Bean there, done that: Pulses are a strong link between US Senate & India

The US Senate has an interesting link with India. As in many assemblies and courts its presiding officer uses a gavel, hammering it to break through arguments and assert authority over the proceedings. It is not the usual wooden hammer, but an ivory cylinder.

The gavel was over a century old and had taken much pounding when, during a debate in 1954 the presiding officer, vicepresident Richard Nixon, hit it so hard it fell apart. Lacking elephants for ivory in America, the Senate turned to the newly opened embassy of India, which happily obliged.

A replacement ivory gavel was made in India and presented to the Senate in 1954 by vice-president S Radhakrishnan who said he hoped it would inspire the senators to debate “with freedom from passion and prejudice”.


Whether this has happened is debatable but given the pounding that gavel must be getting in this divisive age perhaps India should consider offering a second replacement.

A second link with the Senate might be provided by pulses. At prime minister Narendra Modi’s recent second-term swearing-in at Rashtrapati Bhavan there was much media interest in the Dal Raisina that played a starring role in the menu for the occasion.

This had apparently been invented in 2010 by chef Machindra Kasture and was made from urad dal and rajma slow-cooked — exactly how long is unclear, though the 48 hours cited by some reports probably refers to both soaking and cooking since even rajma might disintegrate if cooked for two days — and finished off with the herby, bitter notes of kasuri methi.

The US Senate has its own slow cooked soup, made with navy beans which are like small white rajma. It is cooked with pork knuckles, which contribute a great flavour and texture if cooked long enough to release their gelatine, and most recipes given for it usually add mashed potatoes for a heartier texture. The soup’s origins are unclear. Bean soups are a New England tradition, but food historians note that slow-cooking with pork is more typical of the American South, and this would fit with the Senate cooks being mostly African-American men, originally slave cooks.

Senate history links the soup to either Senators Fred Dubois of Idaho or Knute Nelson of Minnesota. Both midwestern states are major pulse producers. Farmers there realised that pulses, with their nitrogen fixing roots, could restore soil fertility if rotated with other crops.

The pulses themselves were less important, until it was realised they could be fed to livestock grown for meat. Today these pulses are also exported to India, one country which values them for food, though this hasn’t prevented our governments shamefully neglecting pulse cultivation and allowing us to become dependent on these foreign farmers.

US Senators appreciate the commercial interests of their states and this might explain why Bean Soup is served every day in the Senate’s dining room. It would be nice if Dal Raisina too could become a much-needed reminder to Indian politicians of the importance of pulses in Indian lives.