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The red symbol of civility

The principal business of India’s women is to gossip and eat paan. This is what the Venetian Niccolo Manucci reported on first reaching Surat in 1655. So much of this stuff did the ladies chew, Manucci said, thatShah Jahan gifted the revenues of Surat to his poet daughter Jahan-ara, to cover her paan expenses. At this point, I rejected this offensive story (what? All of Surat produced only enough revenue to cover an aunty’s...

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