ABSTRACT

Walking through the common corridors of Cotton Chawl, passing by the array of open doors standing at
short intervals, one has never escaped the lingering aromas that invisibly slither out from the kitchens.
Thumping, scrunching, scraping, buzzing, cracking, a clank here and a crackle there, sound accompanies
smell and both together invites the passerby to step into the compact kitchen; A space that becomes
dynamic with performances – the performance of cooking, eating, washing, disposal of waste and
storage – performances that used props and objects that changed over time which in turn influenced
the way the kitchens functioned. Performed seated or standing, the alchemy of flavours etched in the
minds of the residents, the treasured memories of their past and living stories of their cultures.

The Jain kitchens of Cotton Chawl, have seen a trajectory of additions, subtractions, replacements and
modifications through eight decades of its existence in the historic walled city of Ahmedabad. The
following chapter investigates the objects that were used through time, the infrastructural changes
along with their impetus, understands the practices that took place in the kitchen, those that continued
or changed and studies the patterns of familial and social implications of individual kitchens of the
chawl. The chapter further attempts to theoretically determine if the kitchens were one of the spaces in
Cotton Chawl, where modernity was influential in copious spatial transformation which either
safeguarded pre-existing beliefs or triggered taboos around the practices that revolved around food.
MILIEU, MODERNITY, METAMORPHOSIS: STORIES OF COTTON CHAWL
THROUGH ITS KITCHENS
Eight decades on, the kitchens of Cotton Chawl have seen a variegated trajectory of changes in objects
and the shifts in practices which were integrated with or even shaped the everyday lives of the families
that reside in the chawl. From the chulha to the ‘Primus’ stove, further until the gas stove, the passive
cooling storage cupboards (Pinjara cupboards) to modern day refrigerators, from the chakki to the mixer
grinder, from open storage shelves to concealed storage cupboards, to the addition of the kitchen sink,
the accommodation of the private bathrooms, the kitchens of Cotton Chawl, have constantly molded,
re-molded and given birth to modified beliefs and practices around the activities of cooking, eating,
washing, storage and food waste management. The kitchens have also played an integral role in the
lives of the women of the chawl, who were the main users of the space, as it was believed to be their
responsibility to look after the Jain dietary norms of their families. Being a space that changes through
the day, dependent on the nuanced inter-related activities that happen within, a space that was
considered sacrosanct and shaped the ethos of the home, a space that established social connections
with the neighbours and becomes an important node in the larger network of the neighbourhood’s
socio-economic environment, the kitchen becomes an important element to trace the history of the
Cotton Chawl.

The Cotton Chawl was constructed in the year 1934, one year after the Ahmedabad Mill Owners
Association undertook to build 1000 tenements to support the growing number of mill workers and
their families. The chawl comprises of three types of housing units, a single room (15 nos. - 3m x 3m)
with no formal kitchen provided in the original layout; and two kinds of two room (72 nos.) typologies
that consists of a larger living/bedroom area (3.6m x 4.5m) and a separate smaller kitchen/ ancillary
area (3.6m x 3m) – (i) the main entrance of the house opening into the kitchen, through which one has
to pass to access the living/bedroom area, (ii) the main entrance of the houses opening into the
living/bedroom area, through which one has to pass to access the kitchen. A tenement solely dedicated
to the Jain community, the Cotton Chawl, provided shelter for the young white collared Jain employees
of the textile mills and their families, who came in from diverse neighbouring villages or towns that
surrounded Ahmedabad. Families that were fragmented from their precursor joint family
establishments, now required to occupy smaller houses in their new urban environment, create a
familiar environment by bringing in personal belongings, extend connections with the heterogeneous
community that accompanied them in the chawl and make careful economic choices that would help
the family sustain in the neighbourhood of Panajara Pol. The new families of Cotton Chawl created their
own culture, their own community and their own networks.

Today if one enters the kitchens of Cotton Chawl, unusual compact spaces as compared to those of the
popular Pol Houses or even the kitchens of the resident’s ancestral or family rural houses, one notices
the plethora of objects, appliances and utensils that are crammed up within the space. Surrounded by
wall mounted shelves, neatly stacked storage, utensil racks, heaps of utensils, recently built internal wall
partitions, electronic appliances, the conspicuous clutter of daily use containers, mostly closed windows
(complaints regarding the perpetual stench of the garbage thrown into the adjoining gallery), one being
a newcomer shall find it difficult to even move around unhindered, however they will not fail to notice
that there is a meticulous order hidden within the chaos. The order is predominantly driven by activities
and objects that revolve around cooking, which further determine the positioning and hierarchies of
other related objects, the patterns of movement of the body within the kitchen and the space
transformation that occur through the day.

In order to understand the roles played by objects that are used every day in the kitchens and how they
become significant parameters in tracing the history of the kitchens as well as the relationships
established with the people and the chawl, the essay refers to David Arnold’s book ‘Everyday
Technology – Machines and the Making of India’s Modernity’. The book provides an alternative reading
of India’s modernity by drawing out a social map with small modern technologies such as the sewing
machine, the typewriter, the bicycle and the rice mill, which have all had their conceptual births in the
West, found their way to the Indian market through international business distribution networks,
gradually integrated with the local culture of their new abode and ultimately altered or even developed
gender, community, social as well as political relationships. The kitchens of Cotton Chawl have had its
own share of objects such as the ‘Primus’ stove, the LPG stove, the refrigerator, the mixer grinder and
the washing machine, to name a few which have followed similar paths as outlined in David Arnold’s
book. Objects that were brought along by the young families into Cotton Chawl along with the ingress of
the modern objects into the kitchens of Cotton Chawl, not only brought about changes around the
practices of cooking, eating, cleaning/washing and storage, but also altered gendered relationships,
familial relationships, the relationship with the house and the larger society of the chawl, the
relationship with the kitchens with the neighbourhood and subsequently the ideas of space, body and
the self of those who were directly involved with the kitchen.
This essay explores how technology and their related support systems became so deeply embedded in
the kitchens as a part of the recipient society of Cotton Chawl that they began to don on new meanings
of local use and vernacular sensitivities. Through understanding where these objects came from? Who
bought them? Who were their users? How were they used? Where were they placed within the
kitchens? How did their arrival of new technologies that were meant to ease life created modifications
in certain pre-existing customs or beliefs around practices within the kitchen?, along with the
infrastructural changes that took place within the kitchen? How were connections drawn with the
communities that were located outside Cotton Chawl through the kitchen?, the essay further aims to
comprehend how kitchens were specifically one of the spaces in the chawl with copious transformation
and the possibility of the kitchens being the harbingers of modernity that welcomed change in the pre-
existing or even triggered new taboos around the practices of food.
THE MAKING OF THEIR ‘OWN’ KITCHEN

Figure 1: Visual representation of Cotton Chawl kitchens during the early days

4:00 A.M., Cotton Chawl

Ramila ben gently opens her eyes to the darkness of the living-cum-bedroom, hearing periodic snores
and watching the unsynchronized rising and ebbing of the stomachs of her family, who are deep in
slumber. It is but out of habit, she manages to wake up early every morning before her family does. It
was in the recent years her family had shifted to their new urban home in the city of Ahmedabad. Her
husband worked in one of the mills situated within the walled city and was to leave by 8:00 A.M. so that
he would reach his workplace well before time. The chawl she lived in was home to around 72 families
and temporary transit quarters for a handful of cotton brokers, this meant that there were multiple
homes also working towards sending their male members to work as well as children to schools. There
were a total of twelve common toilets to be used both by male and female for the 87 housing units.
Ramila ben has no time to waste as she prefers to get her morning job done before all the men start
lining up to use the common toilets which were not gender biased. Using the support of a kerosene lit
lantern, she finds her way through the doors of the kitchen and reaches out into the water drum placed
adjacent to the utility area. The resonance of the water trickling into the lota, recalls the squabbles she
experienced around the hand pump located outside the gates, from where she would laboriously catch
water to fill the water drums back at home. As the cold water touch her fingers, she snaps out of her day
dream and makes her way towards the main door. Standing at the verandah, she notices specks of light
appearing across various levels of the chawl, soon realizing that her fellow chawl women have risen too
from their slumber and are also headed towards the common destination of the chawl’s central
common toilets. She manages to avoid the long lines in front of the common toilet that are to form
beginning from 6 o’clock in the morning. Apprehensively getting her job done, she pours water from her
lota around in an attempt to superficially clean the toilet.

Familial customs believed that the kitchen was a sacrosanct space within the household and the women
were expected to “cleanse” themselves before starting the day’s cooking activities as the act of cooking
was considered as a fundamental ritual which had to be done with extreme caution, not allowing the
food to get in contact with micro-organisms and germs.

Ensuring that no one is sleeping in the kitchen, Ramila ben latches the door behind her and
inconspicuously bathes in the utility area against the flickering light of the lantern. With every splash of
cold water on her body, she keeps her ears fixed on the door of the kitchen to ensure no one enters
upon her. The entire kitchen thus is privatized making the space hers. She quickly wraps around her
‘cleansed’ body with the 6 yard Khadi saree, a compulsory dress code to be worn by every Indian,
especially those who lived in Ahmedabad, as sign of support towards the Swadeshi movement. The
movement also found in ways through the use of local products like soaps and matchsticks and even
passively extended into the kitchen in the form of earthen utensils, food materials, salt and raw sugar.
She lights the diya placed in front of the small statue of Mahavir, both of which are kept on top of the
paniyar, the ledge wall which holds the earthenware water pots, adjoining the utility wash area. The
lighting of the diya ignites the beginning of her day.

Ramila ben’s kitchen is a part of a two room tenement, in the North wing of the chawl. The kitchen
being a compact room divided further into the utility wash area known as the chowkadi, separated from
the rest of the kitchen by the paniyar, the space opposite to the paniyar is used for storage that is kept
against the wall, adjoining the paniyar is the small cooking area, the hearth/ heart of the house
demarcated with a 6 inch high ledge wall, the area on the other side of the ledge is left open which acts
as a multifunctional space for food preparation or eating. (Refer to Figure 1)

5:00 A.M.

Ramila ben starts her day by sitting on a low wooden stool, bringing her closer to the floor, placed in
front of the chulha of cooking area. She notices a small chip in the chulha’s mud skin which has exposed
the aluminum surface underneath and in order to mend it, she mixes together a small proportion of
yellow mitthi (mud), cow dung, cement and a required amount of water into a paste and gently packs it
on the scar, mending it. Underneath the black soot that formed a thin skin over the chulha, one may
notice that she has painstakingly hand- packed a customized aluminum bucket, bought from Manek
Chowk, entirely with the aforementioned formula of the mud mixture to create an insulation around the
chulha, finishing the crafted work by placing an iron grill on the top opening of the bucket, which would
help hold the cooking utensil. The chulha placed at the centre of the cooking area below the large
wooden window, takes its place of importance. Before starting the chulha, she mixes together ground
wheat flour and water to make the roti dough and would divide the dough into small round segments
after counting the number of rotis She were to make for her family members who usually were 6 to 10
members at the time, with visitors present occasionally. She proceeds to start the chulha by igniting the
coal or wood whichever is available in front of her with a match stick and by periodically blowing at it till
sparks fly from the heap. The red hot fire cracks its way through the coal, smoke is up and the heat
radiates breaking sweat on the forehead of our character. The process of lighting the coal took a while
and she had to be careful so as to keep the flame burning.

Ramila ben always planned the current day’s meal the previous day, keeping aside all the necessary
ingredients, this would ensure efficient use of time and fuel as coal was expensive at the time, bought
from the coal shop located near the main gate of the Panjara pol area and would be used frugally. She
places the clay pots over the grated stove and aims to complete the entire day’s cooking while
constantly reminding herself that she has to carefully utilize the coal and ensure no wastage. The
graceful swirls of rising smoke layers the back wall with soot, which reminds her to request her husband
to get the kitchen ‘white washed’ little before Diwali. In the dim light of the lantern and the moving
flames of the coal, she grinds the masalas on the sil batta and a drasad both made of heavy stone, used
to crush fresh ingredients for masalas, by being seated on the floor. As the morning grew older, more
women of the family joined her, after completing the daily ritual of washing their hands and feet at the
utility area or the chowkadi. The other women did supporting jobs, such as rolling out the rotis, cutting
the vegetables, burning coal to heat water in the water boiler, etc. and were not allowed to sit in front
of the chulha, unless and until they bathed. Since the tenement was under the name of her husband,
Ramila ben was considered to be the head of the female members within the house and thus occupied
the main position of the cooking area. Ramila ben takes to authority and hurls instructions at her fellow
women, who often were found to subtly outdo each other, while they tried impressing Ramila ben with
their skills at the job they were given in hand. There were many tasks to do and the women often
argued with each other as to who would do what, leading to faint tensions amongst the female
members in the house.

Hurling instructions at the women and against the background of a busy kitchen, using the freshly cut
vegetables, condiments and masalas that were permitted by the Jain belief system, Ramila ben
continues prepares sattvik or rajsik meals, which were compliant to the Jain palette. There was a strict
restriction on using onions, garlic, potatoes, being underground vegetables which were considered to be
home to micro-organisms. Even the smell of these ingredients, would be frowned upon. The vegetables
that were gratis to the rotis, were made fresh on the chulha, attaining a subtle smoky flavor which
probably acted as the olfactory alarm, waking up her family from their deep slumber.

6:00 A.M

The morning light slowly creeps into the dark kitchen, as Ramila ben along with her women are kept
busy preparing food while the male members and the children of the family gets ready in the
background, with some of the women getting up and running around helping them to do so. The
chowkadi was partially covered with an old saree so as to ensure that the women in the kitchen feel
comfortable even while the male members bathed. The chowkadi was probably the only area along with
the space where they ate, the men utilized in the kitchen for obligatory activities such as bathing and
eating. The only other activity directly related to that of the kitchen, the men were seen doing was that
of boiling water in bumbo/bumbas, which would however take place in the verandah/ porch area. The
water from the water drum, filled by the women, placed in front of the chowkadi, would be used for
boiling, further used for bathing.

Ramila ben places the first morsel of cooked food in front of the Mahavir statue after which she
proceeds to place a portion of the food in clay utensils, centered in the informal empty eating area, to
be devoured by the family as they sit together on the kotah stone floor to enjoy a quick breakfast. While
the family satiates their morning pangs of hunger, she along with the other female members of the
house, sit and pack the aluminum tiffin containers, with the apportioned lunch, which were to be shortly
carried away by the male members along with them to work at the mills. The Kalupur tower clock breaks
the chatter in the house and rings, indicating that both the mills and schools would be starting soon.

8:00 A.M.

On sending off her family members, Ramila ben places a few pieces of coal in the dal vessel over which
she places the rice vessel, a clever practice handed over to her by her mother-in-law, to keep the food
hot till her children run back from school for warm lunch at home.

The women clean the kitchen and wash the utensils in the utility area after which one of the younger
female members of the house carries with her a cane basket filled with discarded vegetable peels, stalks
and ends to a compost pit which was dug out within the Cotton Chawl’s compound. The compost pit
attracted the wandering cows who would feed off the remains. She looks out for the left over milk, if
any remains, boiling it and placing it in a vessel filled with water. This milk would come in handy to feed
her hungry children at night, if at all there was a need.

With the male members out of sight, the other young women of the household, utilizes the opportunity
of the completely privatized kitchen area to bath and get dressed.

2:00 P.M.

In an attempt to momentarily escape the heat of the chulha and the confined kitchen politics, Ramila
ben steps onto her verandah hoping to meet her fellow women neighbours, those whom reflected her
joys, her qualms and would share a detail or two about the day’s arguments in the kitchen, a mutually
despised neighbor or even ranted about how their villages were more suitable to their lives than the
daunting urban environment. Ramila ben about the new bride of her husband’s brother, both whom
have come to stay with them and how she hasn’t yet acclimatized with the ways of her kitchen. She
recalls the time when she came to her husband’s home for the first time, back in their village and was
put to test by her mother-in-law, by cooking for a family of 25 people! The kitchens would often be
transformed into experimental laboratories, testing the skills of the newlywed brides who come to
Cotton Chawl.

Women not only shared the accounts of her day so far with her new social circle but also a bowl of
food, to give her neighbours a taste of her skills. Most often the bowl of food would be accompanied
with a statement of patriarchal pride mentioning that her husband ever so appreciates the way she
cooks and makes him seldom miss the food back at his home in the village. The common practice of the
exchange of bowls of cooked food as well as stories was known as vatki vyahar. Social groups and
networks were formed through the practice of vatki vyahar, which allowed a sense of exposure for the
women within the society, a society that was not restricted to the confines of Cotton Chawl alone. The
exchange of the bowls would also come with compliments or even criticism on how the food was. It is
true that food was made very differently from kitchen to kitchen accounting for the fact that, all the
families came from different places and have had their own share of experiences. However the women
carefully chose their vatki vyavahar circle, not on the basis of compliments but on the basis of the same
caste as they belonged to. Cotton Chawl was indeed a housing society meant strictly for Jains, but was a
heterogeneous society of people who belonged to different castes. In order to maintain a sense of ritual
purity, the women were obliged to find out through conversation regarding the castes the others
belonged to. Sharing of food and resources were seldom done on an everyday basis as affordability was
low and the resources just sufficed the needs of the individual families. The kitchen, in the earlier days,
was thus almost always self- centered within individual houses in the chawl, with very little connection
to the overall community. Animosity amongst the women in the chawl always begins to brew when one
is denied a vatki or a resource, which would further seep into other common activities like fetching
water, using the common toilet, buying milk and during common festival celebrations.

The afternoon meetings usually culminated during lunch time or even if some of them wanted to take a
nap as a result of their arduous morning. The time was also utilized by many women to keep a check on
their storage and if there was shortage, they would make a mental note of the requirements, so as to
request the male members of the family to make a quick visit to the market, over the following
weekend. Basic food ingredients and grains would be available at the ration shop situated within the
Panjra pol area set up by the public distribution system of the governing body. It was after the World
War II that the British set up a formal public distribution system which would distribute a fixed quantity
of cereals and grains to the people of India, on showing there ration card. Rationing systems were first
started in Bombay in 1939 to ensure that there was a restricted and entitled distribution of food grains
as there was an aftermath of major shortage of food in rural areas. India like many other countries was
to abolish the rationing system after Independence but was forced to re-implement it as there was a
renewed inflating economic pressure that set in during the time.

Monthly expenses of every kitchen at the chawl, inclusive of the ration, milk and vegetables, would
range between Rs. 20 to Rs. 30 depending on the size of the family. The grains, cereals, sugar, would be
brought home on a monthly basis and stored in aluminum containers or galvanized iron kothis, placed
one on top of the other in decreasing order of height. These storage arrangements would be placed
against the wall of the kitchen to ensure that there is enough space to move around within the small
kitchen. The chawl faced unanticipated random ration raid checks before Independence, supervised
closely by British officials. The raids would ensure that there was no hoarding of extra grains that could
have been brought in from neighboring cities or states. In order to ensure that her family stays safe at all
times, She would always conduct weekly checks so that the home had just enough grains as per their
needs, often thinking about, how back in her village, they were allowed to store surplus agricultural
produce on a yearly basis. Like villages, the Pol houses of Ahmedabad, as a general practice, stored
grains for the entire year. She would have loved that, only if her kitchen was big enough and there were
no sneaking raid officials sniffing down their necks or even if her husband earned slightly more.

Everyday consumption items like milk and vegetables did not require her to walk too far, they were
available right at her doorstep! Milk would be bought from the Rabaris who lived across the street.
Every morning they visited the chawl and distributed fresh milk in the courtyard. Local vegetables would
be bought on a 10 day basis from the nearby market by the men of the house, on their way back from
work or the women themselves purchased daily needs from the vegetable seller who visited the chawl
carrying vegetable baskets on their heads. She would often see her neighbours who lived on the top
floors, carefully descend a bag with money tied to a rope and would collect the vegetables they needed
for the day.

5:30 P.M.

Ramila ben hears her sons running through the main gate of the chawl making their way to their house
from school, shortly followed by her husband and the other male members of the house. As a Jain belief
manifested into practice, the family was to consume their dinner before sunset. Dinner is always a
family affair, with all the members of the family gathering in the kitchen to eat a very simple meal. The
meal was always accompanied by conversations on the happenings of the day or even sharing of secrets
that spiced up the meal, the dancing shadows emitted by the lantern adding a visual aid.

6:30 P.M.

Food wastage was never encouraged in the community. Ramila ben always ensures that once her family
had eaten their share of food for the day, she gives away the leftovers to the neighborhood beggars who
visit every doorstep of the chawl asking for food, every evening.
The light within the kitchen steadily fades, she is in a race with the setting sun proceeding to clear and
wash the utensils in the utility before the light is stolen by the star studded night sky. The clattering of
vessels is silenced and the kitchen once again is engulfed by darkness. She wipes her forehead with the
end of her pallu as she exits the kitchen, smirking at the newlyweds in the family, for whom the kitchen
would serve as an intimate space for their amorous rendezvous.

A day well spent, Ramila ben whispers to herself.

Menstruation, a period of disruption of the daily routine

Those three days of much needed rest from all the laborious work in the kitchen! With a dash of
mandatory religious isolation, the menstruation would keep women strictly away from the sacrosanct
kitchen. The women during this period were only allowed to use the chowkadi to bath as long as they
were aware of the surroundings and would not touch the adjoining paniyar. The exception of allowing
the menstruating women into this part of the kitchen was supported by the fact that there were no
common bathrooms available at the chawl for bathing as there were only toilets which were small, not
enough for bathing and tying a saree. There was only one designated common toilet on the ground floor
for menstruating women to use. The toilet would be cleaned by the harijans later as they were not
allowed to enter the houses let alone the kitchen to wash the chowkadi. It is here that the women
discreetly washed the jute cloth that they used for the menstrual blood and would tie it as a small
bundle with their pallu, tucking it at their hip so that no one spotted it. The cloth would later be hung on
a wire at the chowkadi, hidden from the clear view of the rest of the house. People of the chawl knew
when any woman was menstruating as they could see them walking towards the designated toilet
instead of visiting the toilet they usually go to. It was considered as a serious matter of embarrassment if
anyone spotted a woman using the designated toilet. The question of the women’s privacy was tested
during such times as she had no choice.

If a house did not have any other female members, the kitchen remained inactive and the family would
get dal and sabzi from the nearby restaurants like Chandravilas or even the Bhojanalay which is situated
within the Panjara Pol extents and was hardly a five minute walk from the chawl. The Bhojanalay is
associated with the Jain Derasars and Upashrays which are situated in Panajara Pol and served almost
400 to 600 people on a daily basis, thrice a day aligning to the permitted timings of food consumption.
The food was therefore prepared only by men (to avoid the notion of ritual pollution, by employing
women) as the quantity of production was large and met all dietary norms of the Jains. The food at the
mentioned restaurant and the Bhojanalay were strictly made by Jains for Jains and therefore met the
ritual compliances of the families in Cotton Chawl. In such times of need, even the women’s vatki
vyavahar connections lent their helping hand by visiting the kitchen of the menstruating women and
would roll out rotis for the family.

The kitchens were shaped by the women who brought into the kitchen what they knew or what they
were taught, trying to keep alive and intact family practices and ties with where they came from. Space
was being sculpted by their personal belongings and the objects they got home from the nearby
markets. The body required to stay closer to the ground, grinding, rotating, peeling, crushing, sizzling,
mixing, clanking around utensils, all within the radius of an arm’s reach; the ledge wall drew the line, it
demarcated the cooking area, it demarcated the space that was dominated by the women; a space that
was hers, let her hear the silence amongst the crowd of objects, let her listen to her voice, with the
dancing shadows animating her fleeting thoughts and broken memories; a space that blurred the
interiority of her mind with a new community beyond - to be a part of a social circle which now
dominated her thoughts, her actions; a space that connected her to the mysterious city. The kitchen
when active ought to be self sufficient and self centered due to tight economic conditions, however
extended connections with the neighbouring institutions in times of need. The space of the kitchen
generated contradicting experiences: it was a site where the family sat together as well as a space that
created agitation amongst those who were obliged to work in it; A space that could be made private cut
off from the world beyond and at the same time a space that restricted the very women who kept it
alive when they were menstruating. The kitchens of Cotton Chawl were thus instrumental in shaping the
lives of the women as well as their families.

So what happens when there are new objects that are introduced in the kitchen? How do these objects
change the way the kitchen functioned? How did they alter relationships within the kitchen and
amongst the family? The following section shall address the arrival of new objects/ technologies that
were slowly being affordable and how they brought about modifications.
ROOTING THE KITCHEN WITH A GOLDEN HEARTH IN A NEWLY INDEPENDENT NATION

It was not only the news of the Indian independence that came positive but also the fact that the mill
workers and employees alike were to receive a considerable raise due to the enormous profits made by
the textile industry which ran overtime during the World War II. The mill workers not only were
bestowed with higher salaries, but also lesser working hours and better working conditions which
offered opportunities at the home front. They could now impart better educational facilities for their kin
and encourage them to adopt white collared jobs.

Figure 2: Visual representation of Cotton Chawl kitchens, 1950s – 1960

The kitchens of Cotton Chawl welcomed new additions into their spaces, a few like the ‘Primus’ stove,
aluminum utensils and containers and more amount of food grains, which called for an expansion in
storage within the room. However it was the introduction of kerosene as a cooking fuel and the ‘Primus’
stove that brought about a change in way of practice within the kitchen. Until independence all
refineries run on ground by Indian companies were controlled by International firms, thus accounting
for high prices of fuel. Only those who owned motor cars and bikes, run on kerosene could afford to
purchase kerosene in considerable volume. The use of kerosene in households was restricted to lanterns
for illumination and later for pedestal fans and would be distributed through hand pulled carts, who
visited the residential areas. During the Nehruvian period of the nation, in the year 1955, a separate Oil
and Gas Division was created as a part of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Scientific Research and
only by around early 1960s kerosene was distributed through the public distribution systems and
reached the kitchens of Cotton Chawl, with a restriction of only one bottle a month.

Kerosene was still an expensive commodity and was to be used only during emergencies. The coal run
chulha still remained in the household. Along with the introduction of kerosene in the households, came
the ‘Primus’ stove, Primus being the company that sold the largest numbers of kerosene wick stoves in
the country through the American company of ESSO, who supported India’s importing of oil products.
ESSO was usually remembered through protest chants sung by the MGJP (Maha Gujarat Janta Parishad),
who wanted the Revolution to stay alive by asking the American company to Quit India just like their
British counterparts. This affected the sales of the stoves in Ahmedabad. The MGJP were also known to
have organized protests in 1964, when there was a surge in the prices of cooking oil which affected the
kitchen practices of the industrial employees. Cooking of meals were split according to methodology of
boiling and frying, in order to ensure the minimum use of pre-stored cooking oil and at the same time
conserve the expensive cooking fuel. Women would ignite their chulhas and prepare boiled varieties of
food and to ensure they were appealing to taste buds of their families, would exchange recipes and
techniques with each other during their afternoon leisure break in the verandah.

However ESSO, redeeming themselves in the market, sold the ‘Primus’ stoves, now packed in colourful
tin lockable boxes. Here ESSO’s new marketing strategy is noteworthy as it reflects a dimension of
gender dynamics amongst the family in the chawl. Printed with an image of a smiling supposed Indian
housewife, clad in a colourful saree, holding up a golden coloured ‘Primus’ stove, and a seemingly
hypnotic gaze directed towards the consumer, the lockable tins were sold in the utensil shops at the
local markets. The local markets were visited mostly by the male members of the house as the women
were kept busy preparing meals for their large families. The kitchens have always embodied evident
gender segregation, informed by an internalizing gender identity and norms that have been set by the
society at large which have become an integral part of the ways the kitchens functioned. The domestic
space of the kitchen have also been informed by the choices made by both women and men, the ones
who are directly and indirectly, respectively, associated with the kitchen. It was likely that
advertisements of products in the market were seen mostly by men being the ones who stepped out of
the house, on hoardings while they travelled to work, in newspapers, on posters pasted on shop fronts
in the markets. Advertisements of products (refer to figure 3, 6, 7) for a far outreach have always
explicitly played on social gender norms that were followed in the country and thus for products that
were used in the kitchen always included the image of women who were to use them. The men of the
chawl who were aligned to these codified familial norms, thought that it was their right to make a choice
for their women and contribute in “helping ease” the work to be done on the home-front. Buying these
new products in the market would also mean possibly maintaining stature in the society, which was
important to balm the ego.

Figure 3: Advertisement of the 'Primus ' stove

The eyes of the caricature on the tin box, seemed to have successfully met with those of Ramila ben’s
husband, who on enquiring about the kerosene market with the shop keeper, bought the ‘Primus’ stove
and brought it home. On his arrival she was ecstatic to see in his hands the new ‘Primus stove which has
off late been the centre of discussion of many kitchens of the chawl. She had heard from her social circle
that many newlywed brides, nowadays brought along with them the ‘Primus’ stove as dowry. At once
she knew that this object of her kitchen was precious.
 Figure 4: Parts and tools within the tin box of the kerosene stove

She along with her husband and children placed the box on the floor of the kitchen and gently opened
the lid. There were various parts, including the top ring, the burner, the spirit cup, the rising tube, the
kerosene tank, the pump, spanners, screw, a few other tools and a detailed instruction pamphlet that
were to be used to assemble the stove together. The assembling of the stove became a family event,
with the children screaming out instructions and the male members ensuring that every part of the
stove was tightly fitted for utmost safety, as they always thought themselves to be the guardians of their
family. She could not contain her excitement and thought of all the possible dishes she could make or
modify using the stove. She was well aware that the food would not attain the same authentic smoky
flavor as before, but possessing this was possibly a matter of pride amongst her social circle. The job was
done and the stove had taken form, her husband gently placed the golden object on the floor where the
chulha was earlier placed as this golden object was to be the primary focal point in the kitchen
henceforth. As a commemoration of the stove, the first action that she chose to do was to sit on her
stunted stool in front of the new stove, pour in the kerosene and boil milk in an aluminum container as a
good sign, feeding all her family members as well as her vatki vyavahar acquaintances with the
sweetened milk. The chawl would now know that she was a proud owner of the ‘Primus’ stove.

Being a new object in the kitchen and with kerosene prices being high, she frugally used the ‘Primus’
stove and would resort to using the chulha whenever required. She continued boiling water in the
traditional water heating utensil made of copper (placed in the kitchen) or the ‘bumbo’(placed in the
verandah), that were run by coal or fuel wood, as water boiling would require the expenditure of
maximum fuel in the house.

Along with the introduction of the ‘Primus’ stove, the clay utensils were gradually being replaced with
aluminum utensils which could control the heat that cooked the food through the process of
conduction. Burning of food due to too much heat was avoided, as the wick of the kerosene stove could
be now controlled with more precision.

Parallel to the changes brought about in the cooking practices there were changes being seeing in the
ways storage was being done. Storage in the kitchen slowly included more number of aluminum
containers and in order to accommodate the increase in number, wooden shelves were built on the
walls. The aluminum industry formed a crucial part of the Indian economy during the late 50s, with
production reaching upto 30,000 tonnes as the demand for the metal increased drastically. Utensils
made out of aluminum were now commercially viable for families who lived in the chawl and therefore
found their way through to the kitchens. There was an evident shift in choices made for the kitchen,
from the handmade earthen cookware to the industrial manufactured aluminum utensils, the inclination
towards industrial goods begun to be seen. Aluminum utensils were uniform, robust, long lasting,
scratch resistant and breakage free. With affordability increasing, the ability to buy objects that were
seen in many houses of the chawl was possible. After Independence, the number of visitors to houses in
Ahmedabad and also the chawl had increased, with people coming in to look for new jobs. Rationing
quantities also increased and so the need for storage within the kitchen gained priority. The wooden
wall mounted shelves ensured that the eating area of the family remained intact by avoiding
overcrowding at the floor level. With the arrival of more number of people within the family and
visitors, milk, curd and vegetables had to be stored for a longer time. The concept of the pinjara cabinet
(a small wooden cupboard fitted with jalli or wire mesh doors, usually placed in front of the dry cooking
area and away from the wet utility area) was stumbled upon, within which the items would be stored
and the jalli or net would allow for enough ventilation, keeping the area within the shelf cool.

Between the 1950s and the 1970s the nation was moving towards adopting a new identity post
colonization, under the watchful eye of the then Prime Minister Nehru. This period, however, stood on
the paradoxical line drawn between a retrieval of India’s cultural relic past and the alignment with a
global identity defined by the language of modernism. Modernism was seen as the appropriate tool to
express a postcolonial identity which had overcome an oppressive past. The Nehruvian state chose to
look towards the West for cues, not only in terms of a need for new infrastructure but also for social,
political and economical reforms. The influence of Western ideologies were slowly being integrated in
Indian business, which stood to improve working conditions, set up hierarchies and brought in profits.
The mills were also recipients of this economic progression. At the work front, mill workers were being
exposed to larger imported machines which increased efficiency of production and at the home front
the families of the workers/employees were being exposed to smaller everyday technologies which
aided in increasing the efficiency in existing practices. The ‘Primus’ stove was one of the earliest
Western technologies that found their way into the kitchens of Cotton Chawl. Although with the arrival
of the stove old practices of using the chulha did not wither away and instead was used for certain
cooking activities that eased the load on the stove. For the first time the kitchen saw a fragmentation of
cooking activities. The stove gradually became synonymous with cooking within the Cotton Chawl
kitchens, with almost all families owning their own golden hearth. It would be interesting to examine to
what extent the entry of other western technologies parallel to the time Ahmedabad businesses were
inviting Western ideas with open arms, affect the practices within the kitchen. With a slight raise in the
familial income, cooking fuel now fluid, produced less of ash, less of smoke, less of soot on the walls or
even on her local cotton coloured saree, she coughed less often now as she cooked; the golden stove
run by the “liquid gold”, now sitting on the throne of the kitchen, taking the place of the less important
hearth; the new heart of the kitchen - a possible matter of status, used as frugally as possible; the
kitchen possessed more – some familiar and some new, stacked on shelves standing inconspicuously
pressed against the wall; more metal reflecting more light that subtly made its way into the kitchen; a
kitchen, brighter, more visible, more noticed by what it held within; a kitchen which has a past but
slowly grows with desire, desires that further saw newer objects such as the gas stove, the mixer grinder
and the refrigerator that entered the kitchens of Cotton Chawl.
THE EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGICAL MODERNITIES OF THE KITCHEN ON THE LIFE AT COTTON CHAWL

Observing advancement in businesses adopting Western forms of professionalism, organizational

structures, hierarchies, commercial dealings and education, Ahmedabad was now at the centre of
economic development in both private and public-private ventures, backed by revered communities of
industrialists and businessmen, and foreign investments. The State of Gujarat had been formed which
gave them more control over the new business, economical and cultural development – giving impetus
to smaller-scale industries. A gradual shift was being seen from large-scale textile mill production to the
preference for small-scale power-looms and hand-looms production and with the larger mills facing
external competition, heavy taxes, worn-out machines, lesser productivity, low dividends paid by
faltering mills, disinvestment in these large-scale composite mills commenced leading to their decline.

During this time, the Cotton Chawl was subjected to a few possible trajectories of change – middle-aged
men along with their families started moving out in search of new jobs which were mostly found in the
peripheries of the walled city; many old-timers had retired from their jobs at the mills and continued to
stay in the chawl taking advantage of the protective Rent Control Act India 1947, that let them pay low
rents fixed before the imposition of the act; some continued to be employed with the large-scale mills
till the early 1990s; some continued to stay at the chawl but found new jobs; and there were some Jain
newcomers who occupied the empty house units. Parallel to these changes, the Cotton Chawl continued
to stay in the race with development at the home front. Keeping up with urban living and practices that
continued to grow through the city, the kitchens of Cotton Chawl invited three major additions: the LPG
(Liquid Petroleum Gas) stove; the electric mixer grinder and the refrigerator. The three new additions
into the kitchens brought in a shift in practices which seamlessly integrated with everyday life.

Liquified petroleum gas was introduced in the year 1964 by Indane, which was owned by the Indian Oil
Corporation of India. The distribution of LPG gas connections commenced in 1965 in Kolkatta after
which it spread across the nation and entered the homes of Cotton chawl during the late 1970s. The LPG
set up consisted of a gas cylinder, a rubber tube and initially a mild steel bodied stove with either one or
two rings. The mild steel stove that was initially distributed was under the brand name of ‘Supernova’ or
‘Domino’, a product of United Works, who had their established headquarters in Bombay (set up in
1954). It was well into the 1980s when the stainless steel industry took over and manufactured stainless
steel, easy to maintain cook tops, replacing the mild steel counterpart, which required frequent re-
painting. Food cooked over LPG stoves proved to be more neutral in taste avoiding the inevitable
seepage of fuel taste or odour that was caused by wood, charcoal or even kerosene. LPG was considered
a “cleaner” cooking fuel which did not emit harmful fumes or fly ash while cooking and the stove
provided better control over the flame through the provision of a knob which had three settings. One
could now manually control the intensity of the flame depending on the method adopted for cooking.

Just before the gas stove made an entrance into the kitchen, the families of Cotton Chawl had to ensure
that a small counter, their first infrastructural addition, built out of brick topped with slate stone, at a
height of 800mm, was constructed in the corner of the kitchen in such a way that when the stove
arrived it would face the eastern direction, a spatial superstition that gave the family hope of a healthy
life. The counter would elevate the stove with the gas cylinder placed below, assuring safety in usage.

Figure 5: Visual representation of Cotton Chawl kitchens, 1970s - 1980s

The arrival of the gas stove marked a significant change in the act of cooking itself. Earlier women
required to be seated on the floor surrounded by utensils and containers all within an arm’s reach,
battling the heat, being vigilant of the flames of the coal to avoid it from growing, covering their mouths
and nostrils while they sometimes cooked over wood and most above all the patience they had to have
to cook for a minimum of four to five hours a day. This time around the women had to stand and cook,
unlike ever before, when they had to shift her weight constantly from one leg to the other while seated
on the stunted stool as they spent their time controlling the fire on the stove. There was a lot lesser
pressure on their knees now. The daily use storage was now on new wooden shelves higher from the
ground and within the radius of the arm’s reach. The time that took for the act of cooking was almost
reduced by half as now the women could cook on both the heat plates of the stove simultaneously. The
women no longer had to rise very early in the morning, thus allowing them to have a relatively restful
sleep. With the consistency in electricity for lights in the kitchen, and the ease with which the gas stove
was used, the women could now split cooking the meals, through different times of the day, thus finding
a little extra time in their hands. Many women in the quietude of their evening kitchen would often be
found sipping a tumbler of tea by themselves, before their husbands came home, a growing guilty
pleasure they indulged in. When their husbands did arrive, they could heat up the food made earlier and
serve them a warm dinner. Nevertheless LPG was still an expensive affair and the old cooking friend
‘Primus’ stove came in handy from time to time, providing support between LPG cylinder delivery
periods.

The women of Cotton chawl now spent their extra time out in the porch/ verandah in the afternoons by
stitching, stringing of beads for torans, sifting of rice and cutting of vegetables for the evening meals.
Traces of community activities such as rolling out of papads and wadis in the verandah area and drying
the raw ones on the terrace of the chawl were beginning to be seen. Once the papads or wadis were
dry, the four to five women who spent their time making them would get an equal share in number. It
was evident that more women were seen stepping out of their homes and spent a considerable time on
in the verandahs as opposed to the earlier times when they were forced to restrict the long hours of
work they did in the kitchen and the food they made to their individual families alone. The women also
gradually started visiting the Jain Derasar or the Upshashrays that was present in the Panjara Pol area,
every evening before their husbands came home. The existence of the institutions around Cotton Chawl
at a walking distance of five to ten minutes, along with more time in their hands, encouraged women to
step out of the Cotton Chawl from time to time, an activity which was seldom done earlier.

With the shift from the kerosene stove to the LPG gas stove, the use of aluminum utensils reduced and
the arrival of the stainless steel utensils helped keep up the efficiency in the kitchen. Stainless steel
utensils, plates, cutlery were lighter in weight and could be stored on thin wooden shelves with ease.
Through a barter system, the women of Cotton Chawl would exchange old clothes for the new and shiny
stainless steel containers and utensils, with the utensil sellers who carried baskets on their heads and
spread their informal shop in the middle of the chawl’s courtyard, with the women nudging each other
to have a look at what has arrived. The entire area appeared to take form of an auction house, with
every woman trying to exchange their priced belonging for the best utensil available.

To accommodate for the new utensils and container additions, more wall shelves were constructed. The
shelves started transfiguring to including different sized slots made out of oil-painted plywood (solid
wood being expensive at the time) fitted with hooks to neatly organize the utensils. The kitchen now
began to attain a sense of display of decorum and discipline which was worthy of inviting neighbours
into the space.

Figure 6: A 1970s Prestige stainless steel pressure cooker ad, which promised lesser cooking time and
more leisure time. The ad evidently depicts the shift from the use of a kerosene stove to that of a gas
stove. However the image continues to bear the woman as the sole users of the newly introduced
objects.

The advantage of consistent electricity introduced two other electrical appliances in the kitchens, the
first being the mixer grinder and the second, the refrigerator. The first Indian model of the mixer grinder
was developed by the Sumeet company in the early 1970s, inspired by the international Braun mixer.
The new model was more robust and could even break down hard spices like turmeric and pepper. It
was the ideal appliance that replaced the sil batta and the chakki, having the advantage of being used
on the kitchen platform. The kitchen activities were slowly divided, with the cutting of vegetables and
other smaller activities that continued to take place by sitting on the floor, and the main cooking
activities happening while standing. Earlier women at the chawl planned their flour grinding activities
well in advanced so as to be able to devote enough time to achieve finesse in breaking down the wheat
kernels by rotating the stone chakki. The activity consumed much of their day, strained their knees and
the women were forced into small talk with the partner who they did the chore with. The mixer grinder
could now turn tough kernels to fine powder in seconds, saving the women more time in the kitchen,
time which was added to their extended afternoon sessions. This time around even the local ration shop
had expanded and included a commercial flour mill, which now promised all the residences at Panjara
pol to be free from the hassle of self-grinding the wheat. If the quantity of wheat that was set aside for
grinding was higher than 5 kilos, she would hand over raw wheat and request the male members of the
family to go to the flour mill and get the wheat ground. The flour would then be stored in kothis kept
along with the seasonal storage.

The second major electrical appliance intervention into the kitchen household was the arrival of the
Refrigerator. Newspapers would contain advertisements of the ‘great little Godrej’, that appeared to be
a cooling cupboard, which would soon replace the pinjara cabinets in the kitchen. The refrigerator was
being advertised as an addition to the household which would enhance the aesthetics of the home
interior. The little white refrigerator soon entered her little kitchen placed near a plug point.
Infrastructural changes in the form of conduit realignments and the addition of a higher wattage point
had to be accommodated within the kitchen. The refrigerator would now compliment the organized
display that became the identity of her kitchen. Opening the door of the refrigerator would be
equivalent to walking around eggshells. There was an unsaid rule in the house, which stated that the
refrigerator door must not be continuously opened and shut as it would consume maximum electricity.
Refrigerators arrived sporadically through the chawl. Not many could afford to own a refrigerator and
continued using the pinjara cupboards. The ones who owned refrigerators seldom allowed their
neighbours to store food in them, considering the size and the possibility of the fact that they were
paying higher electricity bills, which they did not want to be exploited for. This strained relationships
between the women at the chawl and they subtly refused to lend help in return.

The refrigerator now held milk and curd on the upper shelf, cooked food on the middle shelf and fresh
vegetables on the lower shelf. The arrival of the refrigerator now meant that items such as milk and
vegetables could attain longer shelf life. As for the emergent practice of the cooked food being stored,
there was a sharp shift from earlier Jain practices of consuming food the same day or even donating
leftovers to the visiting beggars at the chawl. The visiting beggars dwindled with the arrival of the
refrigerators. This caused a change in the notion of jeevdaya, a practice followed by the Jains as well as
those at Cotton Chawl who were expected to make donations of food on a daily basis, now if there were
beggars who did visit the doorstep of the houses, the women handed over raw food grains instead of
cooked food. Gradually over time the very practice of storing cooked food overnight and consumed the
following day, which was earlier considered a taboo found its way in the everyday practices of the
chawl, seamlessly integrating with the way people ate and the storing milk beside the cooked food,
became a taboo that is still followed even today at the chawl, the two had be stored separately.

This period in Cotton Chawl history marked the arrival of multiple technologies, which had their
conceptual births in the West but found Indian companies who modified their designs to suit Indian
everyday life requirements. These technologies were manufactured and distributed within the Indian
market and reached the homes of the residents through advertisements and word of mouth. Practices
were changing within the kitchen, adopted and integrated, the westernized everyday technology took
precedence over few relaxed taboos, which were being accepted, every nook and corner of the kitchen
participated in the act of cooking, all connected by the dynamic moving body. Until now we have seen
how technological modernity that was introduced through the chawl, brought about certain changes in
practices around the kitchen and even eased the work that had to be done as compared to the earlier
days. The following segment shall explore how consumerism affected social relationships within Cotton
Chawl and how certain infrastructural changes within the kitchen further questioned the notions of
personal hygiene.
CONSUMERISM AND A STEP TOWARDS PERSONAL HYGIENE

The year 1991, opened up the nation’s economy through the process of liberalization. Economic
structures were moving from state centric or government controlled structure to a market and service
based system, encouraging private and foreign investment. With the rapid change in economy, coupled
with the introduction of global culture, there was a rise in the culture of consumerism and consumption.
In alignment with consumerism, the food industry gained momentum in manufacturing and distributing
packaged raw materials and processed ‘ready-to-eat’ meals. These sizeable packets of food met the
kitchens of Cotton Chawl through grocery shops established in and around Panjara Pol, which were
stored in transparent plastic containers and gradually infested the storage shelves of the kitchen. Old
stainless steel containers were traded for more number of plastic containers in familiar utensil shops.

Figure 7: Visual representation of Cotton Chawl kitchens, 1990s

Storage became transparent, showcasing the kinds of products used in the kitchens. Transparency also
meant that, women stored raw materials, which were indeed openly accepted by the society and hid
away processed or packaged foods with expiry dates in the opaque stainless steel containers. The
women chose what to display and what not to. Storage shelves grew in length and in number to
accommodate all her requirements. There was still a hierarchy maintained in the storage racks, with the
daily used products or items kept at an arm’s reach, weekly products, one level higher, and seasonal
storage below in kothis or in aluminum containers in the overhead shelves. Storage was arranged
according to patterns of sizes and types of containers, with similar families finding each other in the
same rows.

Items like milk could also be bought from dairy stores which were located outside the Panjara Pol area.
Earlier the Rabaris, the community of nomadic cow herders, who were the immediate neighbours of the
Cotton Chawl, used to supply the daily requirement of milk for the residents. Cotton Chawl was one of
the few residential buildings in the Panajara Pol area who had the advantage of proximity to the Rabari
community and the women of the chawl, did not have to even step out of the chawl to fetch milk,
instead the Rabaris brought with them cans of milk and sold fresh milk to the residents on an everyday
basis. The residents of the chawl preferred to consume the fresh milk which came directly from the
cows that belonged to the Rabaris, as it was believed to be free of micro-organisms. The Rabaris were
however always considered a lower caste or even sometimes casteless. The people at the chawl would
not let their children play with the Rabari children, nor will they even look into the eye of the Rabari
community while they walked passed their settlement. With the introduction of milk packets, the
residents of the chawl found the opportunity to seldom interact with the Rabaris and the visits of the
Rabaris gradually came to a halt. Even today there is a small road which separates the chawl and the
community of the Rabaris and even if there is a trespass into either of the boundaries, there would be a
spiteful friction between the two communities. Milk packets could be stored for a few days in the
refrigerators, which found its way into many more houses within the chawl. It was a compulsive task to
go and buy the milk packets from the dairy stores, however with the growing friction between the
Rabaris and the Cotton Chawl residents, the task was done without any complaints. Drinking of
packaged milk as opposed to fresh milk had become an accepted practice in the chawl. The Rabaris
continue to supply milk to the surrounding Derasars and Upashrays within Panajara Pol and continue to
call the area their home despite the impending tension.

The arrival of consumerism also brought with it new appliances and an assortment of choices – the
refrigerator grew taller equipped with a separate ice box and more shelves, there were more colours to
choose from now; the mixer grinder found fitted itself with different varieties of detachable blades; the
tube-lights illuminated the entire kitchen; the new electrical hand mixers were used for purees; the
semi-automatic washing machines relieved the strain of sitting on one’s haunches in the utility area, and
washing the multiple apparels every family owned now. Kitchen activities were getting more nuanced
with an appliance available to make every activity less time consuming. This meant that women of the
chawl now found comparatively more time in their hands and they could choose what they wanted to
do with it. Some of the women applied their leisure card, catching up with popular soap operas on the
newly arrived televisions, nodding their heads in realization whenever they related with the characters.
Some of them started working from home, establishing smaller businesses such as daily tiffin services,
seasonal food services (khakharas, wadis, papads sweets during festivals), tailoring, taking tuitions, and
the rest of them, for the very first time, chose to work outside the confines of their homes. The chawl
allowed the working women to not worry about their children while they were out for work as the other
women neighbours would end up taking care of them. With more money being earned by the families,
the earlier attitude of the self-centered kitchen slowly began to diminish and women of the chawl were
happy to feed the visiting children. This was a major shift the chawl women experienced, as they now
gained confidence in contributing to the household finances, which de-centralized the idea of the man
being the only bread winner of the house. However, when the women were at home, they were still
expected to run the timely kitchen. With more women beginning to work outside the chawl, earlier
practices of community food preparation also dwindled; the women had to run their food service
businesses by themselves with the support of other women.

The kitchens not only became homes for new appliances, creating shifts in practices but also invited
infrastructural face-lifts, which created a shift in the form of the kitchen. There were four major
infrastructural changes made to the kitchen: the construction of masonry walls in the utility area,
converting the space into a private bathroom; the inclusion of overhead internal loft water tanks; the
addition of the kitchen mori or sink; the extension of the kitchen platform.

The utility area or the chowkadi of the kitchen served the ancillary function of washing the utensils and
clothes. Located in the kitchen, since the early days of the chawl, the chowkadi was designated as the
wet area in the kitchen. The family bathed in the utility area as well, using old sarees as curtains to make
the space private. With the affordability of constructing a brick plastered wall with a lockable door and
the need for a completely private bathing space in alignment with personal hygiene requirements, the
utility area was converted into a formal bathroom. Private bathrooms concretized the personal
boundaries between men and women of the household, women now needn’t worry about accidental
encounters with men when they were using the bathroom and vice versa. While in the bathroom,
women now experienced freedom with their bodies and didn’t have to be conscious as before, when
they used to cover their body while bathing. A few years following the introduction of privatized
bathrooms within the kitchen came the construction of internal toilets. The infrastructure required to
build a toilet came not only with a considerable price implication but also the complaints hurled by
neighbours, while sewage pipes were being fitted. Toilet construction commenced in the houses
situated on the ground floor of Cotton Chawl, due to the availability of gradient to direct the pipes out
into the existing sewage system. By raising the floor by a step and accommodating the soil pipes through
low ledge walls, the toilets on the ground floor were constructed in the kitchen area. Initial reactions of
many residents were spiteful as they could never imagine using the toilet within the sacrosanct kitchen
and according to them it was a preposterous concept. Over time with the conditions of the common
toilets worsening due to the inconsistent visits of the Harijans who felt they were being underpaid and
the fact that old people found it difficult to use the Indian water closets that were fitted in the common
toilets, more people started reconciling with the idea of providing a toilet within the household and
since the toilet could find the drainage connection only in the kitchen, the residents of Cotton Chawl
accepted the using of the toilet even within the kitchen. Once again a taboo had been accepted to be a
daily practice. However due to structural leakage problems, not all houses have been able to construct
toilets. As addressed earlier, women used to visit the designated common toilet on the ground floor,
when they were menstruating. Towards the 1980s when women started working and studying outside,
they would change their sanitary napkins at the universities or their offices. Now the privatization of the
toilet or the personal bathrooms and the arrival of commercial sanitary napkins, relieved women off the
stress of cleaning and disposing the cloth, thus providing them with a hygienic environment, avoiding
infection that would occur due to the unhygienic handling of the menstrual cloth. Women at the chawl
no longer had to worry about being seen walking towards the common toilet or even a few steps within
their house to use the toilets while they were menstruating. The chawl had taken a constructive move
towards adopting personal hygiene norms in their way of life.
Figure 8: Kitchen of House number 1 at Cotton Chawl, South wing

Speaking about the provision of the toilets and bathrooms within the house, it is interesting to note the
spatial organization in House no. 1 which is located in the South wing of Cotton Chawl, on the ground
floor. (refer to Figure 8). House no. 1 has the toilet in the kitchen adjoining the kitchen counter and the
personal bathroom located within the main room. Since the house is a part of the South wing, the
kitchen is located at the main entrance following which the main living/ bedroom is oriented. The main
entrance always had two windows that would be kept open along with the main doors to let in light and
ventilation within the space. Sangeeta ben, the resident of the house, recounts the time when her
mother used to live in the house a few decades ago. She always felt the eyes of the passer bys fixed on
her while she cooked in the kitchen. She could never escape the watchful eyes of the people. Other
women found it very easy to peep in and ask for resources and she was always obliged to give away her
meager resources as the storage was always exposed and the women could see what she stored. She
had to be cautious about the way she stacked her storage lest to be judged by her fellow neighbours.
She always found it hard to stop people from passing through the kitchen without bathing as the only
way to get to the main living area was through her kitchen. She always found it difficult to bath in the
chowkadi of the kitchen, as she had to not only close the entrance doors and windows but also the door
of the main living area of the house, to attain privacy. This would inconvenience her family members
and a simple need to bath in private and closing the always open doors of the kitchen, would raise
questions in the minds of her snooping neighbours. In order to minimize problems, Sangeeta ben’s
mother always used to bath after everyone in the house has left for work or school, latching all the
doors and windows, a practice that raised questions regarding ritual pollution before cooking. She had
the space to herself and there was no one to look at her while she walked around and bathed in the
kitchen. Privacy for women at the chawl was almost a luxury and it was evident that the lack of it,
encouraged Sangeet ben’s mother to eradicate most of the taboos that related to the kitchens and
instead practiced out of convenience. When Sangeeta ben took over, she got the toilet constructed in
the chowkadi area and the bathroom in the main living area and as she is a single woman living in the
house, she has her bath in the privacy of the locked main living area of the house. The toilet in itself
become a private space when locked from within and even though people walking by knew she was
entering the toilet, it was not as embarrassing as being spotted while having a bath.

The conversion of the utility area into a full fledged bathrooms in the chawl meant that they would now
require a continuous water connection, which filled buckets whenever required, rather than using water
from the masonry internal water storage tanks, which used up much of the space within the kitchens.
Earlier water supply to the chawl’s utility area was sporadic but when Ahmedabad municipality was
converted into Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the organization took up infrastructure projects such
as improving water supply and drainage systems across the walled city. Parallel to the infrastructure
works, the Corporation advised households of the walled city to construct masonry water tanks within
the interiors of the home, which could be filled once in a week via the existing pipelines from the
overhead mumty water tanks, which would in turn be filled by the Corporation water tanks. The
residents of Cotton Chawl must have approached the then owners to get permission to construct
masonry water tanks within the kitchen area, adjacent to the utility area, as a pattern of similarity in
terms of dimensions is seen across the kitchens of the chawl. Water was now directly stored within
these internal tanks and did away with the laborious act of physically filling the water drums pot by pot
from the nearby hand pump. This saved time and physical energy of the women at the chawl. The Sintex
Company based in Ahmedabad, which interestingly originated from its parent textile mill organization,
introduced the plastic water tanks, which were inspired by the rotational moulding technique and were
to be used initially as textile card cans. The arrival of these external tanks and later internal loft water
tanks provided the residents of Ahmedabad including those of Cotton Chawl a hygienic and easy to
maintain solution for collecting the designated volume of water. The masonry water tanks of the chawl
were manned by the members of the house, with the taps having to be closed in time to avoid overflow
within the kitchen. The overhead loft tank, fitted with self-shutting ball valves, could cease the inflow of
water once the tank filled, thus doing away with the need to be manned. With the installation of PVC
pipes from the tank to the taps in the bathroom, as well as the newly introduced kitchen sink, the water
flow could manage to hold the required pressure.

The opportunity of installing water pipes as per ones requirements within the kitchen allowed the
kitchens of the chawl to fit beside the utility area, the kitchen mori or sink. The sink could be placed at a
height that matched the kitchen counter top. Soiled utensils could now be washed standing rather than
being seated on one’s haunches in the utility area. However with the introduction of the kitchen sink,
there were secondary customs of practice that were born. The kitchens followed an unsaid norm of only
washing small utensils that were used for cooking and ones hands intermittently during the process of
cooking. Plates, cutlery, glasses that were consumed from were considered contaminated by human
saliva and were to be washed in the utility/ bathroom area. There was an evident shift from the
practices of how clothes and utensils were earlier washed to a more recent fragmented practice, with
activities taking place at various corners within the small kitchen. Kitchen sinks were initially constructed
out of the kotah stone, followed by a small circular washing bowl and finally being replaced by a larger
rectangular stainless sink.

Kitchen counters slowly extended in length, in many cases integrating the existing masonry water tank,
which served as an extra counter utility space. Cooking activities could now be centralized moving away
from the fragmented practices of preparing on the floor and cooking on the kitchen counter top. The
extended counter tops provided the opportunity of constructing shelves underneath, thus increasing the
storage capacity within the kitchen. The construction of kitchen counter tops were done in such a way
that it remained within the pre-demarcated cooking area, proving not to eat up too much space and still
maintaining the eating area of the family within the kitchen.

Social continuities; a Jain ethos encompassing the ways the kitchen functioned; the birth of new beliefs
and customs, the dissolving of a few, the birth of boundaries and blurs; fragmentation of certain
activities and the centralization of a few; the kitchens of Cotton Chawl were beginning to see many
infrastructural changes that not only changed the spatial configuration or the spatial form of the kitchen
but also questioned notions about personal hygiene and privacy of the women within the chawl, which
brought about certain modifications in practices.
DISRUPTIONS!

The kitchens of Cotton Chawl, over eight decades have transformed in ways of infrastructure
modifications, addition and subtraction of objects that aid in the activities, shifting practices and
customs, the relationship the space has in the home with the family and the relationship the kitchen has
with the community in general. Cotton Chawl continues to live to tell its stories in the present day. Every
kitchen at the chawl has its unique identity, with the transformations that happened during different
stages, different phases in time over the decades and also is majorly driven by the family who resides in
the house. As one pays a visit to the kitchens in the chawl, one may notice the patchwork of
transformation or a collage of events that have occurred over time, making the kitchen a living time
capsule, telling the story of the chawl through food practices.

Every current resident including the children, repeatedly unanimously proclaim that only Jains live in this
chawl. A sense of unity created by religion however changes when one enters individual homes,
particularly the kitchens. Every family follows a different set of cooking, storage and eating practices
that are more suited to the lives of the family, which is governed by economics and the practices that
have been handed over from one generation to the other. Every kitchen operates at different timings
depending on the convenience of the woman who is in charge. Women are still the sole runners of the
kitchen, with the men probably lending a helping hand, at the most preparing a cup of tea or boiling
water for drinking and all of this only when she is menstruating, a slight shift from earlier gender norms
of the cooking area occupied only by women. It is a fact that the objects of the kitchen are gender
neutral, but have over time almost always been only used by the women of the house, thus giving
certain objects a gendered identity. It is only now after almost eight decades the kitchens of Cotton
Chawl have seen the men lend a hand, thus providing new social meanings to the objects in use.
However certain engrained patriarchal attitudes and association continues to hover around the kitchens
of the chawl, as even when guests arrive, the women at once rise from where they are seated and go
straight into the kitchen, bringing out steaming cups of freshly made tea and home-made nibbles to go
on the side. It is as if by a conditioned instinct that the women feel that it is their duty to cook and serve
their family and visiting guests.

There are outspoken taboos revolving around how food is to be made, how it is to be served or even
after the food is consumed, how the utensils are to be washed. However through the decades till the
present day, there has always been that unspoken rule that states that women are the ones who are to
hold the reins of the practices that roll out in the kitchen; women are the ones who are to be physically
and mentally involved in the kitchen. Women who have daughters or daughter –in-laws are expected to
hand over the torch to them lest they be the topic of gossip that runs around in circles. Nevertheless
when it comes to refurbishing the kitchen or even buying new appliances, the women have to always
consult their husbands, the “bread-winner” of the family, who will extend financial help in manifesting
her desires. It is worthy to note that in the matter of the kitchen, she always gets her way as the men
feel it unnecessary to question aspects which they do not understand.

Talking about the trajectories of transformation or change that has occurred in various kitchens across
the Cotton Chawl, there are two distinct extremes that stand out. House 71+83 and House 86, both
located on the second floor of the chawl. The two examples suggest the possible route transformation
may take or lead to in the future. Both these cases have contrasting degrees of transformation that is
possibly linked to the behavior of the society within the chawl. There is a clear shift from the practices
that have been previously highlighted in the essay. The changes of practices, objects, and the residents
of the houses speak about fragmentation in the very community they live in. The two houses are the
outliers, the disruptors of the chawl.

House 71+83:

Figure 9: Kitchen of House 71

Ritu ben stands proudly by her door, waiting for passer bys to peek into her conspicuous kitchen. Walls
clad with white ceramic tiles and the floor with white vitrified tiles, the kitchen is now well lit. Three
years ago, she put her foot down and got herself a new ‘modular’ kitchen, a term synonymous with
kitchens of today, a space she calls her personal own. The cost of re-doing the kitchen, using plywood
with matt laminate finish, stainless steel fitting and fixtures, aluminum framed shelves with frosted
glass, a toilet cum bathroom within the kitchen area, a separate hand wash basin, a tall storage
cupboard, a loft and a new double door fridge, cost the family around Rs. 6 lakhs, an expenditure
unfathomable by many families who lived in the chawl, and was done on her insistence. She wanted her
kitchen, a place which she identified with to be unique, unlike any other kitchen in the chawl. The past
kitchen had to be erased and a careful eye overlooked the execution of the kitchen to ensure that the
kitchen repeated no aesthetics that was present in the chawl.
The ability to re-create the entire space of the kitchen and a supporting budget provided Ritu ben a
creative license. The new design of the kitchen was to sit within the norms of the emergent fad of Vastu
Shastra. The placement of almost all elements in the kitchen depended on instructions provided to Ritu
ben by an appointed Vastu consultant. It was now he (being a man), who would determined the
functioning of the kitchen. Activities in the kitchen were required to adapt to the new layout, however
keeping the essence of certain taboos and practices in continuity. All activities shifted onto the ‘L’
shaped kitchen counter, a central unhindered space was maintained to allow for the family to eat
together in the kitchen, the utensils were all washed in the kitchen sink (unlike earlier when specific
utensils were washed in the sink with the rest in the chowkadi), the earthen pot filled with water was
displayed on top of the kitchen sink which took its place in the line sight through the door, almost
indicating to the ones who spotted it that certain practices were still being maintained within the
kitchen. The Reverse Osmosis system replaced the tedious job of boiling water on a daily basis, thus
saving more time in the kitchen.

Along with the introduction of the RO purifier, there were other appliances like the double door
refrigerator, the hand mixer and the food processor that came into the kitchen, appliances that were
scarcely seen in the chawl that according to many came with the access to disposable income.
The original wash area was converted into a bathroom, equipped with a western WC (facing the south),
a shower area with hot water provision. The water supply to the bathroom is provided through the
internal overhead plastic loft water tank. All pipelines are concealed away from the viewer’s eye,
including the one which leads to the wash basin that faces the east direction. Adjacent to the bathroom
is a small wash basin which is also supplied with water from the loft tank. Including the toilet within the
household was a major step towards personal hygiene and maintaining a healthy environment for the
family. Unlike earlier, when women had to rise before her family to access the otherwise crowded
common toilet and the bathroom, now Ritu ben could ‘cleanse’ herself within the constructs of her own
kitchen, without spending time, waiting in the long queues outside the common toilets.
Ritu ben was very particular as to how her kitchen appeared to the public. She preferred that all the
objects in the kitchen were stowed away behind concealed shelves, not to be seen in the open. She
ensured that there was no clutter found in the kitchen. Certain activities such as washing and drying of
clothes were done in the adjacent tenement (House 83) which was owned by the family. The second
tenement houses storage cupboards, a washing machine, extra miscellaneous items, a study table, and
is equipped with an AC. She uses the second tenement as her sleeping space when she gets her
menstruation, with the husband and son, bringing in food from outside, and water, whenever required.
Overall cooking, eating, washing, waste management practices were fragmented, due to the access of a
second home, which reflects on the affordability of renting out two tenements within the chawl. Her
kitchen and its counterpart is an example of how ‘modern’ living is expected to fit itself within the rules
and regulations set out by a traditional superstitious framework of living.
Why was there a need to stand out? Why was there a need to use materials and appliances which were
seldom used in the chawl? It is evident that chawl life cannot be uniform throughout the chawl, given
the varied economic conditions, affordability and the rent structures. Often one would hear the chawl
women say that they urge their sons to buy or rent apartments outside the chawl, this is because many
women who get married to men in the chawl do not prefer shifting into the chawl. Ritu ben has a single
son who is currently doing his B.Com and would soon be eligible for marriage. According to her, she as a
mother, wanted to provide a comfortable environment for her future extended family, a space that is
different but yet rooted within the chawl, with all its social networks intact. But considering that she
herself is a person, who prefers to remain organized, uncluttered and was pleased to receive
compliments for the way she is, the re-development of the kitchen with the financial aid by her
husband, seemed to be a manifestation of Ritu ben’s personal desire.
The highly transformed ‘modular’ kitchen of House 71 also may suggest one of the possible trajectories
the kitchens of the chawl are headed towards, a move towards an organized spatial planning, efficient
spatial use, modified practices of display, better lit and more hygienic.
House 86

Figure 10: House 86

Tucked in a corner on the second floor level, along the single room tenement row of the Cotton Chawl,
is House no. 86, which belongs to the single occupant, Sharadha ben One can often catch her
seated on her haunches in the common corridor, eating ice! With the diagonal patterned kotah flooring
of the corridor seeping into the house, there appears to be a physical connection of the interior with the
exterior. The 5.2 x 3.6 m house is packed with piles of discarded cloth and a meandering pathway
consciously carved through the musty scented heap, connecting the entrance doorway and the wash
area.
The window of the wash area and the doorway are the only openings of the house that bring in light and
ventilation, as the rest of the windows are blocked by framed plywood boards. The closed windows act
as secondary storage for the area designated as a cooking area. The cooking area, situated in the far
west end of the room contains a north facing gas stove, a small sized cylinder, rusted utensils, discarded
ladles and beaten up vessels that that are placed within a basket on top of the Reinforced concrete
masonry water tank. The room is lined on three sides with overhead wooden shelves which hold 1/2 ft
high repetitive aluminum containers neatly placed one next to the other.
Although the room bears evidences of a basic kitchen, it blatantly suggests that the kitchen has recently
ceased to be in a functional condition. Sharadhaben claims that House 86 is sanctioned under her
brother’s name and the room functions as his warehouse to store cotton cloth pieces. Space was made
within the room initially to accommodate a kitchen, which was presumed to beget a livable
environment.
Sharadha ben strains hard to remember when she stopped using the kitchen and when she started
working at the Jain Bhojanalay in Panjara Pol, which is a five minute walk from the Cotton Chawl. The
Bhojanalay allows Sharadha ben to work and earn her three meals at fixed timings everyday. She never
misses a single day of work! The redundancy of the House 86 kitchen thus establishes connections of the
Bhojanalay with the Cotton Chawl, which serves as its institutional kitchen.
The kitchen of House 86 is a grim reminder to the people at the chawl that there is a future possibility,
an alternative trajectory, that the kitchen may become redundant, backed up by fading practices, the
current younger generation moving out and the availability of food institutions around the chawl.
However it is worthy to note that Sharadha ben had access to the life saving Bhojanalay only because of
the chawl. Due to the chawl’s high dependencies on the neighbouring religious, social, commercial
institutions present in Panjara Pol, it allows for people like Sharadha ben to set up a barely adequate
home.
Conclusion
It is interesting to see how chawls were built by men, for men and previously also occupied by men,
however when mothers or wives came to the city, they most definitely required changes around the
concept of the chawl set up. In order to convert the bare housing unit into the home, the women
negotiated with the idea of men shared space, which created a shift in the way newer chawls were
designed and built, Cotton Chawl also being one of them. The women, using the kitchen as an extension
of the main home, personalized the compact kitchen space with personal kitchenware belongings she
got along with her from their village homes or even with heirlooms handed over to her by her mother-
in-law, these would bring back associated memories into the house, creating a sense of familiarity.

Time added objects into the kitchens, objects that triggered spatial transformation with paths of
movement carved through the placement of the objects. The objects that entered the kitchen may have
been small and not all of them would have been conducive to wealth or wellbeing, however, the objects
participated in the activities that revolved around cooking, eating, washing, storage and waste
management. Being a part of the kitchen, these objects assumed gendered use and would mostly be
used by the women of the house. With every introduction of an object that functioned differently from
the previous objects used for the same activity, the body required to un-learn, re-learn and adapt to
using the new addition within the space. Habitual body movement was constantly disturbed and there
was a shift in the ways the body encountered the space. Many infrastructure changes also brought
about spatial negotiation, where the body either found freedom in the case of privatized bathrooms or
was forcefully required to change the way activities were done in the kitchen like in the case of the
construction of the kitchen counter.

Even though the women were the main users of the kitchen, the men inevitably took decisions as to
what were the new technologies available in the market that were to be included as a part of the
kitchens and most often bought them. Many kitchens of Cotton Chawl welcomed these new objects or
new technologies as means to advance in social development, improve the well being and ease life,
however there were a few who pragmatically accepted the objects as something to live with, thus
learning to use and adapted them into the everyday work they did in the kitchen. Decisions regarding
infrastructural changes required within the kitchen were always taken by the women who wished to
safe-guard their privacy and ease the work at the kitchen front and through the segments of the essay,
many of the infrastructural changes did follow their requests. Modernity at different stages came in the
form as both objects and infrastructure, both of which required people to get used to in terms of
concepts but ultimately served a larger purpose. The kitchens stand as living signs of modernity within
the chawl, untouched by the other functions of the main living/ bedroom area or even the verandahs
that have not manage to spill with the kitchens.

With number of families moving out and a handful of people living currently in the chawl, it would be
interesting to see which direction the kitchens of Cotton Chawl take – the path of the further
development of modernity or the altogether death of the kitchen. Only time will tell.