Rhizome networks : turmeric’s global journey from haldi doodh to turmeric latte

Abstract

Turmeric has a long history of use in South and Southeast Asia going back thousands of years. Its first known reference is found in the Atharva Veda, one of the four Vedic texts of Hinduism. In Sanskrit it has over fifty names based on its use in cuisine, cosmetics, folk medicine, as dye and in Hindu cultural and religious rituals. Turmeric is also gendered in Sanskrit; it is feminised as gauri (to make fair, also a woman’s name), jayanti (winning over disease, also a woman’s name) and Lakshmi (prosperity, also a woman’s name as well as the goddess Lakshmi). It is the base spice in ‘curry’, central to marriage and religious rituals among many Indian communities and a staple of folk medicine for conditions ranging from sore throats to rheumatism and as antiseptic and antibiotic (jayanti). Haldi doodh (turmeric milk) is a common folk remedy for coughs, sore throats and related respiratory conditions. Turmeric, or haldi (its Hindi name) has also entered the global self-care and health foods wellness discourse with curcumin supplements being readily available in health shops and pharmacies. In the last few years it has also entered global popular culture with the introduction of beverages such as turmeric latte, aka, haldi doodh.

Using Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of ‘rhizome thinking’ (1987), which recognises connections rather than ruptures, this article explores the global circulation of turmeric discourses as networks anchored in aspects of Vedic culture. In this framing, the metaphoric rhizome of curcuma longa is rooted in ancient Vedic culture but like the rhizome, has sprouted a multiplicity of offshoots, connections and discourses in networks of reciprocity and re-invigoration rather than only networks of cultural appropriations and cultural bastardisation. These discourses are gendered both in the deployment of the feminised attributes such as gauri and jayanti as well as in the domain of beauty and wellness branding by predominantly female food and wellness ‘gurus’. The article argues that this global circulation and sprouting of offshoots has imbricated turmeric in a globalised matrix of discursive meanings and social cultural practices that are rhizomatic.