Delhi Refugee Food Tour – Of Loss, Identity and Preservation of Culinary Heritage

Delhi is home to many refugees – mainly Afghans, Somalis, Burmese, Tibetans – registered with the UNHCR. The localities in the city can be easily identified by the communities that have made those pockets their homes and their food. Interestingly, what’s considered quintessentially ‘Delhi’ today emerged out of the resilience with which displaced people migrating from Pakistan rebuilt their lives here.

Chittaranjan Park which was once called East Pakistan Displaced Persons Colony was built in the 1960s to accommodate Bengali refugees from Bangladesh. In a locality in South Delhi, displaced Afghans have built a little Kabul where eateries serve flavors of their homeland. The Tibetan momo, a steamed dumpling, has become Delhi’s most omnipresent food.

Food for these refugees is a way to reclaim their identity and preserve their cultural heritage.

Join us on this lovely tour where you observe how in this city the ethnicity of a locality is represented in the food. Learn as you enjoy some delicacies that through food, the refugees are rewriting narratives. They are rebuilding spaces and making connections with people in India that they now call home.