Happy Independence Day

“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.” – Jawaharlal Nehru

64 years have passed since Attlee and Mountbatten finished the British Raj. Late on 14th August 1947, the about-to-be Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru proclaimed to the Indian Constituent Assembly, “Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny. Now the time has come when we shall redeem our pledge – not wholly or in full measure – but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance”.

Of course, this date warrants celebration. A day where people found their voice, a new democracy was born, a great nation was at last able to determine its own destiny. No-one can deny that.

However, Independence day also has a bitter-sweet quality. In his speech, Pandit Nehru spoke of the labour pains of the birth of freedom and the heavy-hearted sorrow of continuing pain. He was referring to the violent rupture of partition – the bloody fracture of India into India and Pakistan. During 1947, there was a movement of people unprecedented in its volume and speed. Almost fifteen million people travelled both ways across the new borders to what they hoped was the safety of religious majority. On the way, perhaps a million people were killed, and countless others suffered injury, loss and humiliation.

Sunil Khilnani, in his book The Idea of India, refers to partition as the unspeakable sadness at the heart of the idea of India. India at its very birth went so badly awry – divisive communal rage ravaged the lives of so many.

And yet, in spite of the horrors of partition, India had and still has an extraordinary capacity to accumulate and live with difference. Indian identity is almost defined by its very diversity. We are Christian, Parsi, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain. We are Tamil, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi. We are determinedly rural and we are dedicatedly urban. We live both in India and outside it. We speak many languages, have many cultures, believe many different things.

Indeed, even Dishoom is a product of this diversity – a homage to Parsi (or Irani) Cafés, created by Hindus, Muslims and Christians working together. Our food, inspired by cosmopolitan Bombay, necessarily has roots in the many different geographies and cultures of India.

It is this deep, rich, valuable diversity which we’d like to celebrate.

And we hope you’ll come and share Chai and Indian sweets with us tomorrow.

Happy Independence Day!

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Ayesha Erkin shares one of her delectable date recipes

We’re turning page after page of Ayesha Erkin’s recipe book Date of the Day, featuring 30+ recipes for the modest date – timely for breaking fast and after. Our dear friend Ayesha has now kindly shared a recipe for you to make at home. Try it this Iftar or any time you need a salty-spiced sticky treat.

Celebrate Iftar with Dishoom

The holy month of Ramadan is upon us, when Muslims around the world fast daily from dawn till dusk. It is a time of private worship and spiritual discipline, but also of shared joy and abundant feasting. Families and communities come together at suhoor, the pre-dawn meal, and at iftar, the evening meal, to break their fasts with copious, delicious dishes. Join us on 7th April for our own Iftar celebration – for an evening of feasting and live music.

Caring hands at Ramadan

Ramadan

We often find it too easy to hurtle through the days, in an attempt to outpace the bustling city – be it London or Bombay – which always seems to be running away like a steam-engine train on a rickety track. Occasionally, it does us good to pause for thought, to disembark the carriage and sit on the platform awhile.

Dishoom's Cheese & Masala Sticks Recipe

The month of Ramadan may be a period of fasting but it’s equally synonymous with feasting. Iftar – the evening meal with which Muslims break their fast – is an occasion for eating favourite dishes and indulging in the naughtiness of moreish snacks after a day of abstaining, and these cheese-and-pastry twirls make the perfect snack.