From foreign food to a pantry staple, the potato’s journey to India traverses thousands of

kilometres and three centuries of culinary assimilation.

The potato was indigenous to Peru till the 16th century and unknown elsewhere.

The voyages of Christopher Columbus opened up different parts of the world and its produce
creating what was known as the Columbian Exchange. This allowed the potato to travel from its
place of origin, across the seas to nearly every continent in the world. Thereafter, the potato's
history and travels were contiguous with that of trade, expansionism and colonialism.

In India, the story of the potato is one that begins with the early Portuguese and Dutch traders.
However, their influence did not extend across the subcontinent and the potato remained
restricted to small patches along the Malabar coastline.

In the 18th century ,the potato was quite a novelty even in England and the British company
agents wanted to continue their culinary explorations of this newfound item even in foreign
lands. So, the plants were given out to farmers at a pittance and the overall agenda was one of
indulgence as well as commerce for the potato business was picking up across the world.

By the 19th Century, potatoes were being grown all across Bengal and the hills of north India.