Two tags for one sweet: reading the Rasgulla dispute

By Rafe Calder

The ledger first. In November 2017 West Bengal was granted a Geographical Indication for “Banglar Rasogolla”. In July 2019 Odisha was granted one for “Odisha Rasagola”. Two spellings, two registrations, both still standing when our sources were written. The argument about who invented the sweet was never decided by either.

What the sweet is

Odisha Tourism describes it as fresh chhena, sugar and water, with a little semolina or refined flour optional as a binder. Milk is curdled to make the chhena, kneaded to a smooth dough, shaped by hand into small balls and simmered in boiling sugar syrup until it expands and absorbs the syrup. Wikipedia gives the same outline and says pressure cookers and ovens can also be used.

The Bengal account

Wikipedia says the Kolkata confectioner Nobin Chandra Das is believed to have introduced the spongy white rosogolla in 1868 at his shop in Sutanuti, now Bagbazar. It also records earlier claims: that Braja Moira sold it near the Calcutta High Court in 1866, and, in a 1906 account, that Haradhan Mondal of Phulia made it for a family in Ranaghat. A law journal article (White Black Legal, 2023) credits Nobin Chandra Das with inventing the modern sweet in the late 19th century.

The Odisha account

Wikipedia says Odisha historians trace it to Puri, first as khira mohana and later as Pahala rasgulla, offered at the Jagannath Temple in Puri at the Niladri Bije ritual after the Ratha Yatra. Temple scholars link the tradition to the 12th century, and the 15th-century Jagamohana Ramayana mentions “Rasagola”, it says. Odisha Tourism’s page ties the sweet to the same festival and says it is marked yearly as Rasagola Dibasa. That page gives no founding date. We report these as the state’s account and leave the festival’s meaning to those who observe it.

The doubters

Wikipedia names food historians K. T. Achaya and Chitra Banerji, who say cheese is not documented in India before the 17th century, and Animikh Roy and Haripada Bhowmik, who say rasgulla is absent from the temple’s early records of offerings and that the name was coined in Bengal. We cannot weigh these arguments. We can only set them next to each other.

Dates in order

1866: Braja Moira claim, according to Wikipedia.
1868: Nobin Chandra Das at Sutanuti, according to Wikipedia.
1930: vacuum packing introduced by Krishna Chandra Das, according to Wikipedia.
2015: West Bengal applies for the GI, according to Wikipedia.
November 2017: Banglar Rasogolla registered, according to the law journal article. Wikipedia gives 14 November.
2018: Odisha applies, according to Wikipedia.
July 2019: Odisha Rasagola registered, according to Odisha Tourism (GI No. 612) and Wikipedia (29 July).

What each tag covers

Here the sources are most useful. An article on SpicyIP, a blog on intellectual property law, says each registration covers only the prefixed name, “Banglar Rasogolla” and “Odisha Rasagola”. The author reads the registry’s decision as treating “Rasogolla” and “Rasagola” as generic words, so neither state holds a monopoly on the bare word. Wikipedia reports that when the registry granted West Bengal’s tag it clarified the tag was “not for the sweet’s origin”.

The applicant for Bengal was a state corporation, the West Bengal State Food Processing and Horticulture Development Corporation, according to both the SpicyIP piece and the law journal. The law journal adds that the Act requires a direct connection between a product and its place of making.

Side by side

The two applications described the sweets differently. Wikipedia says the registry distinguished them by colour, texture, taste, juice content and method of making. SpicyIP says the Bengal application described its sweet as spongy, smooth and delicate against a rough, chewy rest, and reportedly said no starch was used, while other states’ versions use it. The author disputes this, saying other versions can also be spongy, “smooth and delicate” is subjective, and the starch claim lacks data. Odisha Tourism describes the Odisha sweet as soft, juicy and cream to brown in colour. The law journal says the two “differ” in numerous ways but does not say how.

The sources also differ on timing of the Bengal objection. SpicyIP says an application to remove the Bengal registration was filed in February 2018 and was still pending when the article appeared in September 2019. We found nothing later.

What kind of sources these are

Wikipedia is open to editing. Odisha Tourism is a state tourism board. Our reading: it speaks for Odisha in this dispute. SpicyIP is a legal blog with a named author arguing a position. White Black Legal is a law journal. None is a registry page. We did not read the registry entries themselves.

Questions a buyer would ask

Does the tag tell me where the sweet was invented? No, according to the sources above. Wikipedia quotes the registry on that.

Is a tin labelled “rasgulla” a GI product? The SpicyIP reading is that only the prefixed names are protected, so a bare “rasgulla” would not be. That is one author’s reading of the registry’s decision, not a ruling we can cite.

How did a fresh sweet become a tin on a shelf? Wikipedia says Krishna Chandra Das introduced vacuum packing in 1930, which let canned rasgullas travel beyond Kolkata and abroad. It adds that they are now sold across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and in South Asian grocery shops abroad.

What we left out

Nutrition figures, record-sized sweets, festival counts, the space-food remark in Wikipedia, and any claim about which version tastes better. Our reading: as the festive weeks come, sweet boxes will carry labels, and the useful skill is knowing that “Banglar” and “Odisha” in front of the word are the protected part.

Quick answers

When did West Bengal get its rasgulla GI? In November 2017, according to a law journal and SpicyIP. Wikipedia gives 14 November 2017.

Does Odisha have its own rasgulla GI? Yes. Odisha Tourism says “Rasagola” was granted GI No. 612 in July 2019, and Wikipedia gives 29 July 2019.

Does the GI say where rasgulla began? No. Wikipedia reports the registry clarifying that the Bengal tag was not for the sweet’s origin, and SpicyIP says the origin dispute is not decided.

Roam first. Shop later.

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