Delhi is a city built by refugees. Several parts of the present-day city have emerged out of erstwhile Partition refugee camps that are quintessentially ‘Delhi’ today. The western ends of the city we recognise as West Patel Nagar, Moti Nagar and Rajouri Gardens today, came into being only after 1947 as settlements for displaced Hindus and Sikhs migrating from Pakistan. The affluent Bengali neighbourhood of Chittaranjan Park was once called East Pakistan Displaced Persons Colony, and was built in the 1960s to accommodate Bengali refugees from East Pakistan – present-day Bangladesh. Seven decades after the partition, the narratives of refugees continue to shape the modern history of the city.
India is home to at least 24,000 refugees – mainly Afghans, Somalis, Syrians, and Burmese – registered with the UNHCR, and Delhi has made room for at least 50 percent of them. Other than that, about 8,000 Tibetan refugees also reside in the capital. Since India has not signed the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, the status of refugees in the country is not very clear. Registered refugees have a blue card from the UNHCR, which prevents their deportation, but does not allow them to earn a livelihood through the formal sector or own bank accounts. Most refugees try to make ends meet through small-time jobs, provided Indian employers are willing to give them work. For these refugees, the memories of home are kept alive through food, if they are lucky, and a shared language with companions in the same situation. Here are the stories of Delhi’s refugee kitchens which are trying to whip up the flavours of home with little hope of ever returning.
Tibetan Kitchens
Perched precariously on the banks of the Yamuna River in north Delhi, Majnu-ka-tilla has been home to Tibetan refugees since the 1960s. The settlement is a unique piece of the ‘roof of the world’ in New Delhi. Built on a mound or a ‘tilla’, the winding lanes go up and down, as if in the hills. The tall buildings isolate the area from the main road and the city outside, so one can truly feel like they’re in Lhasa (but the temperature will remind them otherwise!). Young Tibetans sitting at their doorsteps can be seen exchanging gossip, laughing or sharing light moments with friends. Most of them are second or even third-generation refugees and were born in this settlement.
The streets, lined with shops, eateries and boutiques, are a popular haunt for Delhi University students from North Campus. While momo stalls are common across Delhi, in Majnu-ka-tilla, one can also try laphing, a popular Tibetan snack made of mung bean noodles. The delicious street food is served cold and with a spicy chutney. Tee Dee, AMA Cafe and Dolma House are popular restaurants that serve Tibetan cuisine. The aromas of spicy curries, salads and soups – food designed especially to give the body sustenance in the cold – float through the streets along with the fragrance of incense from the monastery. Gyuma (blood sausages), Lowa Khatsa (animal lungs cooked in spices) and Cheley (sautéed buff tongue) are some authentic Tibetan dishes for non-vegetarians to enjoy here. Most gravy dishes, of course, are served with tingmo, the special Tibetan bread on the side.
Tibet, a predominantly Buddhist territory, is a disputed land in the Himalayas over which China had claimed sovereignty for centuries. In 1959, an anti-Chinese uprising failed, prompting the 14th and current Dalai Lama to flee to Dharamshala, with at least 1,50,000 Tibetans going into exile too. The community predominantly settled in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Tibetan refugees in Delhi typically fled the Indo-China border when the war broke out in 1962. Other pockets of the city that see a large population of Tibetans are areas near the Monastery Market under the ISBT flyover near Kashmere Gate and increasingly also in Humayunpur, near Safdarjung in South Delhi. Both these areas are also adorned with eateries and restaurants, with Humayunpur becoming an up-and-coming area for Himalayan cuisine, including Nepali food.
Flavours of Afghanistan
In South Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar, Afghans seeking refuge from the trying conditions of their homeland have built a Little Kabul. As one walks through these lanes, a vivid image of an urban street in Kabul comes alive. The streets are lined with restaurants, whipping up flavours of their country. Kabul Delhi, Afghan Darbar and Mazaar, to name a few, are popular restaurants frequented by Afghans and Indians alike.
The fragrance of delicacies like Kabuli Uzbaki Pilaf (Mutton Pulao), qaburghi kebab (mutton chops made popular in Qandahar and Herat) and gosht dopiaza (slow-cooked mutton in onion gravy) waft through the kitchens frequently. These restaurants not only keep alive the memory of home for people who may never return but also caters to the Afghani palate, which finds Indian food too spicy. Outside on the street, one may find naan sellers taking the fluffy, soft bread fresh out of the tandoor. A pinch of sugar in the batter is the secret ingredient that makes any self-respecting Afghan reject the north-Indian, Mughlai version of the naan.
Saket’s Khirki Village is also a microcosm of Afghan refugee culture in the city. From naan to bakarkhani, haleem and Afghani kahwa or tea, there’s little that the neighbourhood cannot offer. The urban village has been home to Hazara Afghan refugees for nearly two decades. Hazaras, who are said to descend from Gengis Khan, the Mongol conqueror, have historically been persecuted in Afghanistan because of their Asiatic features, language and religion (Hazaras are Shia Muslims while the rest of Afghanistan is predominantly Sunni).
But perhaps the worst victims of systemic oppression are single mothers. ILHAM, an initiative started by Aditi Sabbarwal, Sr. Livelihoods Assistant at UNHCR India, enabled single Afghan mothers in the city to earn a living through their cuisine. The group had catered events for several embassies in the city, while regularly putting up exhibitions at Dastkar. Three single mothers ran the kitchen and worked out of Bhogal, whipping up signature dishes like the baklava (dessert pastry), manthu (dumplings) and borani banjan (fried eggplant). (As of 14th December, 2020, the shop has been permanently closed)
The exodus from Afghanistan began in 1979 with the Soviet invasion and continued even after the fall of the draconian Taliban regime in 2001. The families that have made Delhi their home have little left behind to go back to and have little here to hold on to.
Syrian Delights
Tucked away in pockets of Sarita Vihar is the key to a gastronomical journey into the Arabian heartlands. Frequented by medical tourists from West Asia seeking cheap treatment, Sarita Vihar is the hub for middle-easterners looking for flavours close to home they can stomach. To fill up the vacuum of authentic Arabian food in the city, several joints have popped up in the area. What’s interesting, however, is not that an enterprising person saw a business opportunity to chance upon, but the individuals who are whipping up these flavours. Many of the cooks and staff employed in these restaurants are refugees from Syria who found their way to India in order to escape the horrors of the civil war.
‘Asharq al-Awsat’, listed on Zomato as MEC Syrian Food, is located on the fourth floor of the Om Palace Hotel. The kitchen is run by a Syrian refugee, Abdullah, a report in The Caravan says. ‘Asharq al-Awsat’ or ‘The Middle East’ was the name of the restaurant Abdullah worked in back home in Damascus before he had to flee. The restaurant, in all likelihood, is no longer there. Delicacies like Syrian bread, Yalanji (stuffed grape leaves), Kibbeh Labaniyeh (a yoghurt-based meat dish) and a plethora of kebabs are popular here.
The restaurant has two branches – one in Sarai Jullena in New Friends Colony, opposite Escort Hospital and another in Karol Bagh called Ya Mal Alsham. The interiors of the restaurants have tried to stay true to their roots with wallpapers of Beit Jabri, a popular restaurant in Damascus.
The civil war in Syria is an ongoing armed conflict with several key players, mainly President Bashar al-Assad and his allies, as well as several other external forces that oppose the Ba’athist Syrian Arab Republic. The Syrian refugee crisis is one of the most enduring crises of the 21st century and at last count, the United Nations estimated 13.5 million refugees displaced inside and outside Syria.
Secrets of Somalia
The African community in Delhi forms a pan-African diaspora, with individuals and families emigrating from countries like Ethiopia, Somalia and Nigeria alike. The reasons for Africans to migrate to India are diverse – while some come looking for affordable medical treatment, several, especially Somalis, are refugees trying to escape strife in their home country. Khirki Village, Hauz Rani and Wazirabad are pockets in the city Somalis gravitate towards to seek familiar spaces. Walking through Khirki Village, one can find a plethora of Afghani restaurants open for business but few establishments may openly declare themselves ‘Somali’. To be African in India is harder than being from any other immigrant community. While Afghans can still hope to blend in here, Africans face constant discrimination and are often seen as a homogenous whole, despite being from entirely different countries and cultures.
There are a few non-descript pop-ups in Khirki Village and Hauz Rani which serve Somali food but are usually unnamed and can only be found by other Somalis who frequent these hole-in-the-wall eateries. Interestingly, pasta or baasto is a common dish in Somali cuisine and is served with a meat curry. The Somali spaghetti is of Italian influence, from colonial occupation in the 19th and 20th centuries. The country also served as a popular port for spices from India, which have also been incorporated in its cuisine. Its colonial and mercantile influences have brought the sambusa or samosa to Somalia. Dishes like suqaar (sautéed meat), anjero (sourdough pancakes) and kac-kac (doughnuts/cookies) are often served at these eateries along with extra sweet Somali tea.
Since local Indians often look at these establishments, along with their patrons and managers, with suspicion, they are not as permanent as their Afghan counterparts and tend to be an open secret only among the Somalis living around the area.
The Somali Civil War started in 1991, after Dictator Siad Barre was overthrown. The country has experienced constant conflict since then. The two-decade-old conflict has displaced close to two million Somalis, according to UNHCR.
Memories of Chin State
Much before the conflict of the Rohingyas and the Rakhine state, India opened its doors to another persecuted community from Myanmar. The predominantly-Christian Chin people are an ethnic minority group who have faced severe religious persecution since the military coup in 1962. The Buddhist-majority state has been accused of human rights violations and military excesses in Chin state for years, and nearly 4,000 Chin refugees have been living in Delhi for over two decades.
West Delhi’s Bodella area has been home to Chin refugees since 1989, at least, when the army imposed martial law and leader of the Opposition National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest.
These refugees live under trying conditions, in ramshackle houses that demand exorbitant rents. But walking through the streets of Bodella, one recognizes the spirit to retain a piece of home even in the choked bylanes of the city’s suburbs. Young Chin people can be seen selling dimsums and dried meat curries outside the Refugee Assistance Centre. A few small tea shops adorn the area where the community enjoys traditional Chin snacks and meals. These shops are essentially homes turned into kitchens and have enough room for two or three people to sit at a time. Burmese delicacies like pae palata (deep-fried roll of flour stuffed with lentils), akyaw (fritters) and san pyoke (rice soup with chunks of chicken) are common in these kitchens. While through the year one may or may not find these food pop-ups in Bodella (after all, these food stalls don’t pay the bills), the annual Chin National Day celebrations on 20th February sees Chin families come together in the capital, each bearing a utensil full of culinary delights. One can experience flavours of mohinga (fish and rice noodle soup), flat Burmese samosas and chickpea tofu salad, among other things.
The UNHCR, earlier in 2018, announced that it would revoke refugee status for the Chin people as the situation in Myanmar’s Chin State had become “stable and secure”. The decision of the rights group has been contested by members of the community who fear deportation and horrors of the past being revisited.
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