The year 1947 is etched in the collective memory of millions as a time of both joy and sorrow. While the nation celebrated its hard-earned independence, the Partition brought a sense of loss, migration, and terror that continued for several years. Among the most affected were the Punjabis, who found themselves torn between two newly formed nations. As they fled from the violence and chaos to either side of the newly formed border, they carried with them little more than memories of their homes and the cultural traditions that defined them.
Be it the refugee camps or community kitchens, the one common thing that kept them together was food. Cooking and eating together, be it with sad tears or to marking small wins while starting afresh, people united at the dining tables while sharing plates. To note the evolution of food, the impact of Partition, and the challenges to preserve the culinary heritage, Slurrp interviewed refugees and experts to give you the inside scoop.
Partition And Community Kitchens
It will be 78 years since India’s Independence Day on the 15th of August this year, but only the families who migrated during the Partition are familiar with the traumatic experiences they must have lived through. Slurrp interviewed a refugee, KL Chugh, who had to cross the Pakistan border and move to Jalalabad, Punjab. He shares, “I was born on 28th January 1944 in undivided India at Mandi Hira Singh (now in Pakistan). I was just a three-and-a-half-year-old child at the time of the Partition when I had to walk amidst heavy rains with my family to travel the border and find refuge on the other side.”
He further narrates, “One of my earliest memories of the camps is that we were treated differently. Being called “refugees” and people not looking at us with respect made me and my family feel like we had lost everything that we had built up since decades. However, the community kitchens did play a major role in helping the refugees in the initial days. The langars also helped the families bring together, work hard and re-establish themselves.”
Sadaf Hussain, a chef and author who documents food to understand the culture, customs and rituals, added, “During the Partition of India in 1947, the tradition of langar played a crucial role in feeding refugees. As millions of people were displaced, langars were organised in refugee camps to provide sustenance to those who had lost their homes and loved ones. These community kitchens became lifelines, ensuring that the displaced masses had access to food. This tradition of selfless service and community support allowed many refugees to survive the initial hardships. Over time, some of these refugees used their experience in cooking and feeding to open affordable eateries, which helped them rebuild their lives and sustain themselves. Even now, in Old Delhi, some business communities have adopted the concept of community feeding by hosting langars on auspicious occasions such as Navratri.”
Impact Of Partition On The Culinary Landscape Of India And Pakistan
Chef Sadaf Hussain, who is working on a book which is centred around the oral history of the people who were affected by Partition, those who have witnessed the event and documenting their memory of food, their relationship with the food they are having now and how Partition changed their culture, tells Slurrp, “Partition did two major things: it changed people’s eating habits and created smaller pockets of specific communities. This led to a fusion of different kinds of food.”
Take Butter Chicken, for example – it's a fusion dish where tikka is cooked in a rich gravy. Or consider Karachi’s version of Biryani, which combines elements from various regions of India. All these delicious biryanis came together to create Karachi Biryani. In Delhi, especially in West Delhi, the influx of migrants brought the tandoor cooking method with them. Older parts of Delhi and other towns still use the traditional sigdi. If you visit Old Delhi, you’ll see kababs being cooked on sigdi rather than in tandoors.
Chicken and paneer became hugely popular, especially as people began dining out more. Around the time of Partition, Mughlai food's yoghurt-based curries with several spices began to decline, and tangy tomato-based gravies rose in popularity. Today, the most commonly prepared chicken gravy starts with a base of tomato, onion, and garlic – the holy trinity of Indian cuisine. From there, various spices and other ingredients give it its final flavour.
After the Partition, Indian food started developing strong regional identities. What began as a mix of influences from different cultures and people started to form its own distinct culinary identity. The local vegetation, climate, and resources play a huge role in shaping a region's cuisine, resulting in the amazing variety of food we see today. ‘Indian' food is a broad term that encompasses all these influences and their evolution, and we're lucky to enjoy the results.”
The Change Of Ingredients Post-Partition
When it comes to introducing new, more easily (and perhaps, cheaply) available foods, 80-year-old retired chemistry professor and author KL Chugh, shares his personal experiences: “In my early childhood and as per the stories my mother used to tell me, after the Partition, the availability of core food ingredients like desi ghee decreased. Before the Partition, all the dishes that were prepared in most of the houses were cooked in desi ghee, and slowly, it was replaced by Dalda ghee. Also, people had a milk-rich diet filled with curd, lassi, and butter, which was obviously a rare sight at the camps, but it just marginally decreased from kitchens and plates ever since.”
Adding to it, Sadaf Hussain says, “When Delhi's predominantly Mughal cuisine got a Punjabi twist, everything changed. In restaurants meat started getting cooked in a tandoor first, then finished on a pan, while slow cooking was reserved for special occasions. The Punjabi influence in North India grew stronger with this cultural mix. The North-West Frontier introduced the simple but robust flavours of a nomadic lifestyle. Tandoori meats, fish, mutton barrah, and tikka, with minimal use of spices, brought in Peshwari and Afghani influences, creating a unique legacy of undivided Punjab. Sarson ka saag, makki di roti, maash dal, and parathas became regular dishes not just in Punjab but beyond.
But when it comes to home-cooked meals, it's fascinating to see what has and hasn't changed. In my research, no one could definitively say what traditional dishes have persisted or disappeared. There's a good chance that many families aren't eating the same dishes they used to.
Recently, I spoke with a Bihari family in Karachi. They mentioned they've never had thekua, a traditional Bihari sweet, but they do enjoy Bihari kababs. It seems the kababs became popular while the thekua did not. Their grandmother, who experienced the Partition, knew about thekua but told me they don't make it anymore because no one eats it. However, they still make maleeda, a dish popular during Muharram. Many Muslim households, including mine, continue this tradition. Some foods have stayed on the menu, while others have been completely left behind and are no longer a part of the culinary repertoire.”
Challenges In Preserving Culinary Landscape
While there were obvious challenges in preserving the cultural heritage of the pre-Partition era, Sadaf Hussain highlights, “I would like to highlight Sindhis here. Their scattering diluted their cultural practices and culinary traditions as they had to adapt to new environments with different resources. In Sindhi cuisine, dishes were crafted to counter extreme weather, using ingredients like gourds, lentils, gram flour, and dry spices, which were plentiful in the arid region. The challenge lies in authentically replicating these dishes in new areas where such ingredients might not be readily available, necessitating substitutes that can change the original flavours.
In modern times, the challenge lies in how you continue the same old traditional recipe when you have ingredients changing, times are changing, people don’t want to put so much effort into cooking, and almost all the restaurant food tastes the same using the same template. Many kormas that we eat now are away from traditional ones with little to no modification, but at the restaurants, you will see people adding cream to add richness. People also use tomatoes in korma to add instant tang and colour, but they don’t do justice to the traditional dish. I feel this is where people like me come to document the traditional recipes, which work as the building blocks, and we want to preserve them so that we can relive that time and space. Think of food as a living museum. Unlike every other museum, food is alive, it can help you go back in time or in future. Nobody else can do this.”