What if countries were named after their most famous product, the one most closely associated with them? The US and Germany would then vie to be called Autoland while Brazil would be Coffeeland and France, Vin Pays.
What of India, that is Bharat? The mavens of Techhalli would, of course, lay claim to that title. After all, the global revenue market share of the Indian IT sector is a hefty 35 per cent. Equally, pharma champions would also put their hands up on the basis of the 20 per cent of the global supply of generics that they account for.
But both of these are too recent and too diluted to win that title. After all IT services is just a sliver of IT and generics a small fraction of the overall pharma pie.
None of these, or any other claimants, captures India’s dominance as eloquently as spices do. India is far and away the largest producer and exporter of spices, with a market share of 43 per cent in the global hotpot. In distant second and third place are Indonesia and China.
And what a wide range of products India sells to the world — from fiery chillies to pungent ginger and garlic all the way to the ethereal fragrance of cardamom, cumin and cloves. The Made in India label is also a guarantee of quality and authenticity which is why in 2022, India’s exports of spices to over 180 countries added up to Rs 290 billion ($3.5 billion) with China, the US, Bangladesh and UAE, as the major destinations. The dominance is such that no other country comes within sniffing distance.
It is a distinction India has held for over 2,000 years.
Historians have pointed to the hoards of Roman imperial coins discovered in south India, and evidence of Indian traders’ presence in ports on the Red Sea, as testimony to the rising volume of spice trade during ancient times. The elites of the Roman Empire consumed large quantities of Indian spices, in particular black pepper and ginger. How highly-prized pepper as a spice was to the Romans can be judged by the fact that they spent 50 million sesterces (approximately half a billion dollars) a year, importing it from India. Records show that Alaric the Goth lifted his siege of Rome in 410 AD only after he was paid a ransom comprising five thousand pounds of gold, thirty thousand pounds of silver, four thousand silken tunics, three thousand scarlet-dyed hides, and three thousand pounds of pepper! Such was the craze for it in the Eternal City that a special spice market was built in Rome, and the city’s most glitzy street was named Via Piperatica (Pepper Street).
While the chances are that the spices for Alaric’s ransom payment came from Kerala, today it is Karnataka which is the leading producer in the country. But such is the breadth of India’s spice basket that virtually every state has something it can be proud of. Thus, while pepper and cardamom (small) are grown in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, cumin comes from Rajasthan, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, turmeric from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal, ajowan from Bihar and the most prized of them all, saffron from Jammu & Kashmir.
Such is the global demand for most of these spices, that it has impacted domestic supply. Changing weather patterns including intense heat waves and unprecedented flooding which have hurt crop yields have led to supply constraints. As a result, the prices of commonly used spices like cumin and turmeric have spiked by 20-40 percent, playing havoc with household kitchens. An Indian meal loses all its sting if any of the major spices are missing. After all, what’s dal without hing and cumin or kheer without cardamom or chana without garam masala.
Ah masala, so perfectly onomatopoeic. It is the ideal combination of major spices, the essence of our cooking. The right balance makes a dish just right. Too much or too little of any just kills it. There’s a reason why the typical potboiler from Bollywood is termed a masala movie.
So, Masala Desh then?
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