Hyderabadis love their chai. And those who swear by a cup of the wildly-popular Irani chai are in a league of their own. But, perhaps it is a little-known fact that tea consumption received royal patronage, with the Nizam’s government being open to making it a beverage of choice in the city, at the behest of the British.
It was on September 18, 1917, that a hukm, or order, was issued permitting the setting up of tea stalls across Hyderabad city limits. The order was issued at the request of the British Resident in Hyderabad. Interestingly, the rationale behind the move was to discourage, as the order states, alcohol consumption, and replace it with chai noshi, meaning tea-drinking.
The Resident’s suggestion went through a round of deliberations. Later, the Malguzaari, revenue department, gave permission to set up tea stalls.
Irani tea at a restaurant in Hyderabad | Photo Credit: File photo
This effort to wean away the public from alcohol, was widely reported in the international press, show archival documents, with several newspapers seeing the move as innovative, and lauding the idea.
The Leamington Chronicle wrote that “Tea is to oust toddy in Hyderabad”, and estimating how much it would cost, added, “fifty thousand pounds is to be spent by that State”. It pointed out that the revenue by means of excise in Hyderabad “reaches the figure of one million pounds”.
The Oldham Standard, too, carried a similar report, documents show. “... a chain of tea shops are being opened within a few yards of toddy booths,” a news report stated. “Attractive tables will be laid out and free tea will be supplied when asked for, and it is hoped that the scheme will empty the bars,” it added. Those with the temperance movement viewed the move favourably.
Hyderabadis and those who have been researching Hyderabad recalled hearing first-hand experiences of this movement of popularising tea consumption. Mohammed Ayub Ali Khan, a Canada-based scholar who is a part of research projects centered around the Deccan, says, “My grandmother had a domestic help named Malamma, born and raised in Musheerabad. In the 1980s, she was in her 70s. She told me that Englishmen used to come in trucks and give away piping hot tea from a bhabka. They did that for two months and then stopped. Malamma and others were addicted and began acting up without it. Then the tea started appearing at a local dukaan (shop).” Mr.Khan wondered whether the Resident in Hyderabad was a part of the Temperance Movement.
Customers queuing up outside a tea stall at Toli Chowki Cross Roads in Hyderabad. | Photo Credit: File Photo
Heritage conservationist Sajjad Shahid, who is a part of the Deccan Studies publication, recalled a similar incident. “I remember my grandfather, Syed Salamatullah Hussaini, and my father telling me that tea would be distributed free of charge for two or three months. Demonstrations of how to make it a certain way were also given. Then one day, they stopped coming and tea appeared in shops. By then, a lot of people were used to having tea and they began to buy it.”
A different, more specifically, Mulki flavour, was given to tea. In what perhaps is merely a one-off incident, but was important enough to find its way into Hyderabad State government records, a tea merchant sought to sell his product piggybacking on the Mulki movement.
Karen Leonard in Hyderabad and Hyderabadis points out that Mulkis were citizens of Hyderabad, and non-Mulkis were outsiders invited to Hyderabad in an attempt to reform the Hyderabad government. A conflict between the two emerged. But back to the tea merchant — H.Ram Kishan Dhoot released an advertisement in the form of a flyer: “Chai gar piyo to piyo chai deshi Chand Chhaap. (If you are to drink tea, drink desi Chand Chhaap).” Located in Residency Bazaar, the tea merchant also claimed that his tea was more flavourful than little-known non-Mulki chai.
