Food Choices and Food Culture in South Asia and Their Convergences with The Global South: A Cultural, Literary, and Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Food culture constitutes a crucial dimension of social identity, historical continuity, and economic structure, particularly within societies of the Global South. South Asia, with its deep-rooted agrarian traditions, religious philosophies, and colonial encounters, presents a complex culinary landscape that shares multiple convergences with food cultures across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. This article explores food choices and food practices in South Asian countries and examines their structural, cultural, and symbolic similarities with other Global South regions. Using an interdisciplinary framework that combines cultural studies, literary documentation, and secondary numerical data, the study highlights staple dependence, plant-forward diets, ritualized food consumption, and traditional knowledge systems. Graphical and numerical representations are employed to illustrate comparative patterns of staple consumption, vegetarian prevalence, and dietary transitions. The paper argues that food cultures of South Asia and the Global South reflect shared historical trajectories of colonialism, subsistence economies, and cultural resilience, while also undergoing transformation under globalization and urbanization.