'Biryan' in Persian language means to 'roast or fry'; that is where it is said the reference to 'Biryani' has been derived from - To roast and fry. Clearly, Mr Ujjwal Nikam who has gotten away by saying that he cooked up the story to stop an "emotional wave" which was being created in favour of the terrorist doesn't realize the damage it caused. Ajmal Kasab was one of the ten Pakistani terrorists who attacked Mumbai in November 2008 and the lone survivor captured, as rest of the nine were killed in the counterattack, by Indian security forces.
What has Biryani got to do with terror activities? The reference of Biryani being used for terrorists also holds unspoken connections to the Muslim identity. This stereotyping is unfair to Muslims as it would be to Hindus if all of them are tarred with the same brush on account of behaviour of some of their co-religionists.
Nikam, who was seen on TV channels almost every day for being the chief public prosecutor of one of the most challenging cases in the history of Indian judiciary, has been Maharashtra special public prosecutor for two decades. His remarks did get register in psyche of many of us, and speaks volumes on how the public discourse can manipulate most of us. It also makes us believe that Nikam's remarks got into the psyche of Deputy Inspector General of the Coast Guard who said that it was the Coast Guard which blew up the Pakistani boat on the night of December 31, 2014. And that he was the one who ordered: "Blow the boat off. We don't want to serve them biryani". The remark created a controversy as the defense minister on records had said that the boat assailants burnt themselves up.
Apart from having a depressing effect on the Muslim psyche and making them move away further into the shell, such perceptions have influenced and has been misused by the way the political parties work in India. Mr. Public prosecutor surely did not realize that his 'roast and fry' theory would be misused by politicians in their election speeches. The BJP MP Varun Gandhi's 2009 general election campaign had echoed with chants of "Biryani for Kasab and roti-subzi for Varun" and Yoga Guru, Baba Ramdev who was an 'activist' in the anti government protests in 2012 said "Terrorists are given biryani and patriots denied even water". In May 2013, the then Gujarat CM and now PM Modi invoked Biryani while accusing the UPA government of going soft on Pakistan. He said, "Our soldiers are being beheaded. But the Pakistan Prime Minister is being served chicken Biryani". The then ruling party, Congress also faced the flak for Nikam's lies for 'feeding' a terrorist who openly murdered citizens, at the tax payer's expense.
If 'Khichdi' in Indian polity is referred to the coalition politics, 'Biryani' over the years is being used as a reference to anti - nationals or traitors. These notions and perceptions also spread out to state agencies. The B N Srikrishna commission of Inquiry into the 1992-1993 riots in Mumbai, which took place in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition, had revealed that the Police showed deliberate anti Muslim bias in dealing with the rioters. In its report, the commission pointedly noted that the police's attitude was, 'One muslim killed is one Muslim less'. The report clearly admitted that there was 'built in bias of the police force against Muslims'.
As author Prathibha Karan, a retired IAS officer wrote in her book, there are several speculations behind Biryani's debut in Indian subcontinent. While there are theories of Babur bringing it along, but the cuisine has been a retreat since much before. Timur tagged it along with him when he came to plunder the sub-continent. His native country has no traces of Biryani, but. Pratibha offered no concrete evidences but suggested that Biryani originated in the subcontinent. According to her it was an Army dish; whenever they camped, the cooks would prepare mixture of rice, meat & spices. Whatever may be the origins; we cannot differ but agree that Biryani has been a part of Hindustani culture, evolving with civilization leaps, since a long time regardless of the customs & religions. If there used to be a Chicken Biryani once, today we have a veg, paneer and many other version too.
We have come a long way from sharing everything to divisions in cultures, customs, religion, languages and social practices to now segregation of food belonging to specific religion. It is rather unfortunate of the times we live in that such an exotic and globally appreciated Indian cuisine is now used to denote a specific "meat-eating" community, referring to its hypothetical Mughalai origins, completely forgetting that Hindu Brahmins too ate meat in the ancient times, as per the Vedas, and even today there are many meat-eating Hindus than Muslims. Thanks to the communal polarizations- Everything can be now described as 'their' & 'our'. Some also claim that this is a systematic attempt to intimidate and undermine the Muslim community.
Hasan Suroor in his book 'India's Muslim Spring' rightly puts that the Muslims were pushed into a shell as the Hindu right and the Congress secularists, acting separately but to the same end, fuelled the fears among the Muslims in a perpetual state of anxiety and uncertainty'. The right wing agenda was to frighten them - through relentless campaign of intimidation-into believing that they were at the 'mercy' of the majority community. A weak and insecure community also suited the Congress because it could then exploit their anxieties to garner votes in return for a promise to 'protect' them.
It is leading to a very strong sense of insecurity and alienation which may lead to frightful consequences for the nation.
(Anshu Chhibber is Planning and Assignment Editor, CNN-IBN)
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