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Were early Mughal emperors fond of biryani? Did Indian food have an impact on palates and cultures outside of the subcontinent or was Indian food influenced by foreign contact? What characterizes Indian food? Is there anything like "Indian” food in the first place? How will the country feed its projected 1.5 billion people in the backdrop of climate change, shrinking farm yields and other environmental concerns? These and other similar issues were discussed at the January 11-12, 2020 seminar organized by The K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI).
As honorary secretary Dr Nawaz Mody  noted when welcoming the audience, with the Institute’s emphasis on Oriental studies, "We have had no orientation towards food (so far)… It was time to take on new areas” for this seminar. Titled "The Past and Future of Food on the Indian Subcontinent: Identity and Cultural Heritage,” the two-day program sought to explore "interdisciplinary conversations on… food,” noted Muncherji Cama in the president’s message printed in the conference brochure. To that end, the speakers were a mélange of authors and translators of tomes on cuisine, culinary historians, food writers, academicians and researchers in nutrition, visual documenters of culinary cultures, independent researchers and an environmental lobbyist, among others. Journalist Khorshed Deboo and assistant professor of history at Boston University Dr Benjamin Seigel noted in the theme paper that the seminar explored fundamental questions of identity and politics associated with food.
For keynote speaker, food historian and professor emeritus at Gurgaon’s NorthCap University Dr Pushpesh Pant, there is no representative pan-Indian cuisine. Stereotypes abound about the "tyranny of the tandoor” in North India or the "curse of the curry” in the South, said the Padma Shri awardee in his short, rapid-fire message. "We are so worried about our roots, we forget our branches,” he stated, bemoaning the general disregard of regional cuisines in the national consciousness. The historian noted that "tastes and cooking techniques have never been insular… Why should benchmarking of what is Indian food be done in restaurants in the West?” Impatient with the newfangled craze for millets in Indian cuisine, he said that the poor have been eating these grains all their lives. "We are either looking for lost recipes that are not really lost or looking for adaptations from the West…Even in Muslim cuisine, Mughal food takes priority over regional cuisines from the Deccan and Awadh.”   
As people of the subcontinent, we have multiple identities, Pant stated, in a dig at the rightist movement in parts of the country that has politicized food, with its ban on beef eating and recommendation of vegetarianism. "Food goes beyond genetic identities… Young Indians should be able to choose any identity,” he stated. A North Indian with Rampuri (Uttar Pradesh), Kathiawari and Maharashtrian influences in his family, the teacher at Jawaharlal Nehru University said he "belong(ed) as much to the Sikhs” as to anyone else when he participated in a langar (community meal) in a gurudwara. "Why restrict your heritage?... If architecture and music can synthesize culture, why cannot food?” Pant queried.
Author and historian, Chicago-based Dr Colleen Taylor Sen stated that the seminar was perhaps the first such symposium of its kind to be held in India. Her book Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India was selected as one of the best food books for 2016 by Vogue and The Smithsonian Magazine. In her talk titled "India’s Culinary Contributions to the World,” Sen demonstrated with a glossary how many names of common foods have their origins in Indian languages. Mango is derived from mankay, the name of the fruit in Dravidian languages; aubergine has its roots in the Sanskrit vatingan, whereas sugar is derived from sarakara, also Sanskrit. The Indus Valley trade routes firmly ensconced India in the global economy, she stated. So popular was pepper from Kerala in first century CE Roman Empire that three-fourth of the recipes in an early cookbook brought out there comprised recipes involving its use. Historian Pliny the Elder "blamed pepper for the fall of the Roman Empire… It was draining the finances.” Vegetarian diets incorporated into Pythagorianism, the belief system advocated by Greek philosopher Pythagoras, was perhaps the "greatest contribution” of India to the Ancient Greeks, she noted. Down the ages, artist Leonardo da Vinci propagated vegetarianism, as did philosopher Voltaire and poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The trade in turmeric, garlic and ginger between eastern Indian kingdoms like Kalinga and South East Asia has influenced Thai green and red curries and Malaysia’s massaman curry, Sen said. Trade and the diaspora took spices to the New World, including to Guatemala, which is now the world’s largest cultivator of cardamom. 
The historian provided examples of how Indian food and drink have influenced cuisines in other parts of the world: The popularity of tea from India in the UK; the fondness for gin and tonic in colonial India and South East Asia (primarily to fend off malaria, thanks to the quinine in the tonic); the evolution of the Trinidad roti and the goat curries of Jamaica in the West Indies thanks to Indian indentured labor; the bunny chow (a scooped out loaf of bread filled with meat and vegetables) popular in South Africa; the curry wurst (sausage) of Germany. She alluded to chicken tikka masala that prompted UK foreign secretary Robin Cook to brand it the true British national dish. In Japan "they want to eat this ochre colored sauce as a departure from their elegantly plated food,” she illustrated, with pictures of a packaged "curry sauce.” 
The Indian government can do more to encourage culinary tourism, she suggested. "It is worthwhile coming to India just to eat.” Indian food is not as popular in the USA outside of the metros, as it is in the UK. "The Americans like food from countries they have fought with – Mexican and Japanese,” Sen quipped.
For the 1.6 million Montreal (Canada) residents ("not a major center for the Indian diaspora”), there are only 120 Indian restaurants, stated associate professor of history and fellow of the Simon Beauvoir Institute of Concordia University in Quebec, Dr Rachel Berger. About three percent of Montrealers identify themselves as South Asian, she said. Berger presented case studies of three popular outlets for Indian food: an inexpensive Punjabi fare serving family-owned diner known for its simplicity and "shabby décor;” one decorated in dhaba (roadside stall) style with "authentically exotic food;” an upmarket eatery in a largely French-speaking suburb "with a generic North Indian menu.” Yet another restaurant offers Murg Makhani Poutine, a happy mix of India’s best known food export (chicken tikka masala) and the typically Quebecois dish. (Traditionally, poutine comprises French fries, cheese curd and gravy.) All the three restaurants Berger studied are equally popular, she stated, raising questions like how do we account for taste? How do we ensure authenticity? "All the three restaurants keep their customers happy and let the money flow in,” she stated.
When a member of the audience observed that most western restaurants adapt Indian food to suit local palates, hotelier and author of a bestselling book on Indian cuisine, audience member Camellia Punjabi defended the need to change. "We have to adapt… we have already adapted.” Indian food has become less spicy and salty, and places less reliance on oils as compared to a generation ago. "We have to open our minds… Why do I not see a great restaurant for Maharashtrian food in this city, for instance?” she queried.   
The sessions on the morning of day one of the conference were chaired by food, travel and design writer Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi.

Mughals and the man 
When the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar ate at the head of the table with the women of his harem, no males above the age of puberty were allowed. Food, however, was not cooked in the kitchens of the harem but in the main palace kitchen under the eagle eye of a faithful servant, vigilant for possible instances of poisoning. Meals were transported by eunuchs to the royal table in the harem. Author and translator Rana Safvi, who has researched the life of Zafar with the help of four Urdu books, revealed these nuggets while talking about "The Dastarkhwan of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and Mughal Practices and the Etiquette of Eating.” The word dastarkhwan is of Central Asian origin and refers to the tablecloth spread out on the floor, where the noblemen ate. "In current times the term is used to describe a dining area,” she said. Zafar’s ancestor Emperor Akbar had already put into place a system of hierarchy for the staff of the royal kitchen, noted Safvi.  
The Mughal cookbooks that Safvi has researched also contain recipes for foods supposed to enhance virility, for instance a dish made of the head of the mahi fish! Contrary to popular belief, there are no biryanis or kormas listed in the books written in the times of Akbar and Shah Jehan. They appear only in tomes written in the latter part of the Mughal era. Similarly, though nalli nihari (lamb shank and bone marrow) is now widely associated with Mughlai cuisine, it did not appear at royal tables. It was the common man’s food, the researcher revealed. "The most common dish in the Ain-e-Akbari (an account of administration under Akbar) is khichdi (rice and lentils),” stated the researcher. Another regularly appearing dish is qaliya, comprising meat, potatoes and vegetables, "perhaps a means of getting the menfolk to eat vegetables,” Safvi quipped. A popular accompaniment was star fruit-carrot chutney, believed to enhance immunity. Only two meals were had, one at 11 a.m. and another at sunset. No in-between meal snacks, only paan (betel leaf) and drags on the hookah, Safvi said.  
While much has been written about Mughlai and other "royal” cuisine, not much is known about what common people ate in pre-colonial and early colonial times, noted author and culinary consultant Saee Koranne-Khandekar. She was chairing the segment on "Archiving Edible Histories.” Writer, director and documenter of the country’s lesser-known cuisines Shubhra Chatterji spoke on "Beyond the Imperial Kitchens: Food that never made it to the Tables of the Emperors – Decoding what the Common Man ate in Mughal and Early Post-Mughal (Colonial) India.” The common man in the Mughal period did not have access to reading, writing and record keeping, hence there are no direct references to the common man’s diet in this period, Chatterji said.
The first references to cookery are seen in the 11th century Lokopakara, a tome of seemingly unrelated topics on everyday life. However, those interested in studying the history of food should look for indirect clues in the few publications of the times. The Akbarnama, for instance, gives indirect clues to what people ate in Orissa (rice, eggplant and vegetables) or Gujarat (jowar and assorted fruits) or Sind, and indicate when to observe fasts and when to drink water. Birds like mynah and bustard were included in diets of the common folk, Chronicles of travelers, too, contain clues. Records of folk songs that women sang while preparing food are another source of information, as are botanical paintings from that period. Gupta demonstrated a miniature painting from the period depicting men eating kachori (fried savory).
Few Mughal emperors were deeply interested in food: Humayun and Babar were too busy consolidating their empires; Aurangzeb was "totally disinterested in food,” said Gupta. Yet why did artists depict them partaking of huge feasts? she asked rhetorically. "To make them appear grandiose,” she responded.
To be continued