Is this now British Curry?

During a state visit to India, former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook expressed a desire to taste his favorite curry, Chicken Tikka Masala, in Delhi. However, the chefs in top hotels there were unfamiliar with it.

Upon his return, Cook famously declared that the dish, Chicken Tikka Masala, is now a British dish as if Britain and the government had adopted an orphan unable to find its parents. If he were alive today, I would advise him that Scotland's national food, Haggis, can't be expected to be freely available in London, just as it would be expected in either Edinburgh or Glasgow. The point here is he should have explored Tamil areas, either Chennai (Madras) in South India or Jaffna in North Sri Lanka.

In an article published in the London Financial Times, titled 'Great British Curry Crisis,' Oli Khan, Vice-President of the Bangladeshi Caterers Association (BCA), stated, "This is now British curry. It is not Bangladeshi or Indian; it is British, and anybody can do it."

I found Mr. Khan's comments surprising. This is not to criticize anyone but to help them understand the product they are eagerly marketing. Without knowledge of its background or geographical origins, there is a risk of losing out in the market, which is exactly what we see with the Curry Crisis.

Curry is neither Indian nor Bangladeshi. It is not British either. The British colonial era lasted just under 250 years. The country India was legally established in 1858, and Bangladesh was established in the 1970s.

But Curry has a long history spanning more than 3000 years. It has nothing to do with British India or British Ceylon, another country established by the British during the colonial era in the same region.

Curry was present even before the arrival of the British. A bustling curry market, a market for spices, existed in the Tamil coastal area known as the Curry Zone or Curry Mandalam in Tamil. Traders from all over the world came for the curry and the spices. The Dutch, who came before the British, couldn't pronounce the name, so they started calling it 'Coromandel.'

The Portuguese adopted the name 'Curry Mandalam' on their maps after it was possibly coined in 1510 by the Italian explorer Ludovico di Varthema, but the Dutch were the ones who began conducting significant trade there.

When the British arrived in Coromandel, they set up a trading post there, one in Madras (Chennai), the present-day capital of the Tamil state in India. The British named a few ships HMS Coromandel. Those who traveled in these ships to Australia and New Zealand named the areas they settled down there as 'Coromandel.' There is a place called 'Coromandel near Abingdon in Oxfordshire in England too.

In 1754, the British East India Company, sent a battalion of 800 Europeans and 3000 local Tamil soldiers headed by Roberts Clive to rescue the company's factory facility in Bengal, attacked and destroyed by the local Bengal ruler, who was assisted by the French. The Battle of Plassey was decisive, and the victory paved the way for the British Empire in the Indian subcontinent. The Curry Empire also spread in India with them, thanks to the Tamil Chefs who traveled along with Roberts Clive and his army. It was introduced to Bengal, including present-day Bangladesh. Calcutta, the capital city of Bengal, became the seat of government and also the HQ of the East India Company.

As the British marched from Calcutta to Burma and Pakistan and all over India, the curry spread. Spread to a level that a North Indian Abdul Karim (the Munshi) traveled to London to be the curry chef of Queen Victoria, the greatest empress that the world has ever seen.

As you see, the claim by some British authors that the British introduced curry into India is technically correct, but the next question is, whose curry? will go unanswered. Surely the curry did not come from the UK or any other colony of the UK at that time, apart from the Tamil area from where the team of Roberts Clive departed.

But this is part of the story. To understand the story of Curry, you have to go further back. To the Portuguese and Vasco da Gama, who came to the Tamils in 1498. Three years after, Columbus brought the chili to Europe from the Americas.

After extensive study, the Portuguese were convinced that they could establish a market for chili, and they arrived at that idea, and that is what they did.

It is important to note that a country called India never existed at that time, and as we see above, it was Roberts Clive and his team's efforts that materialized in 1858. (The Portuguese, who landed on the subcontinent 360 years ago in 1498, and were still in Goa)

However, the Portuguese never colonized the Tamil areas but had trading posts on the Coromandel coasts. This was because of their agreement with the more powerful Wijaya Empire (Empire of the City of Wijaya).

They established a colony in Goa, which was a non-Tamil region. But they established a colony in the Tamil islets off the Jaffna peninsula, which is the northern part of the Island of Ceylon - Present-day Sri Lanka.

These Islets belonged to the Jaffna Tamil Kingdom, but the Portuguese originally took them to secure the Pearl fishing industry in the Gulf of Mannar. But here in these islets, a Curry Renaissance began. Began with the introduction of Chillies and 130 new vegetables by the Portuguese. Many years later, the Portuguese captured the entire Jaffna peninsula as well. This then changed hands to the Dutch. Together they colonized these areas for 300 years. This was before the arrival of the British.

As you can observe, there is a rich history of curry spanning 300 years before the British arrived. During this time, curry underwent a renaissance, making endeavors like Chicken Tikka Masala akin to reinventing the wheel. The notion of non-spicy white curry emerged in this period, signifying that Tamil curry had already undergone Europeanization, influenced not only by the Portuguese and Dutch but also by the British. It's essential not to overlook the French contribution, as they also had a Tamil colony during this transformative era.

However, the Portuguese were not the first Europeans to come to the Tamils. In my book, I have discussed the direct trade links of the Greeks and Romans with the Tamils so the Portuguese were not the first Europeans. A 2000-year-old Tamil literature talks about the trade of the Tamils with them, which I have described in my book.

Even if we go further to an Egyptian Pharaoh's mummy of 3200 years old. The mummy's nostrils were discovered to be filled with Black Pepper, and so, the trade of Tamils with ancient Egypt was proven.

Hence, I am politely advising you that there is Tamil curry but no British curry. Certainly no Indian, Sri Lankan, or even Bangladeshi curry. Tamil Curry predates any of these countries - not just by years but by millennia, three to be specific.

The curry you are marketing has a glorious past and is still connected and vibrant among the Tamils. It is not disconnected for it to be called differently.

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