I am slightly allergic to the word “tradition”. This makes me a rather annoying and intolerable character in gatherings of old people. But unlike Torquemada and the Holy Inquisition, which sought to enforce tradition through the persuasive use of sharp objects on flesh, I’d like to think that I am reasonably polite when asking people to elaborate when they claim to follow “tradition”. Don’t get me wrong — it is precisely the ability of Homo Sapiens to pass on knowledge uncorrupted from generation to generation that gave rise to civilisation. A chimpanzee on the other hand does not learn anywhere as much as a human baby does from its parents’ generation. It uses its spectacularly capacious brain to reinvent the wheel every time.
So my point of contention is how people take the origins of traditions for granted. I am going to take two completely unrelated examples. First, I was wondering why chillies and lemons are hung outside most commercial establishments. The myth of course is that it wards off evil. Another vegetable that has mystical de-evil-isation powers is the pumpkin, which keeps shopkeepers safe while harming two-wheelers that skid and fall thanks its to the vegetable’s reduction of road friction.
Second, having watched a few Westerns over the weekend, it struck me that the sight of a Native American, in full feathered garb riding on a magnificent horse into the Utah sunset has to be among the quintessential images of the Americas. The tradition of the horse and its almost symbiotic relationship with the man riding it seems so powerful and timeless.
But how old are both of these traditions, I wondered. Surely, India being the land of 1,000 year old temples and 2,000 year old epics, most people assume that some of these traditions go back to the dawn of time. But history seems to disagree.
When Christopher Columbus made unreasonably grandiose promises to the King of Spain in exchange for their funding of his trip to the “Indies”, he did more than just change the political course of history. His voyage eventually resulted in what historian Alfred Crosby called the “Columbian
Exchange”. It refers to the dramatically widespread exchange of plants, animals, culture and human populations that originated with his voyage.
For starters, the green chilly is a native of the Americas. It was introduced to Europe by early voyagers and eventually found its way to India much later. So the whole chilli and lemon anti-evil shield thing cannot be older than 300-400 years, which to my Indian sensibilities seems like they made this stuff up yesterday afternoon. And the pumpkin? Sorry — Mexican in origin and didn’t reach India till the Europeans got here. Feel cheated? Want to go stuff yourself with some aloo chaat to make up for the disappointment? The potato originally came from South America.
Alright, so much for “ancient” traditions involving fancy new vegetables from the New World, perhaps I will take solace in the timeless traditions of the Native Americans. Well, it turns out that horse was introduced to the Americas by the Europeans.
Yep, Native Americans starting hunting bison and entering the cultural conscious of the Americas only after they got on a horse post 1492.
Want to drown your historical sorrow by drinking some piping hot, traditional
tomato rasam? Well, the tomato came from the Americas too.