Biopower on a Plate: Widowhood, Food and the Control of the Female Body

Abstract

India, despite being a rapidly growing economy and a diverse cultural hub, continues to uphold traditions rooted in patriarchy and caste-based oppression. Among these, widowhood remains a striking example of gendered marginalization, particularly in Bengali society. Widows are denied remarriage, isolated in ashrams, stripped of colourful attire, subjected to head shaving and placed on austere diets excluding garlic, onion and meat. These practices, often masked as tradition, function as instruments of discipline that regulate women’s bodies and desires. This paper examines Rabindranath Tagore’s Chokher Bali and Deepa Mehta’s Water to analyze widowhood as more than personal bereavement as a socially constructed identity enforced through ritual and surveillance. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopower and panopticism, it argues that food restrictions operate as technologies of control, desexualizing and moralizing the widow. Ultimately, widowhood emerges as a site where cultural ritual intersects with systemic  oppression and patriarchal power.