The decisive identity of India with the world starts with the flavours of the ubiquitous curry. It has successfully arrested the fascination of the globe all through. It is one delicacy that is prepared with different variations by different chefs.

The origin of the word `Curry` comes from the south Indian word `Kari`, which is a blend of spices and sauces, chiefly coconut. However, it has spread all over the country with varieties sprouting up in every Indian province. A curry absorbs and combines umpteen spices, vegetables, meat or any specialty of that particular place. And no matter how it tastes or how people turn curry into various preferences, it has always reflected its Indian quality - the one of adaptability.

Before looking deep into the evolvement of curry in India, it is important to comprehend what curry is. In the present times, curry in India means a sauce or gravy. Bangladesh was an erstwhile part of Pakistan until 1971. And Pakistan became a nation after splitting from India in 1947. Therefore, deep down, what one understands as Indian cuisine does have some of its roots from the 20th century stemming from India. The concept of a curry is what the British during their rule in India referred to when eating peppery or fiery food.

However, natives in India never used the word curry to describe all kinds of dishes. They would employ individual names, reflecting the regional diversities of countless curry dishes. A curry in India is a spicy stew-like dish, something that is wholly based on sauce.

Evolvement of curry in India is significantly credited to the historical advent of British to this eastern soil. British Raj in India, with its mixed cultural aspects and population had left a lasting impact, touching every life, including the art of cookery and eating. `Karil` is one of those remarkable South Indian words the British gladly adopted and this may have turned into `curry` in the long run. The British in India created their own version of spicy dishes which were diluted interpretations of original recipes that the cooks were ordered to make to accommodate European tastes.

Another legend about the origins of the word `Curry` and its evolvement in India is that it might have arrived from `karahi`, a wok style metal vessel in which Indian delicacies are prepared. Another theory is that it descended from `kadhi` or `khari`, which is a North Indian yogurt based curry dish. However, the single expression `Curry` is pretty much rounded and generalised a term to comprehend a vast selection of umpteen cuisines which are as diverse as the regions of the Indian sub-continent.

British love affair with curry in India began at the end of the 16th century, when the Dutch were the leaders in the trading of pepper. With their complete ascendency over the spice, they had hiked the price, so the monarch granted a royal charter to a modest group of merchants allowing them to establish a trading company. The sole purpose of the British East India Company, as it was later called, was to secure a better price for pepper than the Dutch selling price.

During that time India was ruled by emperors and Mughals, who were by and large involved in fighting. This strengthened the British stronghold and their prospects of grasping command of many regions and territories of India. With the Mughals surrendering to the British, East India Company garnered momentum and power. This supremacy of the British Raj was the most significant and the longest in Imperial history, lasting officially upto 1947. The days of the Raj were degenerating and this was absolutely reflected in their cooking.

Just as the British in India had endeavoured to reproduce home comfort cuisine when they landed back in Britain, they yearned a little of the East and that was `curry`. Hence goes another crucial story regarding the evolvement of curry in India.

What the British in India ate - for breakfast, lunch and dinner was curry and rice. The Anglo-Indian dining tables were somewhat incomplete without bowls of curry which, eaten like a hot pickle or a spicy stew, added pungency to the rather bland flavours of boiled and roasted meats. Indians although referred to their different dishes by specific names and their servants served the British with dishes which they called, for example, rogan josh, dopiaza or `quarama`. But the British chunked all these together under the heading of curry.

The British learned this term from the Portuguese who described as `caril` or `carree` the `broths` which the Indians made with butter, the pulp of Indian nuts and all sorts of spices, particularly cardamoms and ginger. Besides, herbs, fruits and a thousand other condiments were also poured in good quantity upon boiled rice. The Portuguese had adopted these terms from various words in south Indian languages. In Kannadan and Malayalam, the word karil was used to describe spices for seasoning as well as dishes of sauteed vegetables or meat. In Tamil, the word kari had a similar meaning (although nowadays it is used to mean sauce or gravy). As the words karil and kari were reconfigured into Portuguese and English, they were transformed into `caril` and `carree` and eventually into the word `curry`. The British then used this as a generic term for any spicy dish with a thick sauce or gravy in every part of India. Evolvement of curry into India is a huge affair, with dollops of legends and facts put in, just to enhance its zest.

Although British used the word curry to describe dishes from every Indian region, they were aware of regional differences in the cooking of the subcontinent. The Anglo-Indian understanding of regional differences was, however, rather dull. They tended to zero in on distinctive, but not necessarily ubiquitous, features of a region`s cookery and then steadfastly apply these characteristics to every curry which came under that head. For example, Bengal and Bengali cuisine is dandiest in fish and vegetable curries, whereas, Bombay boasts of its peculiar gifts in its bomelon fish and popedoms.

Curry became not just a term which the British used to describe an unfamiliar set of Indian stews and ragouts, but a dish in its own right, created for the British in India. Evolvement of curry in India had truly gained diversity, with British hand, which was later mixed with illustrious Indian chefs in imperial kitchens. One surgeon described curry as `a most heterogeneous compound of ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, coriander, Cayenne pepper, onions, garlic, and turmeric, ground to a powder by a pestle and mortar, made into a paste by ghee... and added to a stewed kid or fowl`. And this was the formula which provided a template for Anglo-Indian curries, most of which were variations on this basic recipe. The Madras curry epitomised this attitude towards Indian food. It was simply a spicy sauce for meat, made from a spoonful of curry powder, some onions and tomatoes. Joseph Edmunds described it as `the high old curry made perfect`.

The evolvement of curry in India has now led to a fantastic amalgamation of international cuisines, with the term being just not restricted to Indianised versions. Yet, with such a dichotomous feel, Indian curry is perhaps the undisputed leader, which is followed in every other country for first-class recipes. Hence, the basic elements of curry that are used to cook and prepare a perfect curry, consists of archetypal Indian elements, exotic in nature.

The culture and diversity of India and the country`s extraordinary variety of people and their kind of cooking is truly reflected in preparing curry. Curry is hugely synonymous to every Indian household, whether non-vegetarian and vegetarian, with dollops of spices, herbs, aromatic ancient masalas, or mild and milky curries. The secret essence that is reflected through umpteen Indian curries, is yet to be perhaps discovered; savouring the platter might to some extent satisfy one`s craving for more. Hence Indian curry in different cuisines reflects to some extent curry`s tremendous appeal worldwide.