• Friday, March 29, 2024

Jashn e Rampur : Celebrating Culinary Culture

On 28 October 2022 marked the culmination of the project ‘Forgotten Food: Culinary Memory, Local Heritage and Lost Agricultural Varieties in India.’
on Nov 05, 2022
Jashn e Rampur : Celebrating Culinary Culture

The daylong event Jashn e Rampur celebrated in the sublime environs and collaboration with India International Centre on 28 October 2022 marked the culmination of the project Forgotten Food: Culinary Memory, Local Heritage and Lost Agricultural Varieties in India.’

This research and public engagement project based at the University of Sheffield was a collaboration with Janki Devi Memorial College, the University of Delhi, the Culinaria Research Centre at the University of Toronto, and the University of York. It was funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund through the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the United Kingdom (2019- 23). The one-day Jashn focuses on the culinary heritage of Rampur in interaction with other locations in north India. 

In the late nineteenth century, the Rampur court was known for its patronage of an important cultural festival, the Jashn e Benazir, featuring poetry, music, and food at the Nawab of Rampur’s Benazir Palace. Bringing this historical model to life in a contemporary context, the Jashn e Rampur spotlighted several aspects of Rampuri and north Indian culinary culture rediscovered, researched, and resurrected through the Forgotten Foods project. The event was a great success, with a footfall of about 500 attendees throughout the day, and each session had more than a hundred rapt audience.  

The event began with a welcome note from Professor Swati Pal, Principal of Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi.  

1. Professor Siobhan Lambert Hurley, the Prime Investigator of the project, succinctly described the journey of the project with Dr Tarana Husain Khan, Research Fellow and Project consultant, University of Sheffield, and Dr Saumya Gupta, Project Co-Investigator and Associate Professor, JDM College, University of Delhi.

2. A panel discussion chaired by Writer and Historian Rana Safvi––Heritage Foods of Rampur: From Translation to Revival ––had Dr Tarana Husain Khan and Sadaf Hussain, Chef, Writer, and Project Collaborator, discussing the translation of Urdu and Persian cookbook manuscripts preserved in the Raza Library. These recipes have been revived through collaboration with local khansamah led by Chef Suroor and Aslam khansamah in Rampur. Mr Birendra Sandhu spoke of Tilak Chandan, a near-extinct traditional rice variety revived at his Benazir Farms in Rampur, and other rice varieties being grown at the farm under the project. Professor Jayeeta Sharma, Project Partner Lead, Culinaria Research Centre, University of Toronto, spoke on the sustainability of agriculture and food sovereignty of the farming community. 

3. Professor Saumya Gupta and Professor Siobhan Lambert Hurley, in discussion with student researchers, presented the challenges of collecting culinary oral histories in Delhi in pandemic circumstances. Oral histories and culinary memories were recorded by Dr Saumya Gupta and Farah Yameen, assisted by student volunteers during the pandemic. 

4. Lunch came with a taste test. The audience was asked to taste two kinds of urad dal khichdi––one prepared with heritage tilak Chandan rice and the other with hybrid rice–– and fill up a questionnaire. This was a study to determine if heritage rice has distinguishable characteristics compared to hybrid rice. 

5. Next came a screening of Dastarkhwan e Rampur, a documentary highlighting the historical journey of Rampur cuisine from the royal tables to the streets of Rampur prepared by Mr Yousuf Saeed, Filmmaker and Project Collaborator. He discussed the making of the documentary with Mrs Samina Naqvi, Founder of Sanchaari, Allahabad, and Project Collaborator. 

6. Dr Tarana Husain Khan’s book ‘Degh to Dastarkhwan: Qissas and Recipes from Rampur’ (Penguin, India) was released by renowned Food Historian and Writer Professor Pushpesh Pant, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Shreya Punj, Book Publisher and Editor representing Penguin Random House.

7. Next was a panel discussion chaired by Professor Claire Chambers, Project Co-Investigator and Professor of Global Literature, University of York, UK, with readings from Desi Delicacies (Pan Macmillan, India), an anthology of food writing by South Asian authors commissioned by the project and edited by Professor Chambers. Food writer and Columnist Anoothi Vishal, Rana Safvi, and Professor Hurley joined the insightful discussion on South Asian cuisine.

8. The Jashn culminated with an innovatively scripted Rekhtigoi performance evoking the historic Jashn e Benazir of Rampur based on the 1867-68 text Musaddas e Tahniyat e Jashn e Benazir written by Mir Yar Ali ‘Jan Sahib’ (1818- 1886). Dr Razak Khan, the Research Associate of the project and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, collaborated with Scriptwriter Danish Iqbal and Dastango Fouzia and Saneya in Delhi, and librarians and archivists Abusad Islahi, Sanam Khan, Syed Tareq Azhar in Rampur’s Raza Library to create this performance in a digital format during the pandemic. This was the first live performance of the rekhtigoi. 

9. The dinner by invitation in the Rose Garden of IIC featured 17 dishes from Rampuri cuisine translated from historical texts and reimagined by the Rampur Khansamas led by Aslam Khansama and his team. Some of the dishes were 

  • Do-gosht Pulao has two kinds of meat––chicken meatballs and mutton pieces. Mutton is used for yakhni stock. 
  • Seekh Kebab Nargisi requires skillful kebabi. It has a twisting of boiled eggs threaded onto the skewers with the mincemeat. 
  • Kundan Qaliya is a light golden-hued curry. 
  • Pineapple Pulao––Sweet pulaos with garnishing of pineapple. 
  • Adrak Halwa and Gulathhi—a special rice and milk dessert set in earthen bowls. A richer version of kheer with scrapings of the custard.  
  • Shabdegh—meat and turnip dish cooked all night long. 


Speakers at the event: 

  1. Ms Anoothi Vishal, Food Writer, and Columnist
  2. Mr Birendra Sandhu, Benazir Farms, Rampur
  3. Prof Claire Chambers, Project Co-Investigator and Professor of Global Literature, University of York, UK
  4. Dastango Fouzia  
  5. Dastango Saneya 
  6. Prof Jayeeta Sharma, Project Partner Lead, Culinaria Research Centre, University of Toronto
  7. Prof Pushpesh Pant, Food Historian and Writer
  8. Mrs Rana Safvi, Writer and Project Collaborator
  9. Mr Sadaf Hussain, Writer and Project Collaborator
  10. Mrs Samina Naqvi, Founder of Sanchaari, Allahabad, and Project Collaborator
  11. Dr Saumya Gupta, Project Co-Investigator and Associate Professor, JDM College, University of Delhi 
  12. Prof Siobhan Lambert Hurley, Project Principal Investigator and Professor of Global History, University of Sheffield, UK
  13. Ms Shreya Punj, book publisher and editor representing Penguin Random House
  14. Prof Swati Pal, Principal, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi
  15. Dr Tarana Husain Khan, Project Consultant and Research Fellow, University of Sheffield, UK 
  16. Mr Yousuf Saeed, Filmmaker and Project Collaborator
     

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