A Friend in Need: English-Tamil Cookery Book

The exterior of A Friend in Need: English-Tamil Cookery Book at the Kislak Center for Special Collections at the University of Pennsylvania

A Friend in Need: English-Tamil Cookery Book is a fundraising community cookbook created by the Women’s Workshop of the Friend In Need Society (F.I.N.S.). The book was created and printed in Madras, India, which is currently known as Chennai, India. This copy is currently held at the Kislak Center for Special Collections at the University of Pennsylvania. Printed in 1937 by the Diocesan Press in Vepery, the book contains recipes written in English and Tamil side-by-side, serving as a reference for Tamil-speaking cooks to prepare Western dishes for their British employers. To the contemporary reader, beyond providing recipes, A Friend in Need: English-Tamil Cookery Book presents a view into domestic life in India during British rule and the relationship between the British and natives.

Background

Madras, India

Until 1600, Madras was named Madraspatnam and was a small rural village on the Coromandel Coast. From the early 1600s, England started to venture into India for spice trade and eventually exerted government control until 1947 when India won independence. Madras was first overtaken by British control in 1636 and it became the location of Britain’s first fortification in India (Fort St. George in 1644, built by the East India Company). Madras became the administrative and military hub of the British East India Company in south India, developing an extensive railway network to promote British-controlled trade. Madras was renamed Chennai in 1996.

A Friend in Need: English-Tamil Cookery Book was published in 1937, during which India was under the control of the British Raj. During this period of direct rule, control of the Indian government was through British viceroys, and British people were in India as part of the military and government. As a result, an increased number of British people moved to India, often with families. They established communities such as the Friends In Need Society (F.I.N.S.) to provide social and philanthropic networks.

Friend In Need Society (F.I.N.S.)

The Friend In Need Society (F.I.N.S) was the creator of this cookbook. Limited information on this society exists other than the brief description included in the book, one digitized copy of a report released by the society in 1882, and transcripts from 1947 interviews with residents of the F.I.N.S. home.

From the cookbook, F.I.N.S. was founded in 1813 to “assist the deserving poor and to provide a Home for aged, infirm and destitute European and Anglo-Indian Christian of every denomination.” The introduction states that all profits from the sale of the book will go towards the society. The society was headquartered on Poonamallee Road in Madras.

The 1882 report, digitized by the University of London Senate House Library, stated that the society had 57 members. The leadership listed in the report were all men, but there was a Women’s Workshop (who were the creators of this cookbook). The purpose of the Workshop is unclear, but it was possibly a community for the wives of the men who were part of the society. The society appeared to have a close relationship with an unnamed local church led by Bishop Colgan, who approved a “Friend-in-Need Sunday,” during which collections were held for the society. The main purpose of the society appears to be fundraising, which went to support poor Europeans and Anglo-Indians in Madras. The term “Anglo-Indians” meant children with both European and Indian ancestry. The report explicitly states that the society did not serve the native poor. The society served its target population by both providing pensions and housing to those in need. In 1882, the society provided 245 permanent and 104 temporary pensions (Rs. 2 to Rs. 5 per month) and housed 87 people.

The University of Cambridge Centre of South Asian Studies has an archive of interviews with eight residents of the F.I.N.S. home from 1974. The ethnic backgrounds of the interviewees were European (French and Portuguese) or Anglo-Indian. The residents were previously railway employees or in the army. Today, F.I.N.S. may exist as an old-age home in Chennai, but it is difficult to say with certainty that the listed organization is the same as the F.I.N.S. who published the cookbook, as the address has changed and the founding date is different.