Beyond the Menu: Corporate Influence and Informal Economies in Post-Liberalization Indian Culinary Fiction

This paper explores the role of culinary spaces in post-liberalization Indian fiction, examining the tension between informal food economies (such as street food) and corporate food culture (global franchises and luxury dining). Through novels like Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, this study investigates how food serves as a lens to critique globalization, corporate power, and class stratification in contemporary India. The research adopts a comparative textual analysis methodology, focusing on how these works use food as a symbol of economic survival, cultural identity, and social mobility. The paper also integrates socioeconomic theory to understand the interplay between informal and formal economies, drawing from literature on informality and global capitalism. The analysis reveals that street food represents local resilience and informal survival, functioning as a resistant force to the rise of corporate food chains, which symbolize the commodification of culture and economic inequality. The research highlights the emotional labor of characters involved in corporate food spaces, showing how the rise of global capitalism alienates and marginalizes traditional food systems. Ultimately, the paper argues that post-liberalization Indian fiction uses culinary spaces to underscore the human cost of globalization, particularly in how food practices reflect broader societal changes and the erosion of cultural identity. In conclusion, the study offers critical insights into the challenges and opportunities that India’s evolving food industry presents to its diverse social fabric.