its most nourishing. They are not wrong or right here. That is beyond the point. We will try and map the seemingly ludicrous and counter-productive journey it took to complete this loop.  We can take many more narratives to map the complexity of food and its relation to culture. Maybe, a 17-year-old convent educated girl who finds malai on her coffee repulsive but will gladly enjoy a cream cheese pizza. How about the 25-year-old rich man who prides himself on enjoying street-side pani-puri and a meal at a five-star hotel equally. Now he is whom we can call a cultural omnivore, someone who has access to all the different food spaces in lieu of his privilege and thus can make a supposedly unbiased observation, one irrelevant of class and cultural positionality.  This is reminiscent of cultural relativism, which will look at the hierarchy of food and say that all items can be equally valid to them for consumption, while not challenging the framework that makes them that way. It is like a Brahmin cis-gendered, heterosexual man saying that he is caste-less and sees a gender blind society. It is easy for him to say because he is not unprivileged on any of those axes and cannot "see" the very obvious discrimination happening all around him. (hence, blind)

This phenomenon can also extend to the omnipresent Islamophobia in Hindu middle-class houses. They pride themselves on enjoying the food on Eid and being very global and egalitarian. That being said, they would never even dream of getting a Muslim home as their partner. It is interesting to observe what gains validity and in what context. This can help us dismantle the frame that food is nutrients and minerals. It is also a huge part of subjectively experiencing the world. Let us thus look at all food along with its story and various narratives. 

There are some foods in the Indian context that are very close to having an equanimous consumption. In this context, it is interesting to map the journey of Nestle's "Maggi", which started off as being an alien but exciting and affordable "import from the west", from being a valid food to eat all across, to being banned for lead and reintroduced without changing anything but its legendary price that had been Rs 10. Nestle believes in “Think Global, Act Local” which explains a huge chunk of the trajectory of Maggi and its actions are taken over the years.

Maggi noodles become the familiar friend, Maggi. It was suddenly an entity, something that had a place in the collective consciousness of the country. It did not have a separate icon or image but it was an entity nevertheless. There was also a link made between “Mummy and Maggi”. We could analyze this in an effort at creating a psychological link between comfort &home and Maggi. It also works to its advantage that it is alliteration and visually pleasing. Nestle sold something familiar with a garb of advancement. It was all sensational, different and familiar.  

After its 2015 ban, more than 37,000 tones of Maggi were destroyed by Nestle.

Many Indians, including me, felt a deep level of hurt seeing their beloved Maggi being treated with such horrible indignity. On top of that, it lost 80% of its market share. It was said to be horrible for health and contains dangerous reserves of lead.

Then it is surprising how within the same duration of a year, Maggi comes back stronger than ever and insists it was always safe without blaming the decision making power that put it completely out of sorts. This is not mother-like behaviour at all. It is a very ominous kind of atmosphere but Maggi stays ever safe within. What we need to analyse is how Indians have really started having an emotional connection with this Maggi. “Meri Maggi” is the dominant narrative. The year 2016: Nestle India relaunched Maggi in the market and came up with the tagline “Hamari Maggi safe hai”. The next tagline was “2 minutes for education”. This can be seen as Maggi reclaiming its big brother status. A kind and understanding big brother with many secrets that you do not need to know.