In a little known corner of an Indian metropolis lies a thriving Yemeni oasis, complete with harees, gahwah, and mandi.
It’s Sunday morning, and the Bin Habtoor family is hard at work on Barkas’ bustling Market Road. They serve a steady stream of customers making a beeline for harees, the sticky, porridge-like breakfast that has long since become a local favourite. But what is harees, an Arabian dish, doing in a south Indian neighbourhood?
The answer lies in the origins of Barkas, a suburban enclave founded on the outskirts of Hyderabad city over a century ago.
A corruption of the English word barracks, Barkas is a distinct and vibrant neighbourhood that, despite its still being firmly rooted in the Yemeni ethos, has acquired a local flavour through assimilation with native traditions.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Hyderabad state was the largest and most prosperous kingdom within British-controlled India. Its army, which was comprised of soldiers from far and wide, included a great number of Arabs, many of whom hailed from Yemen.
According to popular local history, Barkas was founded in 1903 by Awadh Saleh Abillail al-Salami, a commander in the Nizam’s army. As a general, al-Salami helped the Nizam set up the Arab Regiment, filling it with young Yemeni mercenaries. The soldiers eventually married Hyderabadi women, starting families and permanently settling in the city.
Following India’s independence from British colonial rule, Hyderabad was annexed and added to Indian territory. The Nizam’s army was disbanded however, it’s soldiers and their families remained in Barkas. It was their strong sense of identity that saw them not only endure, but thrive in the region. Today, they number more than 200,000, representing a unique synthesis of Indian culture and Arabian customs.
This merging of identities to form something new reminds us of more syncretic, symbiotic times, when communities would often blend together without surrendering their collective self-hood. And so, while they saw themselves as Indians, these once-Yemeni soldiers and their progeny held on to many of their Arabian traits. Some of their customs remain to this day.
The moment you enter Barkas, you are met with Arabic signboards and welcomed by an array of Arab eateries. As you wind through the old city streets, as well as the neighbouring area of Salalah (named after the Omani region bordering Yemen), you will no doubt spot Yemeni headgear and colourful sarongs that transport you from southern India to southern Arabia.
Food for Thought
If you were to close your eyes and breathe in the Barkas air, you would take in the aroma of Arabian spices, coffee, and perfume. You would be forgiven for wondering, standing outside the Harees Al Hadrami eatery on Market Road, whether you were in Yemen’s Hadramaut, or if this was just another shade of India’s diverse tapestry.
Only upon hearing the locals welcoming you in the typical Hyderabadi Deccani dialect of Urdu would you be sure it was the latter. The adoption of Urdu is just one of many aspects of the local culture the migrants have embraced over the last century.
Not only did they adapt their tongues, but their palates, too, as Arabian tastes gave way to local culinary preferences.
“Traditionally, the Arabian harees is made with meat, wheat grains, and generous dollops of ghee (clarified butter), but without any use of spices or sugar. It tastes quite bland if you grew up on the spicy local food. Over the years, as our forefathers adapted to their new life in Barkas and their tastes began changing, they catered to the local preferences which gave birth to two varieties of harees: the sweet, and the savoury, and both are equally popular now,” remarked Qaiser Bin Abdullah Bin Habtoor, one of the four brothers running the only surviving harees eatery in the area.
The business was started by their grandfather almost six decades ago. It was among a handful of harees businesses in town, until the changing realities of modern life forced the others to shut up shop.
“We are the oldest surviving Harees outlet in Hyderabad now. There were a few others on this street that have closed down. This is a tough business; the making of Harees is a lengthy process and needs a lot of patience and skill. The knowledge has been passed down to us by our forefathers and we are glad to have been able to maintain this tradition,” said Sabir Bin Abdullah, who spends nearly ten hours per night preparing the dish, continually stirring the mixture as it simmers over a low, coal-powered flame.
Craze for Coffee
Another family business and Yemeni tradition that has survived the test of time, albeit with a local twist, is gahwa, or Arabic coffee.
While Yemenis and most other Arabs prefer their gahwah black -a blend of water, herbs, spices, and powdered coffee – Barkas’ own popular variant is a mixture of coffee powder, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, cashews, almonds, saffron, and, most importantly, milk.
“Our ancestors brought with them many of their Yemeni traditions. Though we have adopted most local Indian customs over the years, there are certain traits that are too strongly ingrained in us, and one of them is a love for coffee,” noted 25 year old Omar Bin Nasir Al Askeri, the fourth-generation inheritor of the only traditional gahwah stall in Barkas.
Though the nourishing, milk-based gahwah is particularly popular, many still prefer the more authentic, water-based original. The Al-Askeri cafe has been serving traditional gahwah and Suleimani tea for several decades, keeping the pot of traditions simmering on.
“Coffee runs deep in Yemeni veins. It’s in our blood. Yemenis start their morning with gahwah, and we are no different. Even now, most of us start our morning with gahwah. We are proud to have been able to facilitate this tradition of our ancestors through our small stall,” added Omar.
Backyard Bounties
A popular social hub, the gahwah stall is where the locals gather every evening, sharing joys and sorrows over their steaming cups. It is also located next to the traditional market, where locally grown fruits and vegetables are traded every morning. This tradition dates back to the early days of Barkas, though later generations have added plenty of new flavours to it.
One new food staple is mandi. Although this dish has been a mainstay of Yemeni culinary tradition for centuries, it only recently found its way to Barkas. This is largely due to a rival meat-and-rice dish, Hyderabadi biryani, which has long dominated the region.
However, as the number of men from Barkas working in the Arabian Gulf steadily increases, Arabian cultural influence has led to a rise in the number of restaurants serving mandi in the area.
“This is a recent phenomenon. There was no mandi culture in Barkas a decade back. Biryani was always more popular, because the people of Barkas married local women, and the local food habits were mostly dominant. There might have been a few families who cooked mandi at home, but it was certainly not part of the popular culture,” observed local historian and cultural activist, Badar Bin Jaffer Barrawaz.
While the economic migration of young Barkas residents to the Gulf has helped revive more of their Arabian heritage, the locals remain firmly rooted in Indian soil. One of Barkas’ most senior residents, Ali Abdul Rahman, affirms exactly that: “This is home, this is where we belong. We might have Arab blood and Yemeni traits, but we are Indians in every other way.”
Edited by Asma
