WHITE sugar did not enter the Indo-Pakistan region as an ordinary kitchen item.

It arrived slowly, almost quietly, but with a very deliberate plan behind it. For generations, people in the subcontinent lived comfortably with natural sweeteners. Jaggery, dates and honey were used in homes, in festivals and in everyday cooking. These were simple foods connected with farms, seasons and tradition.

When refined white sugar appeared in the late colonial period, it was not sold on taste alone. It was sold as a symbol of progress. Shiny crystals packed neatly in small bags were presented as something superior and modern. Advertisers and traders promoted it with the idea that a refined kitchen must have refined sugar. Yet the real turning point came through a marketing method that older people still remember very clearly. In many towns of Punjab, Sindh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, small........

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