India and Portugal: A Spicy and Starchy Affair

  As Indians when we think of the Portuguese, our thoughts are those of foreigners and colonizers , people who we once wanted to become independent of. If asked to think of their impact on us, we only associate them with Goa, their primary colony in India and the place with the most noticeable influences. Even in terms of food we mostly think of Goan wine or the dish vindaloo.  But in reality there are a whole lot of other Portuguese influences that go unheralded that we as Indians use as extremely essential commodities. Some of them are straightforward in their Portuguese origins such as tobacco. On the other hand some of them are often controversial like Pineapples, which few believe were there in India since the time of the Maurya (322-185 BC) and Gupta (320-550 CE) reign, as written in the book “Ancient India: History and Culture” by Balkrishna Govind Gokhale while others say that it was brought in by the Portuguese in 1548. While we spent years becoming independent from t...

  As mentioned earlier, an integral ingredient used in Indian cuisine – the Chilli was introduced to India by the Portuguese. Chillies were originally discovered by Christopher Columbus in South America. Pedro Álveras Cabral was the first Portuguese voyager to discover chillies in 1500 when he sailed to Brazil, creating a triangular network among Portugal, Brazil and India. The Western coast of India was its doorway into the subcontinent, from where its utilization spread throughout the nation. Its introduction into South India was through the port of Goa, whereas its spread throughout North India was facilitated by the Marathas during Shivaji’s rule, when the Maratha army was deployed in the North to contest the Mughal Empire.                                        Fig: Chillies in India                           ...

Though they have arrived only about 500 years ago, chillies have become an essential part of both our diet and our culture. There are many varieties grown all over India, Birds-Eye (M izoram & M anipur ), Byadagi (D harwar , K arnataka ), Ellachipur Sannam-S4 type (A maravathi , M aharashtra ), Guntur S annam- S 4 type (A ndhra P radesh) , Jwala (K heda, M ehsana and G ujarat ), Kanthari- W hite (K erala and T amil N adu ), Kashmir C hilli (H imachal P radesh and J ammu and K ashmir , and N orth I ndia during winter ), Madhya P radesh G . T. S annam (I ndore, M alkapur C hikli and E lachpur ) etc. [1] Bhut Jolokia grown in Assam was awarded the Guinness World record for being the hottest chilli in 2007. [2]                    F ig: Some chillies in India [3]                                             ...

  Indian cuisine is rife with innovative fares of the potato. Innumerable dishes are rich with this starchy goodness, and today its prevalence in India slashes across class, caste and religious boundaries. To the modern Indian, not finding the soft potato filling in the masala dosa will be oddly confounding, as will discovering that the samosa they ordered in a restaurant came stuffed with mincemeat and aubergine, instead of the customary spicy potato. But this was exactly the picture about 500 years ago. The samosa, for example, is elaborately described in a 15 th -century text called the Nimatnama , the Book of Delights, patronised by Sultan Ghiyas al-Din Khilji, ruler of Malwa in the late 13 th century. Out of the eight recipes chronicled about the royal relish, none include the indispensable potato. In fact, it was only in the 17 th century that the potato was introduced to the subcontinent, indubitably linked with the trade routes developed by the memorable Vasco da Gama. A...

  In the 17 th century, the British East India company upon arriving discovered that in spite of potato’s introduction to the subcontinent by Portuguese traders, its cultivation and consumption was scant. Unsuitable hot and dry climatic conditions were initially held responsible. Promotion of the tuber regardless of climatic limitations had multi-layered motivations. According to Utsa Ray, in the 18 th and 19 th century potato had been a staple among Britain’s lower economic classes, and thus been disdained. Regardless, it was popularized in Ireland for preservation against famine, and the “food for poor” sentiment caused its dissemination in India too. According to others, colonialism and the trendy Enlightenment ideologies on happiness made potato a prominent addition to the Indian cuisine. Food historian Rachael Earle remarks that colonizers deemed public happiness their supreme ambition, which entailed it was their right, even a cardinal “moral imperative” to rule over India...

Blog Post 1: Roma https://theindianvegan.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-about-pineapple-in- india.html https://scroll.in/article/773707/what-really-happened-when-vasco-da-gama-set-foot-in-india Blog Post 2: Niranjana https://www.firstpost.com/india/how-potatoes-and-chillies-conquered-indian-cuisine-6329111.html   1.      Chillies : A Global History https://b-ok.asia/book/3696242/399f8f?regionChanged=&redirect=35472166#:~:text=PEppered %20with%20lively%20anecdotes%2C%20humorous%20stories%20and%20details,spice%20up% 20your%20bookshelf.%20click%20to%20read%20more   2.      indianmirror.com https://www.indianmirror.com/ayurveda/indian-spices/chilli.html 3.      How Chilli Came to India : History of Chilli : Food Trivia : The Foodie https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=history+of+green+chilli+in+india&&view=detail&mid=E045AA00C06DB452177AE045AA00C06DB452177A&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dhistory%2Bof%2Bgr...