Clarified Commodities: Food Fights Between Politics and Economy in Interwar North India

Was it possible for provincial governments to even attempt to account for – much less regulate – food production? How could taste and desire be gauged in rational terms, and how could authenticity and fraudulence be measured? Finally, and most importunately: could food be governed? This lecture uses these questions to examine the unusual debates about clarified butter, its forgeries, and the context of interwar citizenship.