West Bengal to go to court against Odisha in bitter fight over sweet dish's origin

The pearly white, mouthwatering Rasgulla finds itself amid a controversy over its origin yet again.

While West Bengal believes it was invented in yesteryear's Calcutta, by confectioner Nabin Chandra Das, Odisha says it was invented in the holy city of Puri way back in the 13th century.

But things are serious now as the Bengal-Odisha Rasgulla fight has taken a legal turn. West Bengal food processing minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah has said that the government will not let Odisha claim the credit for the Rasgulla.

As per a statement by Mollah to Hindustan Times, the state government is leaving the matter to the court, however, at the same time being ready to fight “until the very end”.

As per an official’s statement from the West Bengal government, a court petition will be filed in tandem with an application for the much-coveted Geographical Indication (GI) recognition for the Rasgulla to douse the flames of the debate.

The government has traced the Rasgulla’s origin, known as 'Roshogolla' in Bengal, to Nabin Chandra Das, a 19-century sweetmaker back in 1868.

The fight intensified back in 2015 when Pradip Kumar, Odisha’s science and technology minister, told the media that they set up a committee to trace the historical origin of the sweet.

In its 100-page report to the Odisha state government, the committee has cited several references to stake claim to the origin of the sweet dish and prove the West Bengal government's stand 'wrong'.

GI recognition tags work as an intellectual property identifier for a product.

Some of the other products that also have a GI tag include Darjeeling tea, where native tea growers can challenge why a product is being marketed under the name despite not being grown from the tea gardens of Darjeeling.

The squabble over the origin of the sweet dish is primarily because it will lead to better business for sweet confectioners.

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been portraying the dessert as a cultural ambassador of the state on the global stage. Her idea has found support with Bengal’s sweet makers.

The Odisha government hasn't kept quiet either. They claimed that the first avatar was of the Rasgulla was the Oriya sweet ‘kheer mohana’ which they later ]claimed evolved as the ‘pahala rasgulla’ as per the report.

In July 2015, Odisha state government launched a social media campaign #RasagollaDibasa to celebrate the origin of the popular sweet and organised an exhibition too.

Given this history, and also the fact that it is liked equally around the country, any Geographical Indication claims, that any of the states might make on the Rasgulla would be just a little unfair.