These popular dishes defied partition and continue to rule our hearts

From Pindi chhole to tandoori chicken, much of what Indians love to eat today came with immigrants from the other side of the border. Karachi Bakery, the chain founded by Sindhi migrant Khanchand Ramnani who chose to honour his roots through his business, may have attracted the ire of hate-mongers in Bengaluru recently, but it is hardly the only business founded by immigrants after partition. These businesses have stayed put not just to keep body and soul together, but also to keep alive memories and tastes of culture beyond political boundaries.

In Delhi, the iconic Kwality founded by Pishori Lal Lamba, who came from Lahore in 1940, has recently been spruced up and bears a polished vintage look. Through the refurbishment — heirloom photographs of an earlier Delhi, a grand piano and a bar are recent additions — what has remained unchanged are many of its celebrated dishes such as chhole-bhature. Foodies whether in Delhi, Punjab or Pakistan will instantly recognise the spicy, dark and dry chickpeas as the quintessential ‘Pindi’ chhole.

Lamba got the recipe from a halwai in Mussoorie who had migrated from Rawalpindi, a city associated with a great food culture. Pindi chhole, with a robust flavouring of anardana (pomegranate seeds), cloves, and black pepper, is traditionally cooked with amla (Indian gooseberry) to give it a dark colour, says celebrity chef Ranveer Brar. These days, tea bags are used to get that colour. As the dry chhole travelled east, Brar says, they gained gravy — the Amritsari chhole thus are milder and watered down.

Pindi, the iconic all-vegetarian Pandara Market eatery that obviously gets its name from Rawalpindi, celebrates the roots of its founder K L Wadhwa. He started off selling chhole-bhature from a roadside stall at India Gate. He later set up a small dhaba at Pandara Road and finally Pindi in 1954, a restaurant that the family’s third generation now runs. Embassy and United Coffee House are some other iconic standalones started by immigrants.

Kwality, on the other hand, moved from being an ice-cream store and café to a chain with outlets in India and abroad.

As members of PL Lamba’s extended family started arriving in India post Partition, offshoots of the brand opened in Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Goa, Nagpur, Vizag, etc. Lamba and his business partner and brother-in-law Iqbal Singh Ghai also started Gaylord’s, a more stylised concept that served what can be only described as ‘Punjabi-continental’. Gaylord’s outlets in the US, the UK — even one in Kobe, Japan — exported “Indian” food made up with bits of Rawalpindi, Lahore, Mughal-and-colonial Delhi food cultures in a sellable, pop mix.

Partition’s effect on India’s food culture was profound, with ingredients, flavours and cooking methods seeping into the new India. Ingredients like paneer, chhole, chicken, rajma, and tomatoes, now so firmly a part of restaurant retail, were not common either in home cooking or bazaar fare in the rest of northern India before that.

The tandoor, of course, was the biggest symbol of this change. The central Asian oven had travelled to western Punjab over the centuries and become common in its villages to bake bread. Struggling immigrants found an enterprising use for it — roasting meats. Tandoori chicken was destined to spread not just nationally but globally. The Mughlai kebabs, traditionally baked on the horizontal sigri, lost out in popularity to tandoori chicken that was quick to prepare and had simpler flavours.

Moti Mahal set up by a refugee, Kundan Lal Gujral, is popularly credited for having invented the tandoori chicken in Peshawar (he was a shop hand in a tiny halwai shop called Moti Sweets) and bringing it to Delhi, or so his descendants claim. What is known for sure is that Gujral did invent the butter chicken at Moti Mahal. Faced with leftover tandoori chicken and consumers who wanted gravy, he dunked it into a sauce of tomatoes and cream. The makhani gravy was an instant hit even though it was far simpler than the great Mughlai qormas, kaliyas and shabdegs.

Like Moti Mahal, the hugely popular Kailash Parbat group of restaurants in Mumbai was also built by an immigrant. Today the oldest Sindhi restaurant in Mumbai serves dishes like aloo tuk, bhee ki tikki, sai bhaaji and dal pakwan. Its franchise outlets have taken these dishes to New York, London, Singapore and even Hong Kong (more than 50 outlets globally). The third generation of the Mulchandani family runs the business set up by their grandfather who came to Bombay with nothing more than the utensils in which to make paani puri.

Karachi, the capital of Sindh, and one of the most urbane cities in the subcontinent at that time, had a thriving snacking culture. Chaat arrived in Mumbai, thanks to the memory of this culture. As you bite into bhel or paani puri, it may be instructive to remember this history that you are also savouring.