This goes beyond the fact that butter chicken and biryani constitute an ideal meal for many. It goes beyond the fact that I love a well-made butter chicken with garlic naan and that biryani is my favourite food in the whole world. It is about studies and statistics and about the fact that these two dishes represent much of what we are proud of as Indians.
In 2019, chicken biryani was the most searched Indian food globally. Butter chicken came in second followed by others such as naan, tandoori chicken, palak paneer, dal makhani, chaat etc. The fact that this trend was seen globally means that Indians carry their culinary passions along with them even when they settle abroad. It also tells us that the Punjabi culture makes its presence felt all over the world; particularly when it comes to food.
It was shortly after partition that the iconic restaurant Moti Mahal opened up in Delhi and it was here that butter chicken was born. Today, butter chicken consists of grilled or tandoori chicken in a rich gravy, but it has an interesting back story. Legend has it, that Kundan Lal Gujral, Kundan Lal Jaggi and Thakur Dass came up with butter chicken as an accident. Leftover chicken was transformed into a new dish by the addition of butter, cream and tomato-based gravy.
Moti Mahal was a result of people who came into India during partition to create a truly enduring brand. The brand was based on the knowhow they brought along and the business opportunity they saw around them during some of the most difficult of times. In that sense, butter chicken represents the tremendous resilience and fortitude that is in the DNA of our country. We can also say that butter chicken is the result of the essentially frugal Indian mindset that will let nothing go to waste. Both these facts point to some truly Indian qualities: resilience and the ability to innovate - and butter chicken perfectly personifies these.
Let us for a moment forget the fact that politicians today use biryani to polarise; making it a symbol of dog-whistle politics. Let us acknowledge the ineluctable truth that biryani is utterly and essentially Indian. (we speak, of course, of biryani, that complex, layered feast fit for royalty and not the poor cousin; the insipid pulao/pilaf that is a mere accompaniment to other dishes).
No one community has a copyright over it that heavenly mixture of fragrant rice and spiced meat. Equally, no community can resist its many-hued, multi-layered charms. The fact that there is a type of biryani native to each corner of India – Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bohri, Awadhi, Malabari, Chettinad are just some of the biryanis we know and love – underlines this. Biryani is versatile – there is mutton, chicken, egg, fish, prawn biryani, there can even be (gasp!) vegetable biryani according to some misguided souls. It can be mild or spicy; as flavourful as the imagination of the hand that stirs the pot.
There is some difference of opinion about the exact origin of biryani. It is thought that biryani was a Persian or Arab import into the Indian subcontinent. However, there are those who argue that biryani has been around for much longer than the Mughal rule in India. There are yet others who believe that biryani is a dish of Indian subcontinental origin, a hearty one-pot dish invented for medieval India’s armies. In any case, this is a dish that we embraced; made our own in the same way that we have welcomed every faith, philosophy and way of life over time.
As the study shows, biryani is undoubtedly the one dish that most Indians can agree on; that most Indians consider to be a treat for a special occasion. While politics, faith and ideology may divide, the love for biryani unites Indians. According to one interesting statistic, 95 biryanis were ordered each minute in 2019 via the food ordering app Swiggy. Clearly there are a lot of Indians eating a lot of biryani.
As I said, I believe that biryani really is the perfect metaphor for Indian diversity. There is good reason why they put biryani – and not khichdi – on an Indian postage stamp.
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