The History and Origins of
Indian Cuisine
By: Aqsa and Melissa
Curry, roti, butter chicken… Food from India?! This is the story behind it. We always
thought that Indian food started off with Indians. That is wrong! If it wasn’t for the foreigners we
wouldn’t have the food we have today, for example biryani. Biryani had been invented by the
Mughals (1500-1800 AD) who ruled throughout India from 1556 to 1757. They travelled to
India from the Middle East and that’s why most of their dishes were named in Persian. Indian
cuisine is now made up of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Nepali foods. Indian
food has the history. Long before Christ, around 7000 BCE, sesames, eggplants, and cattle, were
already handle in Indus Valley by Indians. By 3000 BCE mustard, black pepper, tumeric, and
cardamom were harvested in India. Many Hindus ate pork until 1100 AD, when Muslims took
over India. In Islam, the holy book did not allow to eat pork. Sheep, goats and chicken were
allowed, but most of India became vegetarian. In Hinduism beef was forbidden. Hindus ate
mainly flatbreads, rice, chickpeas, pickles, lentils and yoghurt. By 600 BC, Jainism and
Buddhism emerged who were strong believers of non-violence. They gave ideas to some parts of
India on how to cook without using onions and garlic. We all believe that curry was created by
the Indians. That is WRONG. Curry was created during the time of British ruling in India. They
were almost obsessed with Indian spices and herbs so they created something called “curry”.
Also, if you haven’t seen any Indians having a delightful, elegant tea break in the afternoon then
you wouldn’t know that tea also started from the British. This took time from 1800- 1947 AD.
During Diwali (Hindi festival in India), Mughalai food is central. Mughal cooking made sweet
dishes like barfi and ladhu popular. Those sweets are distributed in shops and to close friends
and relatives during that time of the year. Also, there is not just one type of Indian cuisine which
is Mughalai, there are many more and they are regionally set up. In northern India, we have
Benarasi, Kashmir, Mughlai, Punjabi and Rajasthani cuisines. In southern India we have Andhra,
Kannada, and Kerala and Tamil cuisines. East India has Assamese and Bengali cuisines and
West India has Gujarati Maharashtrian and Malwani cuisines. Each regional cuisine is put by
variations in land, access to the ocean and climate. Northern India’s summers are really hot and
the winters are extremely cold, the types of food they have are thick, temperately spicy and
creamy gravies. Spices like cinnamon keep the body warm during the cold. South India has a
very hot, humid climate. South part of India gets a lot of rain. Rice and lentils are really popular
and southern Indians love coffee! East India is region filled with mountains and has the largest
amount of rainfall which means they grow A LOT of rice! South India basically says “rice,
rice…a bit more rice”. As for West India, it has a very hot and dry climate. Most commonly
eaten foods would be lentils, corn, gram flour, dry red chilies, buttermilk, yogurt, sugar, nuts,
fish, pork, coconut, and of course, rice. Something you might notice a lot is that Indian foods are
extremely oily, but that’s only in restaurants. Indian food is meant to be healthy for the body.
To give their main dishes some flavor, North Indians use onions and coriander. Southerners use a
more of exotic coconuts for their dishes. Most Indian foods are served on large bananas leaves.
Indian food has encouraged throughout the world including North American, Europe, and many
other places. Indian food is central to many parts of Asia.