Be David Martin (Bluesky: @davidmartin8293.bsky.social)
The bell tolls the hour and the murmuring crowds shuffle into the grand porticoes of St. John’s Cathedral. Twinkling string lights illumine the way, punctuated by bushy, glowing Christmas trees, all aflutter in the warm midnight air. Soon enough, the the scent of cashew nut- strewn fruitcake and milky coffee wafts about the livening streets. Not quite the stuff of English idylls, but these little traditions trace their history back to the nineteenth century when missionaries roamed the streets of Nazareth (that is, Nazareth, India) and bemoaned their outcast state (in more ways than one).
Since the beginning of the Raj, British Christendom had generally assumed that India was a categorical failure, given how few and far between their converts were. However, their oft over-looked wives were hard at work forging alliances, even friendships, with their Indian counterparts. Within the the small and neatly hierarchised pantries of the missionaries, steaming cauldrons of change were already lit and would lead to some of the most bombastically diverse cuisines in India. It’s hard to imagine Goan or Nazarene or even Tamil cuisine without a little something from the good reverend’s mess, but when the matrons rolled up their sleeves, that’s when the Christmas miracles started. From dense, nutty fruitcakes, to deep-fried rose cookies and pale white ‘Thuthookudi macaroons’, set beside heaping bowls of biriyani and mutton curry, the women of Nazareth quietly launched culinary revolution after culinary revolution. Together with gastronomic innovations as far away as Nagaland and Punjab, these women cut a path through the complex, often horrifying world of Colonial India and staked a claim that neither man nor nativity scene could steal. Thus, Indian Christmas slowly turned into a celebration of Indian Women.
Illustration: G. Durand, Children’s Christmas Dinner at Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godefroy_Durand#/media/File:Children’s_Christmas_Dinner_at_Sea_from_the_Graphic_Christmas_Number,_1889.jpg
Further Reading:
Natacha Chevalier. “Iconic dishes, culture and identity: The Christmas pudding and its hundred years’ journey in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and India.” Food, Culture & Society 21, no. 3 (2018): 367-383.
Robyn Andrews. Christmas in Calcutta: Anglo-Indian stories and essays. Sage Publications, 2014.
Surbhi Gupta, ‘The Many Ways of Celebrating an Indian Christmas’, News Line. 22 December, 2022.
doinghistoryinpublic.org 
