Ghoti

Robinson suggested to me that William Ollier could have come up with ghoti in a parlor game of Ellis-inspired silly spellings.

The bangals deride ghoti food as cloyingly sweet, bland without much oil and spices — ‘What do the ghotis know of good cooking anyway?’ On their part, the ghotis decry the bangal way of eating foul smelling shutki fish and drowning their food in too much oil and spices. ‘The bangals even put fish in their shukto, can you believe it?’ they exclaim.

Labelled with distinct identities, ghotis are the original inhabitants of West Bengal, and bangals are those who have migrated from Bangladesh. The bangals have been stereotyped as shrewd, opportunistic, greedy, parochial, and considered good enough only to become cooks or sweet-makers. The ghotis consider themselves superior to bangals.

Since the onset of modernity in the nineteenth century, West Bengalis or ghotis from the Calcutta area, who are generally Hindu, have enjoyed a certain cultural ascendancy within Bengal: they consider themselves more modern, more culturally refined, and more progressive than the bangals, who are dismissed as comparatively backward country bumpkins.

East Bengal registered a thumping 4-0 win over Mohun Bagan to seal the Calcutta Football League (CFL) title, and for the time being bangals have scored a point over the ghotis.

His metal vessels are—of brass, a kalsi, a garu, and two ghotis; of bell-metal, three thalis, three ghotis, and four batis.

After this, two women bathe her by pouring seven ghotis or lotas of water over her, and they also rub her with turmeric, methi, and scented oil.

The case for the prosecution was that at about sun-set on 7-9-1952 Aghona Kachari who is at places described as Aghona Master (a teacher) went out to a place within his compound to attend to the call of nature with a ghoti (water pot) in his hand.