Silent Cuisines : The Unsung & Disappearing Foodways of Gujarat’s Adivasis

On 1st May 2025,  in the presence of well-wishers, Adivasi community members, family, and friends, we launched Silent Cuisines, a book we created to understand, honour, and celebrate the unsung and vanishing food traditions of Gujarat’s Adivasi communities.

This book is the result of almost two years of journeying into kitchens nestled deep within the forests, foothills, and heartlands of Gujarat’s northeastern districts. It has been a journey not just across geography, but across seasons, traditions, and timeless ways of living that many of us may have otherwise never known.

Silent Cuisines is a 150-page hard bound book written and photographed by me, facilitated by Aranya and published by Disha.  The book covers cornerstone culinary practices of Adivasi communities residing in six northeastern districts of Gujarat. It features 50+ well-documented heirloom recipes each accompanied by full-page images.

It’s easy to romanticise the Adivasi way of life, but the truth is, these communities have often lived at the margins, their wisdom overlooked, their contributions unseen. Through this book, we wish to honour them,  their traditions, their knowledge, and most of all, their silent but extraordinary cuisines.

From the very beginning, my effort has always been simple: to remain true and authentic as the voice of the people who so generously opened their homes, hearts, and kitchens to me. I sincerely hope that through Silent Cuisines, I have been able to genuinely portray their spirit, their stories, and their foodways.

I am grateful to every host family, every elder, every child who has supported the maki go this book. Their patience, humour, and generosity stitched together the soul of this work. Each recipe documented here was not just cooked; it was lived, laughed over, and shared.

My immense gratitude to Paulomee and the entire Aranya team for being the best enablers one could hope for. Paulomee, this book was our shared vision, hank you for trusting me with it.

The book can be ordered from here Aranya

Manish Vaidya is a fellow creative whose sensibilities as a photographer I admire a lot. He volunteered to tag along on one of our documentation trips. Read about his experience here