From Ritual to Innovation: Cross-Sector Partnerships for Sustaining Culinary Heritage among Chittagongian Hindu Bengalis in Northeast India

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-533-1_53How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Culinary heritage; Chittagongian Bengali; cross-sector partnerships; cultural sustainability; diaspora foodways

Abstract

This study looks at approaches to preserve the culinary traditions of the Chittagongian Hindu Bengali population in Northeast India, starting with ceremonial transmission and ending with creative cross-sector collaborations. Through ritual, oral tradition, and intergenerational memory, this diasporic group’s dietary practices have historically acted as embodied archives. However, the persistence of these customs is being put under growing pressure by urbanization, migration, and globalization processes. Using Memory Studies, Performance Studies, and Diaspora Studies as a framework, the research also incorporates sustainable development and heritage management to make the case that modern preservation necessitates cooperative, adaptive strategies.

The study emphasizes how collaborations between educational institutions, cultural organizations, the tourism industry, and local entrepreneurs might establish inclusive ecosystems that preserve and reinvent Chittagongian cuisine by drawing on ethnographic testimonies, community customs, and cultural initiatives. Festivals, online repositories, and business endeavours are examples of places where ritual knowledge is preserved and repurposed into robust, collaborative processes. The study emphasizes how innovation rooted in tradition may guarantee continuity, economic sustainability, and cultural cohesion for diasporic groups in the Northeast by positioning food as both a cultural text and a development resource.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Saswati Bordoloi
AU  - Aditi Dey
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - From Ritual to Innovation: Cross-Sector Partnerships for Sustaining Culinary Heritage among Chittagongian Hindu Bengalis in Northeast India
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart Systems and Social Management (ICSSSM-2 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 901
EP  - 920
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-533-1_53
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-533-1_53
ID  - Bordoloi2025
ER  -