Can the Curry Industry Emerge from the Crisis?

It’s a question worth ￡5 billion.

Curry is one of the oldest culinary traditions in the world, having traveled across cultures and been embraced by people worldwide. Its complex and long history, however, can be difficult to fully grasp without insight from those to whom it organically belongs and so, as a Tamil, I am trying my best and hope this helps the Curry industry in the UK.

To decode curry's complex history, one must understand three important aspects:

1. Curry is a Tamil word, and along with it, terms like Mulligatawny, Poppadom, Congee, Rasam, and Mango entered the English language via Portuguese in the 16th century—before the East India Company was founded in the 17th century.
2. Tamils have two traditional habitats: One in South India and another in the North and East of Sri Lanka. Each has its own distinct European colonial history, which significantly influenced the evolution of curry in these regions.
3. Both British India and British Ceylon were colonial outcomes, and referring to curry only as Indian misses the historical significance of British Ceylon. Understanding Tamil Curry requires acknowledging the roles both countries played in shaping its history and evolution.

Curry was introduced into the UK as "Indian," even when India as a nation didn’t exist. Early curry enthusiasts in the UK were led to believe that curry came from India, though the reality is much more complex.

In the age of exploration, Columbus sought a route to the spice lands, mistakenly believing he could reach India. Vasco da Gama, in contrast, found his way to the actual spice-rich regions of the Tamil lands.

In 1747, the famous English cookbook by Hannah Glasse featured recipes for “curry” the Indian way, using black pepper and other spices. At this time, there was no nation called India—there was only the Indian Subcontinent. India, as we know it, came into existence as a legal entity only in 1858, when it became a British Crown colony after the dissolution of the British East India Company, which had controlled large swaths of territory in the Indian subcontinent since the late 18th century.

The story of curry is not just about British India; it’s a story of Tamil culinary tradition stretching back over 3,000 years. Like English breakfast for the English or haggis for the Scottish, curry is a traditional culinary heritage for the Tamils. Tamil curry has been traded with Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. Curry's long history with black pepper dates back to the ancient spice trade. During the medieval period, when the Mediterranean Sea was blocked for Europeans, black pepper was in such high demand that it was bartered for gold and even accepted as tax payment in Europe.

When the Portuguese arrived in Tamil lands in 1498 and later captured the small islets of the Jaffna Tamil Kingdom in the northern part of Ceylon, they transformed the Tamil culinary landscape by introducing chili and many new vegetables, sparking a curry renaissance that reshaped the traditional flavors of Tamil cuisine. The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch, who extended control over the Tamil areas of Ceylon, and the British, who would later govern both the Tamil regions in the Indian Subcontinent and in Ceylon.

Colonial Rivalries and Culinary Disconnection

This culinary transformation did not reach the Tamil regions in the Indian Subcontinent due to colonial rivalries, which kept the two Tamil regions—those in southern India and those in Ceylon—disconnected. In Ceylon, there were two separate colonies: one in the north, and another in the south, ruled by the Portuguese and then by the Dutch. It was the British who, after annexing the last two independent kingdoms by 1815, unified these territories to form British Ceylon in 1833, establishing it as a Crown colony from the outset.

On the other hand, British India was not formed until 1858, when the British East India Company was dissolved and its territories became a Crown colony. Despite both British India and British Ceylon being under one colonial power, the British chose to administer them separately, likely due to the 300 years of European influence and cultural transformation in Ceylon, distinct from the Indian Subcontinent’s experience.

However, once both British India and British Ceylon became Crown territories, travel and communication between the Tamils in both regions increased, enabling the culinary renaissance to spread across the Palk Strait.

The Curry Crisis

In 1757, the army of Robert Clive, consisting of 800 Europeans and 3,200 local Tamil soldiers, departed from Madras on the Coromandel Coast and marched to Bengal. Accompanied by Tamil Islamic non-veg chefs, curry quickly became a staple for the troops. Their mission was to re-establish a factory of the East India Company that had been destroyed by the local ruler with French support.

Victory over the local ruler opened the door for British governance in Bengal, laying the foundation for British India—and for curry’s widespread adoption. As the British expanded their territories, curry followed, leading some British authors to claim that it was the British who introduced curry into India.

But the fact remains, curry didn’t originate in the UK; it came from Madras—now known as Chennai, the capital of the Tamil state in India—from where Robert Clive and his army departed.

In the UK, what was introduced by Sake Dean Mohamed, a Bengali man who arrived in 1786 and opened the first curry house in London in 1810, was a pre-chili-era curry—curry that relied heavily on black pepper and had not yet incorporated chili. This version of curry became widespread, and even today, 75% of curry houses in the UK use pre-chili curry paste introduced by Indian immigrants from East Africa in the 1970s.

However, as global culinary influences expanded, new competitors like Japanese Katsu curry, Thai red and green curries, and Caribbean variations started to gain popularity in the UK. Curry, once seen as the nation’s favorite food, began to lose its authenticity and distinctiveness, leading to what has been termed the “Great British Curry Crisis.” With more consumers becoming confused by the varying forms of curry, many traditional curry houses are struggling to survive.

The Path to Revival

For the curry industry to emerge from the crisis, it must reintroduce authentic, post-chili-era Tamil curry, which includes not just non-vegetarian dishes but also rich vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based options, including millet. This revival must focus on the rich culinary heritage of Tamil Curry, which has been sustained and developed over millennia.

Oli Khan, a spokesperson for the Bangladeshi Catering Association, was quoted in the Financial Times as saying that curry in the UK is no longer Indian or Bangladeshi but British. This desperate attempt to rebrand the curry industry not only undermines its authenticity but also dismisses the rich heritage of Tamil Curry. Just as a Turkish resort cannot claim English breakfast as Turkish simply because it serves the dish, British curry cannot claim to be British simply because it is served in the UK.

The responsibility now falls on the British Tamils to reintroduce the authentic curry heritage that can rescue the curry industry. This revival must educate both consumers and restaurateurs about the long history and evolution of curry, including its transformation from black pepper-based to chili-based dishes introduced by the Portuguese.

The British government and curry industry stakeholders must work closely with the Tamil community to promote authentic Tamil culinary traditions. By tapping into the full culinary tradition—including the vegan, vegetarian, plant-based, and non-vegetarian options—the curry crisis can be resolved, and the industry revitalized for future generations.

The British Prime Ministers and Opposition leaders have started delivering messages on the Tamil Harvesting Festival in mid January — Pongal — and the Greater London Authority has recognized January as Tamil Heritage Month and the Canadian Parliament did the same too. This growing awareness among politicians signals the potential for stronger support for the authentic heritage of Tamil Curry.

To truly understand the current crisis, we must delve into the complex history of curry, both in the Indian Subcontinent and Ceylon, and recognize the post-chili-era innovations that have yet to reach the UK in their entirety.

Messages of the Prime Ministers on Tamil Harvesting Festival: Pongal