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Taste of Life: How Indian kitchens embraced arrowroot
A brief report in “Kesari” published in July 1882 offers an insight into the untiring endeavours of an enterprising gentleman who was perhaps singularly responsible for the widespread cultivation of arrowroot in Western India, including Poona. His name was Narayan Ramchandra Gogate and he was a native of Dapoli, a small village near Ratnagiri
The British Empire was the strongest capitalist and globalizing force that shaped and, at the same time, diffused the notion of “Indian food”. The foodways that it created are exciting because they offer a glimpse into the complicated maze and interlinking of gender, sex, caste, religion, trade, and commerce.
“Uposhanapakashastra” (the science of cooking food for fasting) is a cookbook written by Durgabai Bhat in 1892. It features a recipe called “ararutachi kheer” (arrowroot kheer). It instructs the reader to mix arrowroot with one cup of warm milk and then stir in slowly two cups of milk. Sugar is added and the mixture has to be removed from the fire after it thickens. One can add nutmeg or cardamom. Bhat mentions that the kheer could also be given to convalescents. The recipe is strikingly similar to other recipes of arrowroot pudding from European and American cookbooks, barring eggs.
When Bhat wrote her book, arrowroot had been commercially available for only a few decades. It was by no means affordable to the poor. However, within a few decades, it established a strong foothold in the kitchens of India.
On January 8, 1859, a European in Poona who dealt in arrowroot was charged with having in his possession a quantity of arrowroot containing a very large proportion of chalk. The sample had been tested by Dr Giraud, the chemical analyzer in Bombay. In his report which he submitted to the court, he stated that the growing incidences of adulteration of arrowroot had made him worried. The authorities agreed with him. They urged the court to announce a strict punishment for the dealer so that it would act as a deterrent. There being no evidence, however, to show that the deleterious substance in court was purchased from the prisoner’s shop, with the exception of the prosecutor’s statement, and Mr Watson, the clerk of the markets, who was ordered by the magistrate to search the prisoner’s shop, having found no adulterated arrowroot, the magistrate, very properly, gave the prisoner the benefit of the doubt, but warned him, that had he been convicted, he would have been liable to a fine of ₹300; with an admonition that if ever he was convicted, he would be fined very heavily. A disappointed Dr Giraud later urged the Government to ensure that a supply of unadulterated arrowroot is ensured. After all, good quality arrowroot was not easy to find and hence was not cheap.
By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, arrowroot starch, boiled into a pap or gruel or made into a jelly or pudding mixed with boiling water or milk, was often recommended for the diets of convalescents or invalids and for nursing infants or those recently weaned. The starch was also frequently used for those suffering from dysentery, diarrhea, and similar ailments. Because of this, and because, perhaps, of its use as a poison antidote, arrowroot was commonly employed in hospitals in the European colonies.
Arrowroot is a starch obtained from the rootstock of several tropical plants, traditionally Maranta arundinacea, but also Florida arrowroot from Zamia integrifolia. The arrowroot plant is relatively hardy. It thrives best under conditions of relatively heavy rainfall, on loose and sandy soils.
The British introduced the “Tapioca” or “Cassava” plant in India in the early 19th century. This plant was also known among the people as the arrowroot plant because the starch prepared from the root was used for the same purposes as “arrowroot”, the starch from the underground stem of Maranta arundinacea. Some European cultivators in Poona had been planting the tapioca plants to supply starch to the British in the mid-nineteenth century. “The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce” demanded that a machine for rasping such pulpy roots to remove the starch be provided to the cultivators.
The colonial regime was inspired by the great success of manioc in Brazil and introduced it to India via Britain. But it soon emerged that manioc could not be grown in the soils of Bengal and the British had to fall back on the cultivation of rice. But they still needed “arrowroot” in India.
The colonial doctors had been looking at food and drinks as medicine, and they desperately needed arrowroot to help combat various diseases in India. It is not clear how and when, but the government in India started thinking of establishing Maranta arundinacea plantations in India. The species apparently had originated in tropical South America from whence it was transported to the West Indies by pre-Columbian populations. The European colonizers in the Caribbean had raised large plantations of arrowroot there in order to export the starch to Europe. They had brought “slaves” from the colonies to work at the plantations. The huge profits gathered, thanks to free labour and the colonial gaze which made the population of Europe look at “exotic foods” as medicine, encouraged the British to think of replicating the model in other colonies as well.
The British government in India, after the revolt of 1857, was tasked with feeding the large population of the country. “Arrowroot” seemed to be a viable option. The government believed that Maranta arundinacea could thrive in India. It was brought to India from the Caribbean, and the first plantations were established in the Bengal Presidency. The experiment was a moderate success. Arrowroot from Dacca, Meerut, and Patna was exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867.
The introduction of Maranta arundinacea to Western India happened most probably a decade later. A species of “Curcuma”, the roots of which yield an excellent description of arrowroot grew everywhere in great abundance on the hills of Mahabaleshwar. But for reasons unknown, it was rejected by the British doctors.
A brief report in “Kesari” published in July 1882 offers an insight into the untiring endeavours of an enterprising gentleman who was perhaps singularly responsible for the widespread cultivation of arrowroot in Western India, including Poona. His name was Narayan Ramchandra Gogate and he was a native of Dapoli, a small village near Ratnagiri.
Gogate owned a large tract of land in the village and he probably started cultivating arrowroot in 1878. According to “Kesari”, it took him three years to successfully demonstrate that the species could give rich yields in that part of the country. Gogate believed, on flatlands, it could be grown on clayey soils, irregular topography, and eroded lands – the kind of lands to which farmers in and around Poona had been largely relegated.
The cultivation of arrowroot started in Poona after Gogate demonstrated that it could be grown successfully in Dapoli. Mr G Marshall Woodrow from the agricultural department took up the responsibility of the cultivation on the College of Science farm in 1882. The same year Gogate had doubled the area under arrowroot and improved the preparation of the starch, as well as the cost. “Kesari” recommended that the same machinery be brought to Poona to benefit local cultivators. A decade later, the produce in Poona was over 12 tons per acre and the proportion of pure starch obtained was about 10 percent of the weight of the roots. In 1883, Gogate offered arrowroot at 12 annas per lb. “Native Opinion”, the bilingual newspaper from Bombay commented that Gogate’s achievements needed to be applauded.
The story of Gogate and arrowroot is incomplete without the mention of the owners of “Kesari” – VK Chiplunkar, BG Tilak, and GG Agarkar. It is a story of self-reliance and nationalism. It is also a fine example of how the food we eat, sometimes, has a complicated history.
More about it next week.
