How Bhujia become the popular snack of India - Times of India

Bhujia has been the quintessential Indian snack since centuries. From being paired with tea in the evening to being the crunchy topping of chaats and raitas, Bhujia is one of the most sought after and loved namkeens of the country. But was it always a part of our culinary culture? Manish Aggarwal, Director, Bikano throws light on the history of bhujia and its traverse through history.
Invented under the patronage of the Bikaner royalty
Not many people know that the humble bhujia does not really have humble origins. Instead, by most accounts including popular history, it is believed to have royal roots. The story goes that It was Maharaja Dungar Singh of the then princely state of Bikaner who first had itprepared for his guests way back in 1877. And to everyone’s delightful surprise, when the snack was served to the Maharaja and his guests, they couldn’t stop themselves from asking for more and more of something that they had just sampled for the first time in their lives. The light or golden yellow coloured snack made of moth bean and besan or gram flour cooked in groundnut oil and seasoned with an assortment of spices had tickled the palate of the Bikaneri royalty like never before.
Became a mass product in course of time
But that was just the beginning. The crispy, crunchy and irresistible snack soon travelled from the royal kitchen and the households of the nobility to those of ordinary folks and families becoming a culinary rage in Bikaner and beyond. In no time, small businesses, food adventurers and entrepreneurs – even before the term entrepreneur became fashionable in India – tapped into the raging popularity of bhujia turning this obsession into organized business outlets.
Family businesses followed by multinationals
By the turn of the century, a good number of small localized players as a part of the so-called cottage industry in Bikaner and even beyond in Rajasthan had emerged advancing bhujia as a core product as a part of their larger basket of offerings. Capitalizing on this everlasting and relentless popularity of the snack, a few iconic family-owned ethnic food businesses were set up around the middle of the 20th century with bhujia and its variants as their core product. In the last few decades, several multinational companies have also come up with their own variants of bhujia and related savories attempting to catch up with the family-owned Indian ethnic food and savoury brands.
Modern packaging has increased shelf life while reinforcing its identity
Unlike the traditional open and loose forms of bhujias sold earlier, the advent of modern and designer packaging has not only increased their shelf life but also truly given bhujias their own distinct identity. With time, several types and variants of bhujia have come up depending on the key ingredients used for their making.
The usage of modern packaging material such as laminated low-density polyethylene and polypropylene pouches for packaging these bhujias has been particularly notable. It is no wonder that today ethnic bhujia has a market share of over 15 percent in the Indian savoury market. At the same time, local and unbranded bhujias continue to exist in tier II and III markets alongside their branded counterparts.
So, today the humble bhujia has come a long way. The government granting it the Geographical Indication tag in 2020 attests not only to its abiding popularity but is also a resounding recognition of the uniqueness and the exclusivity in terms of appeal and name that this humble savoury from Bikaner region has carved for itself. It is no surprises that bhujia and its variants – including modern spinoffs such as aloo bhujia, paneer bhujia and maggi bhujia – will continue to rule the hearts and minds of snack lovers not only in India but globally too.

Adblock test (Why?)

How Bhujia become the popular snack of India - Times of India
Read More