Introduction
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 them, there are a variety of commodities of theirs that we are wholly dependent on. Two of which are primarily Chillies and Potatoes- the pillars of Indian cuisine that are used at least once a day in most Indian households.
Looking back it seems almost ironic, that when Vasco Da Gama came to India, the fabled spice lands, in 1498 all the goods that he presented were deemed unfit for trade. They were seen as lowly and laughable compared to the pearls and gold that were previously traded here. And to think that there was a chance that chillies, an invaluable part of Indian cuisine, were somewhere among these supposedly unwanted goods that he carried with him.
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