Chennai: The Geographical Indications Registry, Chennai, has accorded Geographical Indications certificate to West Bengal's famous sweet, ‘Banglar rosogolla’. The GI registry accorded the coveted certificate to the West Bengal Government.
In the application West Bengal State Food Processing and Horticulture Development Corporation Limited represented by its managing director submitted that ‘Banglar rosogolla’, is a syrupy sweet, popular in West Bengal and other states in the country and abroad. It is a pure white, spongy ball of ‘chhana’(cottage cheese) dipped in light sugar syrup and an important delicacy of Bengalese, the department stated.
Regarding origin of sweet the department stated, the second half of 19th century was considered as golden age of Bengal and it excelled in fields from fine arts to commerce, from culture to industry, from literature to science. The world of confectionery also attained its peak.
In a tiny Bagbazar in North Kolkata, Nobin Chandra Das (1845-1925) set up a sweet shop in 1866. His ambition was to create a completely original sweet that would bring new excitement to the Bengali palate. He toiled for three years and his labour paid off in1868.
Nobin Chandra made small balls of casein and boiled them in hot sugar syrup. The result was a succulent, spongy sweet with a unique, distinctive taste. Nobin Chandra christened it as “rosogolla”.
Poet Rakhaldas Adhikari appreciated Rosogolla as a treasure of Bengal in his poem - ‘Rasikata’ in 1896. An eminent writer Panchanan Bandyopadhyay also stated that the rasogolla was invented in Nadia district of Bengal. Haradhan, a confectioner of Puliya village prepared the sweet by accident. In an attempt to silence her daughter, who was crying, he threw ‘chhana’ balls into sugar syrup kept on the oven used to prepare sweets for the Paul Chowdhury family. An innovative new sweet was thus prepared, and, Paul Chowdhury named the sweet as ‘rosogolla’.
Assistant Registrar, GI Registry, Chennai, Chinnaraja G. Naidu stated that after examining the application filed in September 2015 and scrutinizing documents the GI Registry has accorded the GI certificate to West Bengal State Food Processing and Horticulture Development Corporation Limited for ‘Banglar rosogolla’ on Tuesday.
Odisha loses battle
West Bengal and Odisha have been embroiled in a tug-of- war over the sweet since 2015, when Odisha filed an application to claim a GI tag over it. Odisha has said the sweet has been a part of the state's centuries-old rituals of offering prayers to Lord Jagannath and was mentioned in a 16th-century Odiya epic. The GI under the World Trade Organization is a sign that identifies a product as originating from a particular place.
Rs 3,600 cr yearly business
In the application, West Bengal stated that over 1 lakh confectioners are engaged in producing the sweet. The total production is estimated to be over 200,00,000 ‘rasogollas’ per day and business crosses Rs 3,600 crore per year.
