As Ukrainian soup borscht gets Unesco tag, a look at what it really means

At Tashkin, a modest-looking joint in Paharganj, Delhi, borscht is listed as a Russian dish. The brilliant red soup, with its flavourful mix of aromas featuring grated beetroot, carrot, cabbage and meat, is one of its bestsellers. Shyam Raj, the manager, learnt to make it at a Russian eatery in Goa and says it is loved by Indians as much as Russians, Afghans and the rest. “I eat it every day and I am not tired of it,” he says.

Borscht is not widely known in India, but several restaurants in the city serve the dish — though there are many versions of it. Celebrity chefs have offered their own recipe of it online. But everywhere, from India to the US, it is decidedly Russian on restaurant menus.

The soup, however, shot to fame recently with a new identity — as a Ukrainian heritage.

Earlier in July, borscht was inscribed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) as an endangered intangible Ukrainian heritage that needed safeguarding.

For two years before Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukraine painstakingly collected evidence to show borscht originated in its country, and a national movement of sorts was created to support the tradition with cultural events organised around it. Ukraine submitted its proposal to Unesco in March last year and successfully claimed its sovereignty over the soup by July a year later.

A Unesco branding for a tradition is a prized thing, but what does it mean, really?

At 14, India has one of the highest number of traditions inscribed at Unesco, the latest being Durga Puja, which was its entry for 2021. All of India’s traditions are listed under the Representative List, which are for elements that show the diversity of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

So far 630 elements from 139 countries have been included and there is a long list of backlog, which has at least 22 elements from India: from the votive terracotta painted plaques produced by the artisans of Molela in Rajasthan to the practice of turban-tying to Nacha folk theatre of Rajasthan and Patola double ikat silk textiles from Patan, among others.

Among the traditions inscribed so far are yoga, Ramlila, Vedic chanting, the Kumbh Mela and a few lesser-known ones like Chhau dance and Sankirtana — a Manipuri performing art involving ritual singing and dancing.

Kutiyattam, a dance form from Kerala

Since Unesco introduced the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003, to defend traditions that have cultural value for a nation or community, the number of proposals for inclusion has grown every year.

Many of the traditions vying for branding from India would be unfamiliar even to most Indians but that is the point of the Unesco inscription.

A tradition does not have to be popular, aesthetically app­ealing or even have any value in the modern world. It just needs to have value for the comm­unity, according to Unesco. This could be oral traditions and performances, social rituals, culinary traditions (Kimchi from Korea, French gastronomic meal, Mediterra­nean food among others have been included) and crafts.

Some of these traditions are listed

as endangered: Mongolia’s coaxing ritual for camels where herders encourage female camels to adopt an orphan; or the whistled language of Türkiye. So far, there are no traditions from India on the endangered list.

Even so, for many Indian traditions, it may be the last hope of survival given that once a tradition is inscribed by Unesco, governments have to commit to measures to promote, support and encourage them. If the progress is not found to be satisfactory, Unesco can delist the element. Although the recognition comes with no monetary rewards, the branding makes it easier to receive international grants as well.

Two art forms from Kerala, Kutiyattam and Mudiyettu, which were inscribed in 2008 and 2010, respectively, have come back from the brink over the past decade. “Several initiatives like a pension scheme from the central govern­ment for artistes and a new centre for teaching in Thiruva­nanthapuram have helped,” says Jayara­jan Vakil, chairman of Kerala-based Folk­land International Centre for Folklore & Culture.

Mudiyettu is a ritual dance drama based on the mythological tale of a battle between the goddess Kali and the demon Darika. It is a community ritual in which the entire village participates after the summer crops have been harvested. The performance serves as an important cultural site for transmission of traditional values, ethics, moral codes and aesthetic norms of the community to the next generation.

Kutiyattam, a Sanskrit theatre tradi­tionally performed at temples, was rest­ri­cted only to children of inter-caste mar­riage between a Nair and a Namboodiri. “As such marriages declined, the art form became endangered too,” says Vakil.

Since its inscription, new storylines have been added and the performance has been taken out of the temple to schools and colleges to revive it. Unesco’s point, too, is to preserve and protect, not to freeze a living heritage.

For the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, a community of skilled craftsmen who specialise in the traditional technique of hammering brass and copper sheets into traditional utensils, things have been rather tough despite the recognition in 2014. Their numbers continued to dwindle and by 2018 had reduced from 500 to just 30 families.

Of late, though, initiatives by social enterprise P-TAL, which was incubated at Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce, have been appreciated by Unesco in preserving the tradition.

“They were making outdated designs, were exploited by middlemen — paid just Rs 30 per product — and the younger generation had no desire to stick to the craft,” says Aditya Agrawal, who graduated from SRCC in 2021 and is the co-founder of P-TAL.

A switch to newer products like tea cups, cocktail glasses and thalis that could find a place in the modern market has increased their income from Rs 2,000 per month to Rs 18,000 now — and 55 of these families are now associated with P-TAL.

“During lockdown as children of these families lost their jobs and returned home and saw the increased earning potential of their fathers, they too joined the family tradition of craftsmanship,” Agrawal says. Today P-TAL is working with 200 such young craftsmen. “The new generation can see the craft has a bright future.”

Indian heritage on Unesco list

At 14, India has one of the highest number of traditions inscribed at Unesco, the latest being Durga Puja, which was its entry for 2021

All of India’s traditions are listed under the Representative List, which are for elements that show the diversity of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Among the traditions inscribed so far are yoga, Ramlila, Vedic chanting, the Kumbh Mela, Chhau dance and Sankirtana —a Manipuri performing art involving ritual singing and dancing.