Who owns Rosogolla? West Bengal wins the misthi battle against Odisha

KOLKATA: Rosogolla belongs to Bengalis. Period.

Two years after West Bengal and Odisha started a bitter battle over Rosogolla – round balls of chenna (indian cottage cheese) dipped in overflowing sugar syrups – the verdict is finally out.

West Bengal won the Geographical Identification (GI) battle over rosogolla, with the GI authorities in Chennai ruling rosogolla is an original Bengali sweet.

Promptly tweeting the good news, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote. “Sweet news for us all. We are very happy and proud that #Bengal has been granted GI ( Geographical Indication) status for Rosogolla.”

According to author Nabaneeta Dev Sen, “This was was cultural fight. West Bengal have several sweets on similar lines to that of rosogolla. Odisha has none. Similarly, Odisha has many chenna (indian cottage cheese)-based sweets, that Bengal doesn't have.”

 

In 2015, a war broke between Bengal and Odisha over the origins of rosogolla. 

Odisha, claiming to have ‘invented’ the sweet and associating it with centuries-old ritual of Lord Jagannath, applied for GI registration of the sweet.

West Bengal, with the help of Das family (credited as pioneers in creating rosogalla) and other sweet makers, also applied to patent the sweet.