As is usual with almost any discussion in Guyana, the debate over “Seven Curry” has less to do with gastronomy than with politics. Frankly, as one who has been writing about the historical peripheralization of Indian culture in Guyana – including its gustatory aspects – ever since my foray into “town” to write “A Levels” at Indian Education Trust College over fifty years ago, when my lunch of “roti-and-aloo choka wrap” was derided by some non-Indians, I was quite proud of President Ali when he rolled out “Seven Curry” at official state functions.At long last, not only were the beloved Indian-Guyanese foods brought out of the closet, but also the only way to enjoy them: by “sanaying” (mixing with fingers) to ensure the complex, complementary flavours titillated one’s taste buds. All left now is to “chatay” (to lick) the fingers to show appreciation to the hosts for their “finger-licking” feast!
The discussion raises several issues in relation to President Ali’s comments on “Seven Curry”, which, according to one interlocutor, “have caused significant distress within the Indo-Guyanese Hindu community”. The first issue was Pres Ali’s claim that “ghee was unavailable to Hindus, implying they cooked their food primarily with water”, which “lacks historical accuracy”. I address this issue because it relates to the larger question of identity in a hegemonized, post-colonial, multicultural society.
It would appear there remains residual embarrassment in dealing with the conditions under which we left India and arrived in Guyana. In regard to the former, when Indentureship began, India had been devastated economically and socially after a century of British depredations. The areas from which most of us originated, the then Bengal Presidency and United Presidency, were earliest and most pillaged. Famines had become endemic, and even peasants with small plots of land were desperately poor and chose migration to survive. At best, their food was mere subsistence.
As George A. Grierson wrote in “District of Gaya” (1893), from where my great-grandfather came in 1888, “Ghee was and remain an expensive item that would have been used sparingly by them. Food of an oleaginous kind (such as ghí, milk, oil) is almost wanting amongst the poorer classes. That it is necessary is shown by the universal craving exhibited for it. The richer the man, the more oily food he uses. The day-labourer’s use of oil is very small indeed, while the substantial cultivator or thriving artizan uses it and milk with his daily food to a greater extent.” (p123.)
When the Indentured labourers left for British Guiana – 95% North India via Calcutta; 5% Southerners via Madras – the shippers concocted a diet as cheap as possible, yet genuflecting to their tastes. As recorded by researcher Ashutosh Kumar, (Feeding the Girmitiya: Food and Drink on Indentured Ships to the Sugar Colonies), on their months-long journey, the daily allowances for each adult were as follows:
Rice, 20 oz; Daal (mixture) 6 oz for rice eater, 4 oz for flour eater; Flour, 16 oz; Oils/Ghee, 1 oz for rice eater and flour eater; potatoes; Mustard oil, 8 drm; Garlic, ½ drm; Mustard seed (sarso), ½ drm; Chillies, ½ drm; Black pepper, 1½ drm; Coriander seed, 2 drm; Turmeric, 4 drm; Tamarind, 8 drm; Salt, 8 drm. Pumpkins or Yams, 1 oz; Potatoes, 2 oz – 5 oz and a live sheep weekly.
With the small quantity of oil/ghee supplied, the tradition of the poor peasants technique of chaunkaying or sautéing the onions and spices in the small quantity of oil/ghee and then adding the vegetables or meat along with water to “boil down”, was adopted”.
When they landed in Guyana, for one year, they were all – Hindus, Muslims, Tamils – allocated the same amount of “rations”, the cost of which was deducted from their wages. They protested this imposition because they wanted to budget their purchases, and gradually the stricture was removed towards the end of indenture. To save money (wages for men was 24 cents daily and 16 cents for women throughout indentureship), they pinched their pennies and ate even more abstemiously. By the time they could afford better, their taste was set on the simple spices and cooking technique into the present, whether singly or as components of Seven Curry”, and still remind them across the world of “home.
Serving several dishes on leaves – Lotus in Guyana, Sohari in Trinidad – invokes the Indian nutritionally balanced Thaali. Mauritius has a Tamil interpretation of “Sept-Cari: Seven Curry”, served on banana leaves.
