Author: Lizzie Collingham (2006)
Most of India's staple diet was khichari, a simple dish with two grains boiled in water. The grains may be rice, millet, lentils, chickpeas, or whatever is harvested. The Brahmans had their food restrictions, and so did the Jains. They had a medico-spiritual relationship with food. The preparation of food was according to Ayurvedic principles. Food was divine. The average Hindu in that era ate only two meals a day, one if you were very poor. So, it was a culture shock for them to see Faranghis eating so many times and, what's more, so much meat. Holy Cow, indeed.
Opulence was the order of the day at the Moghul palaces. After all, the Quran promises much drinking, eating, and pleasures as rewards in the afterlife. Therefore, the Moghuls emphasised food, scents, sex, and ascetics. They were quite adventurous with their food. The nomadic invaders brought in the culture of pilau, in which rice or other grains were mixed with meat.
For the Moghuls, lavish dinners were their trademark to show their supremacy to the occasional foreign visitor. The rulers were open to new recipes. Almonds and raisins became part of their cooking. A spicier version of pilau called biryani came about. The commoners also tried experimenting with what the palace cooks did with their own cooking.
To accommodate one morbidly obese Moghul king who was a foodie but had such rotten teeth that he could chew his meat, somebody came up with the idea of mincing the meat. Thus, Kimma was born.
The East Indian Company and the British Raj personnel who returned home after their tours of duty could not just live without their Indian-flavoured foods. Some entrepreneurial mavericks tried to sell packed curry powders to the British. Of they were far from the real McCoy. Some sailors from India also set up eating shops to fulfil palatal cravings.
Curry is a British invention. The Indians do not call any of their dishes curry. Instead, they call their dishes by their names, rogan gosh or korma. The British lumped all of them together as curry.
Indian cooking could not be reined in. As the Indian diaspora migrated or were sent as labourers to various places worldwide, cravings kept spreading. Indian cooking style spread to the Caribbean, the Malayan archipelago, the Southeast Asian countries, the Pacific islands of Fiji and Tonga, and even Japan. Surprisingly, one country where curry occupies a position of national importance almost equal to the place of Indian food in Britain is Japan, which has no colonial connection with India and indeed boasts its own sophisticated food culture. The Japanese found it easier to feed their large army during WW2.
During the British Empire, when indulging in the exotic of Eastern mysticism was hip, it later became low-brow to consume curry. It then turned upon itself to come a full circle. In 2001, Chicken Tikka Masala became the British National Dish. One can probably find Indian food or something claiming to be Indian anywhere globally. This must be another of India's soft power.
Over the centuries, new foodstuffs and recipes have transformed Indian food. In modern India, the kitchens of the growing Indian bourgeoisie have joined the imperial kitchens of the Mughal emperors, the bakehouses of the Portuguese settlers at Goa, the Vaisnavite temple kitchens in the south, and the cookhouses of the British in India as the engines of culinary change.
Tea gets a special mention here as it was the British went all out to promote tea in India. There was no divine calling to make Indians drink this beverage. It was all economics. The British tried to introduce it in public places, including railway stations. The Indians were quite happy with water and buttermilk. In the South, coffee was a favourite indulgence. The British could not understand why Indians mixed so many things into their teas- spice, copious amounts of milk, ginger, and how they boil the tea leaves. Well, eat your words. Chai tea is a real thing now.
