Indian meals begin with chapati .. a true wonder bread.
This morning, reading an Indian view of the events in Egypt, I made a
discovery … chapatis are a symbol of the use of social networking for
revolution!
From Chapatimystery.com
In late 1856, rumors swept across northern India about a new rifle being used by the East India Company – the Lee-Enfield Rifle. The rifle’s ammunition was carried in a paper-wrapped cartridge with the powder and ball. The paper was greased to be water-proof. ….One depot in Calcutta, Dum Dum [later giving its name to the bullet developed there], was the source in early 1857 of rumors that the grease used to water-proof the paper was made up of a mixture of cow and pig fat.
The Commanding officers immediately tried to spread the word that
it was mutton-fat and wax, but the news was spreading out across the land that
biting the cartridge wrapper would desecrate both the Brahmin Hindus and the
Muslim sepoys in the East India Company army.
The British feared that this news was spreading and the sepoys were mobilizing for a revolt. But how? They suspected that villages across India were using chapatis (flat, round indian bread) to hand-delivered from village to village – especially in Awadh and Bengal – to organize themselves.
The secret paper messages were baked inside the chapati, they imagined.
In any case, the result was the Uprising of 1857.
Postcolonial authors have tried to discern the meaning behind the chapatis, as well – though they remain mysterious to this day.
xoxo
From Chapatimystery.com
In late 1856, rumors swept across northern India about a new rifle being used by the East India Company – the Lee-Enfield Rifle. The rifle’s ammunition was carried in a paper-wrapped cartridge with the powder and ball. The paper was greased to be water-proof. ….One depot in Calcutta, Dum Dum [later giving its name to the bullet developed there], was the source in early 1857 of rumors that the grease used to water-proof the paper was made up of a mixture of cow and pig fat.
The British feared that this news was spreading and the sepoys were mobilizing for a revolt. But how? They suspected that villages across India were using chapatis (flat, round indian bread) to hand-delivered from village to village – especially in Awadh and Bengal – to organize themselves.
In any case, the result was the Uprising of 1857.
Postcolonial authors have tried to discern the meaning behind the chapatis, as well – though they remain mysterious to this day.
xoxo
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