Long Read: Why Indian curry rules in Britain
Prasun Sonwalkar/London
Photo: AFP
Its stranglehold in Britain may have slackened somewhat due to Covid curbs, but the colonial cauldron’s culinary reign remains intact.
Chris Dickinson, a university student in Cambridge, rues not being able to lead a normal life due to Covid-19 restrictions, but one activity he is keen to resume when everyday life returns to normal is to ‘go for an Indian’.
Belonging to Generation Z, he doesn’t quite know when or how exactly the phrase gained currency, but ‘going for an Indian’ has been a popular activity across Britain, particularly in city centres during weekends, achieving the status of a national habit since the 1960s. It also reflects the enduring story of how Indian spices and food arrived during Britain’s long colonial encounter with India (the ‘jewel in the crown’), and slowly but surely went on to capture the imagination and palates of the British. So much so that ‘curr