Patna, Nov 13: Patna-born Sake Dean Mahomed, who had opened London’s first Indian restaurant ‘Hindoostanee Coffee House’ in 1810, and Bihar’s first ‘prime minister’ Mohammad Yunus who was buried in the UK, were on Saturday fondly remembered in their native city.
The occasion was a special lecture titled ‘Legacy of India in Britain’ delivered by a UK-based doctor and independent researcher, who hails from Bihar, at the prestigious Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library here. In his presentation, Dr Mohammad S Siddiqui highlighted the heritage buildings and places associated with India in the UK, and shared some of the stories behind them, using archival images.
In his talk, he recalled the legacy of Sake Dean Mahomed, an Indian traveller and surgeon, and entrepreneur who had opened ‘Hindoostanee Coffee House’, the first Indian restaurant in London in 1810.
“A green plaque has been put by authorities to mark the site where this cafe stood earlier. Heritage is so much respected in the UK, and we (in India) demolish our heritage by judging it and looking at it through a colonial prism,” Siddiqui told PTI.
Mahomed also was a shampooing surgeon to George IV and opened his Indian medicated vapour baths in Brighton in England in 1821, according to an old plaque, an image of which was shared by him during the lecture.
“Sake Dean was born in Patna, and introduced curry cuisine restaurant in Britain,” Siddiqui said. The UK-based physician, 47, born in Jamui district of Bihar, said, some of the facts that he shared with the audience, left them “pleasantly shocked”. (PTI)
