A History Of Kerala

Eating With History: Ancient Trade-Influenced Cuisines of Kerala is an invaluable compendium of a culinary tradition and variety of food recipes that evolved out of Kerala’s kitchens. The food trail is extensive and as varied as it can get. The proximity to the sea and the natural beauty and resources of the state–especially the fragrant spices which grew in abundance–attracted inhabitants of foreign soils and inspired them to initiate overseas trade along what was later known as the Spice Route. In a state with fish, other sea food and vegetables dominating people’s food habits, the various kinds of meats, foreign cooking techniques and exotic flavours were curried to life from foreign trade influences and became significant foods. There are numerous recipes in each foreign-influenced community in Kerala, well represented in this book, in meticulous detail. These recipes were cherished by the families and handed down generations via cross-cultural interactions within Jews of the Paradesi and Malabari sects, Syrian Christians, Muslims, Anglo-Indians, Latin Catholics and others who mingled with and evolved from the local populace. The book provides a well-researched and rich cultural history of foreign food culture, tracing how the new elements adapted to local food traditions and evolved as a parallel line of foods, creating new textures, flavours and tastes.

This work attempts to give a broad idea of the diverse aspects of the socio- cultural life of the people of Kerala in a historical perspective. Old traditions and new values in every sphere of human thought and activity have synthesized, assimilated and fused to form the history of Kerala.

The book is a compilation of history more from the social perspective over the years written without any ideological baggage or political agenda for anyone who is interested in the history of Cochin and Central Kerala and its evolution. The book also briefly covers the geography of Kerala, literature, customs, culture, and religion. Kerala’s culture is a composite and cosmopolitan culture to which several people and races have made their significant contributions. In fact, the secret of the vitality and strength of the culture lies upon its composite culture. It was not just spices, but also a whole lot of natural commodities such as medicinal herbs, grains, wood and leather which made this land so precious to the west. The history of ancient Roman trade with Kerala; before Christ [b.c] and after [a.d] was referenced when Pliny famously remarked upon the drain of gold from Rome in 79 C.E., and large quantities of Roman coins were found during excavations in southern India.

Two thousand years ago, trade routes and the fall of Jerusalem took Jewish settlers seeking sanctuary across Europe and Asia. One little-known group settled in Kerala, in tropical southwestern India. Eventually numbering in the thousands, with eight synagogues, they prospered. Some came to possess vast estates and plantations, and many enjoyed economic privilege and political influence. Their comfortable lives, however, were haunted by a feud between the Black Jews of Ernakulam and the White Jews of Mattancherry. Separated by a narrow stretch of swamp and the color of their skin, they locked in a rancorous feud for centuries, divided by racism and claims and counterclaims over who arrived first in their adopted land. Today, this once-illustrious people is in its dying days. Centuries of interbreeding and a latter-day Exodus from Kerala after Israel's creation in 1948 have shrunk the population. The Black and White Jews combined now number less than fifty, and only one synagogue remains. On the threshold of extinction, the two remaining Jewish communities of Kerala have come to realize that their destiny, and their undoing, is the same. The Last Jews of Kerala narrates the rise and fall of the Black Jews and the White Jews over the centuries and within the context of the grand history of the Jewish people. It is the story of the twilight days of a people whose community will, within the next generation, cease to exist. Yet it is also a rich tale of weddings and funerals, of loyalty to family and fierce individualism, of desperation and hope.