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A fruit so sweet with a stone within, and yet dates only grow in dry, arid lands. The irony is stark for all of us who love eating dates, whether they are as they are, turned into sweets or dipped in chocolate—if you haven’t tried this last one, you don’t know what you’re missing. In the Arab world, dates symbolize prosperity, which is why it’s a popular welcome offering for guests. In India, dates have a more nuanced history than you’d imagine.
Dates and India: A story that’s centuries old
Historians suggest that dates are a pre-historic food and have been grown not only across the Middle East and North Africa, but also in South Asian regions like the Indus Valley. Because they require sandy, loamy soils to grow, date palms have forever thrived in the region that starts with the Middle East and ends around the Rann of Kutch in India. Archaeological evidence of date palm cultivation has been found across the region where the Indus Valley Civilization existed, specifically around Mehrgarh in western Pakistan. So, between 2600 and 1900 BC, dates were constantly grown and harvested around the region.
But when it comes to the consumption of dates, the ritual has been associated more with the religions that originated in the Middle East rather than in India. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, dates are a symbol of prosperity and are included in festivities. It was with the spread of Islam in India that the ritualistic consumption of dates arose. As Indian Muslims prepared sweets with it and included it in every celebration, from Ramadan to Eid, Hindus also started including dates in their diet. Cut to the modern era, and India is home to millions who consume dates not only for religious reasons but also for culinary ones.
Why you need to support date palm cultivation in India
Today, India is clearly a country that loves eating dates—we are the largest importers of the fruit after all! In 2021, India imported $240.35 millions’ worth of dates. That’s a huge amount, and when it comes to being self-reliant, we do have a lot of catching up to do. This is especially relevant within the framework of sustainability and India’s commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. And this is precisely the reason why buying homegrown dates originating in the Rann of Kutch matters more than ever before.
In 2007, date palm cultivation and date harvesting was given a huge impetus with the government assisting it in states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Today, Kutch is the largest producer of date palms in India. You might even say that date palms have always been an integral part of the region because they grow prolifically.
The local date variety is known as Barhi, and currently, its cultivation is being boosted by an Indo-Israeli joint effort. According to a report by Kavita Kanan Chandra in The Hindu, the Kutch region today boasts of over a lakh Barhi date palm trees. These trees are spread over 1,500 hectares of land and produce roughly 17,000 to 20,000 tonnes of the fruit every year.
The amount might not seem like much, given the fact that India consumes a lot of dates. But farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs in the region are now diversifying and adapting technologies—especially from Israel—to increase date production. Apart from Barhi dates, Kutch farmers are also now attempting to grow black dates, seedless dates and other varieties by importing saplings from the Middle East. All they need to grow further is homegrown support, so instead of only consuming Mejdool and other Middle-Eastern dates, why not buy some Barhi?
