Thread by @krishashok

During the Raj, rich Indians adopted the eating habits of the colonial masters to the point where they would serve British dishes to guests at the start of the meal and then serve Indian dishes. This continues to this day in the custom of serving soup before the main course

The abolition of slavery posed a huge financial risk to existing imperial sources of revenue. The British therefore shipped Indian indentured labour to all sugar-growing places they won from the French in the Napoleonic wars - Trinidad, Guyana etc.

Most of the indentured labourers of Indian origin were weavers whose industry had been destroyed by protectionist laws in the UK that made Manchester-made cotton textiles cheaper than Indian-made ones.

Sugar and Tea were the 2 major industries that profited from indentured labour. The Indian tea industry particularly benefited from aggressive British advertising about Chinese adulteration practices (and well, racism)

Before they started growing tea in India, the EIC used to smuggle opium grown in Bihar into China and then use that silver/gold to buy tea. The high level of labour that poppy cultivation required ended up causing labour shortages in rice cultivation, which made famines worse

On that cheery note, I'd like to let folks in the UK know that Masala Lab is now available there - amazon.co.uk/Masala-Lab-Sci… (Kindly procure and gift generously to anyone who enjoys British-Indian food)

And one last thing: Sylhet, a particularly watery, rivery part of Bangladesh produced a lot of sailors back in the day, and many of them worked on British ships for terrible pay (plus bonus racism). Many of them jumped ship and started living in the UK

And some of them started low cost "curry" restaurants to feed the growing subcontinental population. That's why such a larger number of low cost curry shops are run by people of Bangladeshi origin.

As for Indians today using the ridiculous "Oh that's not authentic Indian food cos it's Bangladeshi", please remember that when these sailors started these places back in the day, it was all British India, and they were Bengalis.

Source: The Hungry Empire by Lizzie Collingham (please add it to your "OMG I knew the Raj was bad but I didn't realize it was this bad" cupboard.