(Abed, 2009)Evolution of Kacchi Biriyani:

from the Mughals to today’s Old Dhaka

Instructor: Nur Newaz Khan

Section: 6
Submitted by:

Name ID
Faiyaz Ferdous Khan 1330785030
Sumaiya Afsana 1331068030
Shanunoy Nandi 1512513030
Taher Alamin 1511556030
Sadat Ahmed Sammo 1722258630
Tanvir Mehtab 1812079640
Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3

Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 4

Food Habit ...................................................................................................................................... 5

Enculturation ................................................................................................................................... 6

Religion ........................................................................................................................................... 7

Dress ............................................................................................................................................... 7

Norms, Values and Language ......................................................................................................... 8

Norms & Values: ........................................................................................................................ 8

Language: .................................................................................................................................... 8

Culture............................................................................................................................................. 9

Adaptation ..................................................................................................................................... 10

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 11

References ..................................................................................................................................... 12
Evolution of Kacchi Biriyani: from the Mughals to today’s Old Dhaka

Introduction

Kacchi Biryani is an evergreen classic that really needs no introduction. Old Dhaka offers so

much on its culinary platter but the one dish Bengalis unanimously love indulging in is the

mouth-watering biryani. With local and hyperlocal variations having evolved into distinctive

styles of biryanis, one is spoilt for options when it comes to experiencing this melting pot of

flavours.

participation observation is the most natural and the most challenging of qualitative data

collection method used by anthropologist. Participant observation is used across the social

sciences, as well as in various forms of commercial, public policy, and nonprofit research.

As per the instructions of our faculty, we have completed our research by utilizing participant

observation. Our research topic is on the food culture of Old Dhaka (particularly Nazira Bazar),

we were interested on the trend of “Kacchi” which is a type of rice mixed dish with its origins

among the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. A dish which is said to be originated in Persia

and brought to the Indian subcontinent by the Mughals. Our main purpose of this research was to

understand how this cuisine has changed throughout the years as it has reached the Bengali

population.

We as a group, on 9th December 2018, Sunday, reached Old Dhaka and visited many restaurants

of the area, we also participated by tasting many of the biriyanis of different hotels and

restaurants like Grand Nawab, Kolkata Kacchi, Hajir Biriyani to understand the changes adopted

by these different establishments. And questioned many of the owners and shop employees as to

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Evolution of Kacchi Biriyani: from the Mughals to today’s Old Dhaka

their perception of the change in Biriyani. We observed and participated for around 3 hours after

which time we concluded our research.

Methodology

For an effective utilization of our research and to gain a better understanding of the relative

change that came over the Bengali version of the cuisine Kacchi, we established a number of

points and questions that we thought would be relevant for our research topic. Our primary

methodology of gathering information was through Participant Observation. We also

interviewed many shop owners and restaurant workers during our participant observation. We

enquired upon there background and the number of years they have been working on the

restaurant, also discussed how they think the taste of biriyani has changed during their lifetime.

Our methodology can be divided into three categories:

 Participant Observation

 Primary sources of information

 Secondary sources of information

Participant Observation: this was our main source of obtaining qualitative data, which required

us to be present on the scene and first hand understand how things have changed throughout the

ages. And which required us to observe and understand various details and to take notes on the

things we observed.

Primary Sources: these included interviews and discussions that we undertook with various

individuals who operate in the thriving and lively restaurant business. To understand their point

of view as to how the Kacchi trend has changed over time.

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Evolution of Kacchi Biriyani: from the Mughals to today’s Old Dhaka

Secondary Sources: these are all the secondary sources that we could get our hands on such as,

newspapers, online journals, food blogs, magazines; etc.

Food Habit

The foundation of Puran Dhaka was largely made by the Nawab and Jamindar family. For this

food habit of this area has been largely influenced from these Nawab and Jamindar family,

cooking feature, geography, climate, resource, and lifestyle. Each food shops have their own

recipes and cooking style. The development on creation of these recipes sometimes requires

decades or near about a century. Through our participant observation we have observed that

Every food shops have their own secrets in their recipes. These procedures and secret formulas

have been followed by generations after generations which were started by predecessor. Here

there are various mouthwatering dishes and one of the main dishes of this locality is “Kacchi”.

This dish is the oldest and the most favorite dishes in the locality. The food habit of the people of

Kazi Alauddin Road is that there is a shop of Kacchi in every 1 meter in the locality. This proves

how popular this dish is in this locality. This kacchi has different taste and has different unique

names given by the restaurants in the locality. The reason is that every Kacchi restaurants here

have their own tradition and making the Kacchi. The people here take “Kacchi” as their major

meal in the day. From the above discussion we see that the people mainly take Kacchi as their

major food in the Kazi Alauddin road locality. Besides while we have visited the locality there

are many other foods like Lacchi, Bakor Khani, mouthwatering Kababs, Falooda, Shahi Jilapi,

Burinda, Doi (yogurt) etc. These foods also have their own tradition and culture. So the above

description describes the food habit of the Kazi Alauddin Road.

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Evolution of Kacchi Biriyani: from the Mughals to today’s Old Dhaka

Enculturation

Enculturation is the process by which people learn the dynamics of their surrounding culture. It

is related to socialization which results in competence in the language, rituals and culture. An

individual becomes accepted in a society by adapting himself in the society through following

the society’s norms, values, language, rituals etc.

We found from our participant observation that, the people of the Kazi Alauddin road locality

have very old tradition. This tradition has started from the very early period since the Jamindar

and Nawab family. While we discussed with some local people they said that the tradition of

eating kacchi has been practicing from the very early period. Their father, grandfather, great

grandfather has been making Kacchi from their time. And they have been carrying out this

tradition from them and they said that they have strong belief that their future generations will

also carry out this tradition.

But few of the participants were exceptional in their opinions. They said that are not interested in

making their children into this tradition rather they want their children to have a better job for a

better life.

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Evolution of Kacchi Biriyani: from the Mughals to today’s Old Dhaka

Religion

As “Kacchi” of Puran Dhaka is renowned from a very long time specially of Nazirabazar they

have thought about the religious side very thoroughly. As Bangladesh has a greater number of

Muslims than other religions people tend to think that the people of Nazirabazar specialty is beef

meat. But to amuse a lot of people they rather went with goat’s meat for their Kacchi instead of

beef. Their thinking was that their kacchi should be enjoyed by all religious people and thus they

use this tender reddish goat’s meat in their kacchi. As many of us know they among some of the

Hindu culture they don’t eat beef. It is strictly forbidden for some of them such as pork is

forbidden in the Muslim culture, so they decided to go with goat’s meat. Some people might not

see the bigger picture here but those who are sensible understand that just this small step can be

seen as thoughtful as well as respective. So basically such a simple plate of Kacchi can bring

different kinds of religious people together and form new bonds as well.

Dress

Bangladesh is a country which is enriched with a lot of traditions. Each and every place has some

sort of a variety from the other one. Puran Dhaka is also very different from all other places. The

people of Puran Dhaka are known as “Dhakaiyya Kutti” and they have their unique sense of

dressing as well. One can easily point out if a person is from purine Dhaka or not just by their

appearance and their language as well as body gestures. The men tend to wear a Dhoti or Lungi

along with a white shirt or a kurta or even a sleeveless vest. The people of puran Dhaka usually

loves to chew “Pan” and when they talk they have a mixture of both Bengali and Urdu. And the

amusing thing which is seen in puran Dhaka is that a lot of the men like to hold one end of their

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Evolution of Kacchi Biriyani: from the Mughals to today’s Old Dhaka

lungi or dhoti with their hand and walk, and in the women’s case they tend to do the exact same

thing with their saree or the dupatta (scarf) of their salwar (bottom), kameez (Top). This sort of

dressing has been there for ages but as times are changing so are people and a lot of them now

doesn’t dress that way. Puran Dhaka is truly a unique place indeed specially the area

Nazirabazar.

Norms, Values and Language

Norms & Values:

A norm can be defined as a standard of behavior; whereas values, are abstract concepts that

certain kinds of behaviors are good, right, ethical, moral and therefore desirable. The Bengali

culture always was hierarchical society. Where we value people by their social standing and also

the fact of how rich they are. So when we consider the attitude and the norms of the restaurant

owners to their customer, we see a striking difference in tone and mannerism when they speak to

a customer based on certain traits, such as, customer age and their behavior; their outlook, the

way a customer speaks, and gender. Their behavior once again shifts when they are speaking to

someone who has a low social standing, exerting a type of force and overpowering tone over

those individuals.

Language:

Most of the people in and around Old Dhaka speaks, what can be known as Cholit Bhasha,

which is the common language. The language of the great majority of Bengalis. Cholit Bhasha is

the medium by which the great majority of people communicate in a country. then there is

another type of language that is unique to the people of Old Dhaka, Dhakaiya Kutti. It is a

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Evolution of Kacchi Biriyani: from the Mughals to today’s Old Dhaka

language developed based on both Bengali and Urdu. This language is completely intelligible

with Bengali but it has some unique & different vocabulary.

Culture

Culture is those habits or elements like values, norms, customs, laws we learn from society. We

can learn it from occasion or from observation. we all know that in general the original people or

old Dhaka or puran Dhaka, are very open-minded. They like to celebrate their special events

with everyone including neighbor, family and friends. But there are two events they widely

celebrate, they are:

 Poush Sankranti

 Holi

these festivals originate from the Hindu religion but these days everyone including Muslims,

Christian and Buddhist people also participate in it. Poush Sankranti is also known as Makar

Sankranti which celebrates at the end of Bengali month Poush. With colorful kites from the

rooftop and fireworks light up the night, they celebrate the occasion widely. The food sellers of

Nazira bazar they told us that they maximized their profit double in the festivals time. Even at

the normal days, they do not face that much problems to sell their food items because of their

popularity.

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Evolution of Kacchi Biriyani: from the Mughals to today’s Old Dhaka

Adaptation

People can adapt things from their biological or cultural elements. if we noticed ,we will

understand that Holi is a festival that Hindu religion celebrate but due to Indian cultural

influence , now a day’s people of all religion also celebrates this event widely. Even in the

education sectors, original people of Old Dhaka are lacking behind. they only focus on their

business but if we observe, we see that, for the last few years’ people of old Dhaka are now

concerned about their children’s education. They motivate their children’s to get higher

education. their accent is also changing day by day.

From the region of Mughals, people of old Dhaka adapted many things specially Biriyani. This is

a Persian word Biriyan that means fried before cooking. Now they also adapt so many things

from other culture like different types of kebab, BBQ, Nachos, pastry and cakes etc.

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Conclusion

And finally, we had finished our observation. There were many people working there. They

represented their culture so they try to talk nicely. There are some people who talked with their

Puran Dhaka’s style for attracting customers. They didn’t take enough time to serve the food.

They decorated the food and represented their culture, business activity and their own style. They

share their basic concepts with us but true they didn’t share their secret. They represented the

beliefs.

In those restaurants, we can saw how culture was change by society. Those restaurants have

different society, culture and style. In environment, we can also see enculturation and

acculturation. In customers and waiter’s behaviors their languages depend on society. In food,

there is historical particularism, enculturation and acculturation. And in service we can see how

culture and society belong.

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References
Abed. (2009, November 16). TRADITIONAL FOODS OF OLD DHAKA. Retrieved from

TRADITIONAL FOODS OF OLD DHAKA: https://foods-of-old-

dhaka.blogspot.com/2009/11/introduction.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR1I9GIn5gL1NBOFs

WmyJYMmodI9uHU9PD6OwcE_e6rvFbvZaQ_SZU9kepY

official Bangladesh.com website. (2006, March 25). official Bangladesh.com website. Retrieved

from History and Tradition in Puran Dhaka: http://www.bangladesh.com/blog/history-

and-tradition-in-puran-

dhaka?fbclid=IwAR09dfzNWpLxnWmdHfuj6CkY4aHUwbXwvd5aP9pWx36EAL_rwq

IPSxzS7Jo

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