Vidhi Jadhav, a domestic worker in Mumbai, recalls a time around twelve years ago when they would grow rice, and millets like varai and nachni, in their fields in the village of Khadi Kolwan in the Konkan. Today they only grow rice, and have replaced nachni bhakris with rice bhakris. “All the young people have come to the city. There’s no one left to work on the farms,” she says. She and her siblings moved to Mumbai a few years ago, her parents continue to live in the village. 

 

In stark contrast, an increasing number of  people in cities are taking to a millet- based diet, giving up rice and wheat completely or partially. Mumbai-based nutritionist Prajakta Gupte is one such person. “My husband and I decided to give up wheat flour, not completely but at least we will have ragi bhakri, or ragi dosa, or jowar or bajra bhakri. We are using millets daily and I am really enjoying it. Feeling good, feeling lighter and I am very happy.”

 

History of Millets

India has been home to a variety of millets through the ages.  In Indian Food: Historical Companion, A.K Achaya mentions that scorched remains of wild varieties of grains, tentatively identified  as ragi, kangani, and amaranthus, were found in Surkotada in Kutch. In the Aryan civilization, which followed the Harappan, millets find a mention too. For instance a line from a prayer in the Yajurveda reads, “May for me prosper through the sacrifice, rice, barley, sesame, kidney beans, vetches, wheat, lentils, millets, panicum grains and wild rice.” Millets are among the ten food grains named in the Brhadaranyaka  Samhita. In fact, the Rigveda has no mention of wheat and rice, in the Yajurveda wheat has been described with some amount of derision as being food that the mleccchas (outcastes) eat. 

 

Despite their ancient provenance, millets have not been as popular as rice and wheat in recent decades. A reason could be that they were labelled ‘poor people’s food’ - with good reason too because millets were relatively cheaper than rice and wheat. Millets require less water, grow in arid and semi-arid lands, and can be grown from coastal zones to high-altitude areas. This made them the perfect crop for small and poor farmers who grew it as a subsistence crop on the inferior quality land they often ended up with. 

 

This derisiveness hindered earlier attempts to popularise millets, points out Dr. Mohsina Mukadam, former assistant professor of History at Ruia College, Mumbai. “There was such a stamp of millet being poor man’s food. In the 1850s  when the British government wanted to experiment, they did a survey of nutrition and concluded that millets have more benefits than rice, especially milled rice, machine milled rice. So, they tried to introduce millets, nachni flour, into the diet of prisoners. Prisoners revolted and did not eat for 36 hours,” she recounts. 

 

This was repeated during the Second World War when rice and wheat shortage led to rationing of grains and the British made another attempt to popularise millets – in vain. Efforts were made to get people to include millets in their diets, booklets extolling the benefits of millets were published, and there were demonstrations on how to use them. Despite this, people in affluent areas preferred to pay extra to buy wheat and rice rather than eat millets, but they were sold easily in poorer areas.