Indian Traditions on Table Manners

Eating is essential to Asian culture, and it is no different in India. India takes pride in its creative and somewhat weird foods. Nonetheless, the one main goal is creating good, delicious, and spicy foods. India is known to be one of most traditional and religious country in Asia; while eating a person can offend a lot people and God without realizing it.

In this article, I will cover the details on Indian etiquette while eating. The goal is to minimize all the misunderstandings during a happy occasion that one should be enjoying. All of these rules are general and you can use these rules in any occasion that you will attend. This means that while eating at somebody's home or eating out you can relate it back to these basic rules. Sounds good?

india etiquette

Always be late...

First things first. When you get invited to a meal, always expect that it will be at the person's house. From Indian cultural perspective, it is considered an insult to their wife and guests if they invite you to a restaurant. If you get invited to a meal, please never arrive early because either you will stand outside the door for a while or the people will look at you like you are loco (crazy). You may wonder, "Why doesn't anybody want to do the locomotion with me?" (Hehe.) You should always be late. As a matter of fact, the Indian natives will expect you to be fifteen to thirty minutes late. Even that amount is considered to be early because some people may be even an hour late.

For example, let's say the host invited you to come around 8:00. You probably won't sit down to eat until 9:00 to 9:15 at the earliest. My suggestion is to eat a bag of Cheetos before you arrive. (Cheetos, if you are reading this, I'm open for advertisements, hehe.)

One thing you should know about Indian food is that it is spicy. Sometimes it is even spicier than Thai food, so if you cannot eat spicy food then you may need to let your host know in advance. Or else, you will sit there with a bowl of curry with the tears in your eyes.

Should I clean my hands?

The answer is yes, and YES. It is a custom in India to clean your hands before eating. There are two reasons for this custom. First, Indian food is the customarily eaten with the hands. Second, the majority of the Indian meal is laid out like a buffet, which means everybody eats out of the same dish. To protect yourself and everybody else, please clean your hands. Common sense, right?

Look Mom, no chair?

If the host is from a traditional family, which the majority of Indians are, then you are expected to sit on the floor or on a very low wooden chair while eating. As the same time, the males and females are generally segregated or divided during meal time. For a westernized Indian family, males and females may sit together; however, it is very rare to have a conversation between opposite sexes.

As a guest you will be seated first and you can sit anywhere as you like. Unlike Chinese customs, India has no seat of honor.

Indian culture is the same as the rest of the world, meaning it is dominated by the men. During the meal, the males will be served first, second will be the children, third will be the women, and last but not least will be the cooks.

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Raphita Tobing