No, Mamdani Isn't ‘Uncivilised' for Eating with his Hands

The Wire

5 days ago

A recent social media clash between liberals and conservatives surrounding US Congressman Brandon Gill's insult aimed at New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has reignited an old, unresolved question: what does it mean to be 'civilised'?
Gill, the youngest Republican representative from Texas, tweeted – with smug confidence – that Americans use forks and spoons because they are 'civilised'. This was in context to a video interview in which Mamdani was seen eating Biryani with his hand.
The subtext was loud and clear: eating with one's hands, as many in Asia, Africa, and other 'non-Western' parts of the world do, is somehow primitive or uncultured.
But such a view isn't just arrogant – it reeks of historical amnesia and the hangover of colonial thinking. Eating habits aren't a measure of progress; they are shaped by weather, geography, tradition and spiritual philosophy. Treating them as a civilisation test is not only silly – it is a form of cultural bullying.
Civilisation is what people make of it
To understand how we got here, it is worth pausing to reconsider the word "civilised'. Who decides what counts as civilised, and who gets left out?
The sociologist Norbert Elias tried to answer this back in the 1930s. He argued that ideas of "civilised" behaviour are not eternal truths – they change over time, depending on who's in power and what's considered respectable. In medieval Europe, people of all classes, even nobles, used their hands or a knife to eat. Forks came much later, introduced from the East – through trade routes, contact with Islamic cultures and Byzantine influence. At first, they were treated with suspicion. Some even thought them ungodly.
Forks didn't become common until the 17th or 18th centuries, and even then, it wasn't about hygiene – it was about class. The fork became a symbol not of advancement, but of status – something the elite could use to show they were different from the poor.
If that's what 'civilised' means, then maybe we need to rethink the word.
The culture behind eating with hand
In large parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, eating with hands is not just normal – it's a meaningful act. In Indian traditions, food is seen as sacred, and eating with your hands brings the body and mind closer to it. In Ayurveda, it's believed to help digestion and engage the senses.
In Islamic culture, the Prophet Muhammad encouraged eating with the right hand – a gesture of respect and cleanliness. In Ethiopia, meals like injera are shared by hand, symbolising love and community. Across Southeast Asia, in countries like Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, eating with one's hand is tied to custom and comfort.
This isn't about being 'undeveloped' but about being connected – to food, to people, to culture. In fact, the industrial dining practices that we now associate with modernity – eating alone, in a hurry, with a metal tool – often feel cold and isolating, by comparison.
Still stuck in the Orientalist gaze
Brandon Gill's tweet is not a harmless opinion – it fits neatly into a pattern that Edward Said called Orientalism. Said showed how Western powers, especially during colonial times, painted the East as strange, backwards and inferior – not to understand it, but to dominate it.
One of the easiest ways to do this was through food. Eating with your hands? That became shorthand for dirty or uncultured. The fork, by contrast, was held up as a badge of civilisation. It's a double standard that persists in the classroom, in pop culture, in airports, and apparently, even in the US Congress.
A fork doesn't define civilisation
Historian Dipesh Chakrabarty, in his critique of how we treat Europe as the centre of history, reminds us that no single region gets to define what progress looks like for the rest of the world.
India had rich traditions around food, hygiene and community dining long before forks appeared in Europe. Ancient texts like the Mahabharata (fictional) describe detailed rituals around meals – handwashing, sitting on the floor, sharing food with guests – all of which were seen as civilised and sacred.
In China, chopsticks developed alongside a cuisine that suited them. In the Americas, indigenous societies had their own unique food cultures that didn't need forks or knives. The idea that civilisation requires a fork is laughably narrow, and false.
Table manners as tools of control
During British rule in India, colonial officers often ridiculed hand-eating. It wasn't just about different habits – it was about asserting power. Indians were told their way was wrong, dirty, uncivilised. Victorian table manners were taught in schools.
Cutlery wasn't about convenience; it was about obedience.
Anthropologist Franz Boas once said that no culture can be judged by another's standards. What matters is the context. The British weren't sharing etiquette tips – they were using manners as weapons to make Indian subjects feel ashamed of themselves.
That's not civilisation – that's domination.
Science catches up
Today, scientific studies show that eating with your hands can help digestion and encourage mindful eating. Your fingers can sense temperature and texture, making you more aware of what you're consuming. Many nutritionists now suggest that sensory eating helps people feel full sooner and make better food choices.
Ironically, the fork – often treated as the ultimate tool of refinement – may make us eat faster and less consciously. So much for being 'civilised'.
Food, race and respect
In his book The Ethnic Restaurateur, Krishnendu Ray talks about how immigrant food is often loved but the people behind it are not.
When Donald Trump cooked and served French fries at McDonald's with his bare hands – to appease to the working class – he was praised. But when Zohran Mamdani, with his brown, working-class hands, touches rice, he is judged, humiliated and called uncivilised.
Clearly, there's a double standard at play here.
It's not about forks or fingers — it's about power, race, and respect. The same biryani, eaten with a fork, becomes exotic and Instagrammable. Eaten with fingers, however, it becomes a joke. That says more about our prejudices than about the food.
What is civilisation, after all?
If civilisation means dignity, compassion, curiosity and openness to other ways of life, then eating with a fork or your fingers does not make one more or less civilised.
And if using a fork were the gold standard, then Donald Trump, a man who eats KFC with silverware in a gold-plated room, would top the chart. But given his other track record: mocking a disabled reporter, inciting a violent mob, cutting off aid to Ukraine during wartime, demeaning women and minorities regularly – is that civilisation?
As former UN under-secretary-general and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor recently pointed out – though he stopped short of actually calling the him uncivilised – that he does not consider the Trump the most uncivilised president he has ever encountered.
'I was going to say uncivilised, but I thought that might not be polite,' he said in an interview, adding,
'I had the great honour of meeting four or five American presidents … these are people of a certain class, a certain distinction. But there was a certain political heft, statesman‑like gravitas and intellectual quality that I find woefully lacking in this gentleman.'
Trump even had the Resolute Desk 'temporarily' removed from the Oval Office, reportedly because a child wiped their nose on it. A few days later, he humiliated the Ukrainian president in public while delaying crucial aid. If this is what civilisation looks like, maybe we need to start asking different questions.
Brandon Gill, who idolises Trump, should consider this: the real threat to civilisation isn't a man eating rice with his fingers. It's a world where cruelty is called strength and ignorance is passed off as pride.
A truly civilised person is one who stands up for human dignity, the marginalised sections of society, and the underprivileged nations of the world – not the one who targets them with a capitalist, business-driven mindset.
Civility has nothing to do with what's on your plate or how you eat – it's about how you use the power you hold. And real power demands restraint, empathy and respect – not angry outbursts in one of the most important rooms in the world.
Abhijay A is policy analyst and independent researcher specialising in international relations, public policy and global diplomacy.