In the eleventh episode, I speak to Benjamin Siegel, Assistant Professor of History, Boston University, on his recent book - Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. The book argues that the tasks and responsibilities incumbent under feeding India post independence, as it emerged from the worst famine on record, was central to India's nation-building process. Food was essential and at the core of India's transition from colonial rule to nationhood engendering debates that involved not just planners and policymakers but Indian citizens from all walks of life who participated with verve. Siegel's book shows how food shaped the emergent structures and axes of politics in independent India as politicians, planners, scientists and citizens sought to influence agrarian policies with lasting effects. The conversation begins by understanding how Siegel came to this topic before moving to unpack why and how food spoke to so many formative political questions at India's founding. Next, we cover the 1943 Bengal famine and how the calamitous event politicised Indians across the country as the nationalist movement forged ahead. The conversation then moves to understand how food policies in the 1950s, 60s and 70s informed and shaped India's political economy over the 20th century and the various efforts led by bureaucrats, including dietary edicts, to manage and protect India's fragile food stocks. The conversation ends by connecting the book to recent farmer protests in India precipitated by the current Indian government's desire to pull back from the agricultural sector.  Links https://www.cambridge.org/sg/academic/subjects/history/south-asian-history/hungry-nation-food-famine-and-making-modern-india?format=PB