The last time I was in London, our English friend took us out for balti food. In England, Indian food is also termed as balti food. Since balti is the vernacular term for bucket, it set me thinking. How did Indian food get this name? Did some enterprising Sikh entrepreneur, serving Indian food in a bucket for better presentation, coin the term? I probed further, only to find that most of these restaurants were owned by Pakistanis, who hailed from Baltistan, a part of POK. Now that’s the real reason why Indian food, by a quaint twist of fate, acquired the name of the region which our imperial masters had decreed that we forget about — Baltistan. Truly innumerable are the ways in which the Empire strikes back! If you see the pre-1947 political map of India, you will notice the whole of J&K was with the maharaja, except for Gligit — which was part of Baltistan. Gilgit was a British cantonment and served as a strategic entry point to Central Asia. It was a critical rampart to check the advances of the Russian hordes into India, the ‘jewel in the crown’. It’s now easy to understand the Englishman’s obsession with the Russians. They would not allow the Russians to win the Great Game. The British had realised early the strategic importance of Afghanistan. Like every other great strategist who ruled India whether it was Akbar, the Great Mughal, or Maharaja Ranjeet Singhji, the Sikh Warrior King, they well understood that if you want peace to prevail in Delhi, one needed to control Kabul. Russia was to be contained by adding one more buffer to the already existing one of Afghanistan—Pakistan. However much we may dislike the British, we have to give the devil his due. It was an important fortification built to protect the oil wells of Arabia from falling into Russian hands. Sir Cyril Radcliffe, an eminent and trusted lawyer, was to wield the butcher’s knife. He had never ever been to India, but no matter. Without any survey on the ground, India was thus cut into pieces. What was the brief which gave rise to what is now known as the Radcliffe Line? His Lordship sat in a room and completed one of the most complex of tasks in a day. Simple, just create Pakistan exactly below Afghanistan and make sure that there is no territorial contiguity between India and Afghanistan. It was assumed Kashmir would go with Pakistan because it had a Muslim majority. Unfortunately, Kashmir was ruled by a Hindu maharaja who refused to play ball. The deadline of August 15, 1947, had already been announced by the British. The mission had to be accomplished. If Kashmir didn’t go to Pakistan, at least Baltistan would go to Pakistan. The job was done with the active connivance of the British agent at Giglit. Now do you see why Indian food is called balti food? Next time you go to London, check this out. Now isn’t it high time that we Indians knew why balti food is indeed Indian food and how we have been bucketed by a botched decolonisation, for which Jack Straw refuses to apologise because he was only two years old then!
