Author Archives: Tanya Matthan

Tanya Matthan is a Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geography, University of California Berkeley. She studies experiences of agrarian uncertainty in central India.
Women agricultural workers sort onions into brightly colored tubs (Author 2019)

You Are What You Grow: Crops, Cultivation, and Caste in India

Fieldwork can produce odd obsessions. As an anthropologist studying agrarian risk economies, mine was onions. In the central Indian region of Malwa where I conducted research, onions seemed to be everywhere. As I observed (and occasionally, but poorly, assisted with) farm work, I became fascinated by the bulb: its seasonal shades of pink shifting from winter magenta to a spring blush; the way its bright green stalks stood perfectly upright in the field; the speculative frenzy of the auction during peak season; its pungent flavor in raw, pickled, or fried form; and not least, the unexpected wealth it produced for a few and the dashed hopes and devastation it wreaked on most others. (read more...)