Crafting The Social Biography of Regional Sweets in Bengal

Sweets are an integral part of Bengali socio-cultural life and are widely represented as a social thing shaped through collective practice.Different regions of Bengal are known for their distinctive sweets, and this perception of singularity is constructed through layered justifications.Such elements contribute to the making of sweet-related myths that not only enhance regional identity but also shape patterns of consumption and circulation with broader economic and cultural frameworks.Existing scholarship largely explains value formation through collective perception, yet remains insufficient in identifying the initial agents who construct and institute these meanings.The present study addresses this gap by examining how singularity is justified and how these claims are reconfigured within the process of commodification.The research is based on ethnographic research conducted in different regions, selecting eight sweetshops through purposive sampling, participant observation to understand behavioural practices, an unstructured interview schedule to articulate their perspective openly, and generating nuanced insights into the social life of sweets, and finally, narrative analysis to examine how producers or traders embed meaning in what they create.