How to eat with your hand in India - the traditional Indian eating style

In a country like India, eating with hands is quite a traditional and an ongoing practice, despite the onslaught of western culture and etiquette.Eating with hands is the most natural, hassle-free and convenient practice. By using your hand, you are able to feel the temperature and texture of the food; you are in a position to mix different food items well; For people with chewing problems (like lack of teeth), crushing and mashing the food items and mixing well with fluids to make a homogenous paste for easy eating is conveniently done with the hand.

Here are some guidelines on how to eat with your hands.

Eat with the right hand:The traditional way of eating (in India) is to use only the right hand. Even natural left-handers are trained to eat with the right hand only, right from the childhood. Occasionally, in some segments of the society (in some northern parts of India), use of both hands to eat is permitted on specific counts, like when a piece of Indian bread ("Roti"/ "Chapati") is too hard to tear with a single hand. While eating with the right hand, the left hand is used for self-serving of food and for taking a glass of water.

Wash the hand thoroughly before eating:

Washing of the hand (fingers palm and back-hand) is done thoroughly, preferably using soap before eating. To ensure hygiene, finger nails are to be pruned periodically. Growing of right hand finger-nails for beauty or applying nail polish to them are not encouraged for hygienic reasons.

You can eat food off the dining table or by sitting on floor:

The traditional Indian way of eating is by squatting on the floor. Mats or wooden planks are at times used for seating. Eating with hands off the dining table is also quite acceptable.

You can use all the fingers and the palm:

All the fingers and the palm are used for thoroughly mixing different food items (for example rice with “Sambar”, “Rasam” (these are typical liquid savories that are consumed with rice in South India). The food is then taken using the four fingers (except the thumb) as though in a table spoon, the quantity lifted being just enough for a mouthful to chew, scooped into the mouth and the thumb is used to push the content into the mouth. Ideally, inserting fingers into the mouth is not encouraged, but inserting the four fingers “a little bit inside the mouth” to avoid spillage may be acceptable in south India, where rice is the main food; but such a practice will be considered rustic and unsophisticated by some others in north India!.

Sucking the food graciously from the fingers without making noise may be tolerated, though making a slurping sound and licking the fingers are considered bad etiquettes while eating in public or among guests and strangers. (Such ‘protocol deviations’ are accepted while eating amidst close family members!).

In case of eating bread (or the Indian bread “Chapati” / “Roti”), use the fingers to tear a chewable portion of the bread, fold it judiciously and scoop a comfortable quantity of the side-dish with the bread, use the thumb to hold the side dish and take the content to the mouth without spilling.

The art of eating from plantain leaf:

Food can be eaten from plates using your hands, which is normally the practice at homes. When guests in limited numbers arrive, plates are offered to them.

However, in case of feasts at home during festivals or special occasions, and in case of public functions like marriages, it is customary to serve food in plantain leaves in South India. A variety of delicious food items in various forms – solid, semi-solid and liquid – will be served in the plantain leaves and people eat them using hands matter-of-factly with little hassle.

For those not accustomed to eating this way, it could be a daunting task when liquid south-Indian delicacies (like 'Sambar', 'Rasam' etc) are served, which are to be judiciously mixed with the rice and consumed without allowing them to "run away" from the leaf! It definitely requires some practice. To obviate such difficulties now-a-days, in public functions, liquid items are served in cups. But eating in plantain leaves does remain, which is a valued tradition in South India and it is nature-friendly and healthy too.

Procedure after eating:

After eating, proceed to the wash basin and wash your hand and fingers (using soap) and wash your mouth thoroughly by gargling water and spitting it.

There may be slight variations in the post-eating practices followed in different families. After eating the food, moderate cleaning of the fingers using a little bit of water right at the plate itself is acceptable in some families while it may not be tolerated in some other families. Such mild washing is definitely not acceptable in case of eating off the plantain leaves for obvious reasons.

In most of the families, each family member is to carry the plate to the wash basin and wash it himself/herself.

As for guests, it is normally the practice to request the guests to leave the plate right at the dining place and one of the lady members of the host will volunteer to clean it. Where the members of the host family follow the habit of cleaning their plates themselves, then a good gesture from the point of view of the guest is to insist on carrying his plate and cleaning it himself/herself. If the host objects (which is normally the case, since guests are to be treated with utmost respect as per Indian culture), then the plate can be left behind and the guest can proceed to wash his hand and mouth.

Little children and very aged people are exempt from the practice of self-cleaning of plates within a family.

There are also families where it is normal for all the members and guests to leave their plates behind and the plates are collected by someone and left for cleaning later by servants.

When plantain leaves are used, the leaves are left behind by one and all and the leaves are collected together and disposed of later.

Unlike the western culture, eating from hand is never considered unhygienic in countries where it is the practice. It is a very amusing fact of life that eating with knives and forks is found to be a highly daunting task for those used to eating with their hands. It is equally amusing to see a westerner struggling awkwardly to use his hand to eat when facing such a predicament in an alien culture!