For most Indians, Independence Day has now been reduced to a public holiday. There is the mandatory flag hoisting, singing of our National anthem, and then feasting or celebrating with family or friends by eating out or ordering in. Be it schools, offices or local neighbourhoods, the narrative remains the same, mostly. But that is not what the day is really about. Countless Indians shed their blood, sacrificed their livelihoods and loved ones, left their homes behind, and fought for freedom in their own way.
Not everybody was a frontier warrior, but all those who sought independence from colonial rule did their own bit for the revolution. And food played a major role in it. Food has been an integral part of Indian culture, chiefly due to the country's changing economic conditions across centuries and conquests. If we travel backwards, there is the British Raj, the entire Mughal dynasty spread across centuries, as well as foreign invaders before that.
Even Ancient India had never really been one united country, but was divided into sprawling civilisations or individual kingdoms. However, as time went on and cultures evolved, a common inclination and love for food was observed. This is not magic, but human nature and the result of interconnection and trading between kingdoms. Along with it came the development of culinary traditions, regional cooking styles, local flavours, and appropriate utilisation of seasonal ingredients.
During Independence, several social strata were involved in the freedom struggle to varying levels. There is no universal framework for it. However, in terms of proportion, most of the freedom fighters post-1900s belonged to the lower or less privileged segments of society, while the rest were either from the middling-educated class or a handful from upper society. This is also evident in the desi foods that played a key role in fuelling our freedom struggle.
There is a lot of ambiguity about the sources of certain foods, along with true word-of-mouth stories with no official sources beyond the memories of seasoned survivors and family members. So, it is important to be aware of both, as well as the foods that fall into either category.
Desi Foods And Ingredients That Actually Fed Our Indian Freedom Fighters
Rice And Its Various Forms, Along With Gur
Rice is one of the most commonly grown crops in India, and its role in daily meals remains humble yet priceless. It is the food that spans classes and nourishes all equally. Brands and fancy packaging may be recent distinctions, but rice itself has remained available for all. It was also one of the primary food sources of freedom fighters, especially in Bengal and regions that depend heavily on rice as a primary source of carbohydrate and energy.
Renowned food historian, culinary consultant, former journalist, and an admitted “deconstructor of food”, Pritha Sen shared her invaluable views on the topic. As her family originally hailed from Bikrampur, now in Bangladesh, she is quite the authority on the culinary culture and styles of “undivided Bengal”. As Sen grew up in Kolkata from when she was a teen, her expertise in Bengali cuisine remains undeniable. In our Bengali-laden conversations, she highlighted the usage of “rice and its various forms”, be it “muri, chire (chiwda), khoi” or just the oft-discarded rice starch or “bhaater phyan” during the freedom struggle as well as the devastating Bengal famine of 1943.
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As most freedom fighters lived either unidentified among the common masses or on the run, ordinary and grassroots-level food was the ideal choice. The nutritiousness and satiety provided by them were a blessed bonus. Even gur played an essential role, according to her inputs, when dry food rations used to be gathered for the revolutionaries.
This is because gur was a versatile food ingredient that tasted sweet and could satiate on its own, did not go bad easily, and made other dishes like dry rotis or puffed rice taste better and more palatable. Since survival and nourishment were the primary requirements from food at that time, such humble foods had a greater impact on our independence than any fancy meal ever could.
Madhukhari: The Lost Bengali Tradition Full Of Secrets
Pritha Sen shared further intriguing and lost tales of Bengal during the turbulent period, including the now-extinct practice of Madhukhari. Practised in Poona (now Pune) and Bengal till the mid-1970s, Madhukhari essentially refers to “the bee-like act of collecting nectar from different flowers” or, here, different houses.
It is very, very different from begging. Its primary goal was the obliteration of the ego to cleanse your mind, making it an empty receptacle into which knowledge can be filled without hindrance. During Madhukhari, individuals could not refuse what was given, and they could be given anything, from a handful of rice to a bowl of ghee to a box of candles to a carton of fruits. Any kind of food, food ingredient, or even basic household items were given
But this is where things become interesting. Sen lucidly explained how revolutionaries and the people who supported them repurposed the tradition of Madhukhari into a secret system of sharing food, guns, ammunition, and secret messages. The British never had reason to suspect secret freedom fighters in the guise of a newly-married Vaishnav couple or very young boys out on Madhukhari carrying out secret missions. The tradition may no longer be alive, but it very well may be a key part of the reason we are.
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Salt: The Ingredient Of Masses
Mumbai-based expert and food historian Falak Chowdhary highlights the use of salt by Gandhi, even as the Dandi March gave way to the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930. Both movements were interconnected primarily by Gandhi’s guidance as well as salt. She explains his choice and its ultimate game-changing role very simply yet clearly: “Salt is perhaps the strongest example of an everyday food ingredient becoming a political weapon. Gandhi deliberately chose salt because it was a basic necessity for Indians across social and economic groups, and the British monopoly and taxation made it an extremely powerful symbol of colonial control.” Thanks to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, something as ordinary as salt roused people into joining the Dandi March and uniting them to form an instrument of civil disobedience.
Mithai, Sweet Shops And Revolutionary Espionage
Both food historians-cum-experts, Pritha Sen and Falak Chowdhary, shared their respective expertise on the role of mithai and sweet shops in the freedom struggle. Since both experts are based on opposite coastlines of the country (Mumbai and Bengal), their knowledge helps gain insight across the terrains of India as well as regional nuances.
Sen explains that in Kolkata, cabin-style restaurants with curtained booths were all the rage back then. Though the interiors were designed keeping families and purdahed women in mind, secret meetings by nationalists and freedom fighters often took place in those private booths. Though such vintage cabin restaurants have almost gone out of style, their legacy lives through us.
On the other hand, Chowdhary highlighted the recorded accounts of sweetmakers who made tricolour barfis and Subhas halwa to express their nationalist sentiments. She cited the example of Shree Ram Bhandar in Varanasi, which has a longstanding family account connecting its tricolour barfi with the period of Gandhi’s movement. The use of saffron, white and green in sweets effectively turned the mithai into an edible expression of nationalism. The Tiranga barfi, originally created by Madan Mohan Gupta in 1940, now proudly wears its recently acquired GI tag.
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While there is no written account or official source for sweet shops, both historians mentioned that sweet shops often sheltered revolutionaries and freedom fighters or hosted secret meetings. However, it is hard to confirm the fact without more information or proper sources.
21st Century And Counting: Food Continues To Fuel And Inspire
It is 2026 now. While Independence Day may have apparently lost some of its former appreciation, its arduous struggle and revolutionary approach have not been forgotten. Recent protests of Gen Z and some millennials at Jantar Mantar hold a torch to the fact. However, irrespective of political hues or priorities, one admirable thing stood out from the rebellion - food. Against all odds, hundreds and thousands of food delivery orders by anonymous kind souls and benefactors arrived to feed the protesters. At the end of the day, food remains the one true string in the labyrinth of history and time. It is both the nourisher and the caretaker of our physical and mental well-being, in every situation.