Kanji and Community: The Tradition of Iftar in Kayalpatnam

Iftar, the time and act of breaking the fast during the month of Ramzan, in Tamil Nadu, is unheard of without the humble kanji or congee—a gruel dish made of rice and lentils, sometimes with spices and mostly with moringa leaves. But in Kayalpatnam, there is nothing humble about kanji—its preparation is elaborate, and the ingredients are refined. It’s a rice-and-lentil-based gruel here too, but it is unmistakably a meat-forward dish. Coconut milk and a tempering of whole spices, ginger-garlic paste, curd, and pandan leaves in ghee and coconut oil are added to the slow-cooked mass of rice, meat, and lentils, making it rich and flavorful.

Most Tamils prefer breaking the fast – or Nombu Thurakka, as it’s called in Tamil – with a full bowl of Kanji and broken bits of fried snacks like Paruppu Vadai, Samosa, or the coastal prawn-filled Vaada. Kanji across the Tamil-speaking heartlands is made in very large batches in Masjids. The main purpose of Kanji-making is to ensure that there is something nutritious for everyone to break the fast. Though it is intended to ensure food security for those who may need it, everyone benefits from it – rich and poor alike. Kanji has earned a devoted fan base in Tamil Nadu among both Muslims and non-Muslims.

In Kayalpatnam, where I live — a town with over 100 Masjids — nearly every Masjid is involved in Kanji-making. From the slaughtering of sheep to rinsing the rice and lentils, extracting the coconut milk, and breathing life into the life-sized cauldron with a Thalipu – tempering in ghee and coconut oil with ginger-garlic, curd, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and pandan leaves – everything is carried out by a team of men who specialize in it, day in and day out.

When the evening Azan – the call for prayers from the Masjid – for Asr prayers fills the air, and the clock ticks a few minutes past 4 pm, men and children with white and brightly colored skull caps can be seen walking toward the neighborhood Masjids with empty Thookus – a stainless steel Dabba with a handle to carry hot food – to get Kanji filled in to be relished at Iftar.

Large-scale public distribution of cooked food in places of congregation has been a tradition among most cultures in India. In that spirit, the distribution of Kanji for fasting and non-fasting families – because anybody is welcome, cutting across faith and caste – during the month of Ramadan is a very familiar practice.

In southern Tamil Nadu, many Masjids claim to have had the tradition of Kanji-making for nearly 1,000 years, though some ingredients like tomatoes and potatoes that go into it today are relatively new, thanks to the Columbian exchange. Well, it could have been a different Kanji from what we know today. However, these are practices whose origins we can only speculate about.

By tradition, in places like Kayalpatnam, families used to offer sheep, rice, and lentils to Masjids during Ramadan for Kanji-making until a few decades ago. It was a form of community-level resource pooling in the month Muslims consider sacred and holy, encouraging acts of generosity. Though this practice has faded, the Kanji-making phenomenon in Masjids now solely relies on the generosity of the neighborhood people, from whom funds are collected – both from those living at home and those in the diaspora.