Source : Hindustan Times
Sake Dean Mahomed: It was on this day 225 years ago when Mahomed became the first Indian author to publish a book in English, which is being celebrated by the Google Doodle.
Today’s Google doodle is about the Anglo-Indian traveler, Sake Dean Mahomed. It was on this day 225 years ago when Mahomed became the first Indian author to publish a book in English.
Along with being a traveler, Mahomed was also a surgeon and entrepreneur and one of the most renowned early non-European migrants to the West. Mahomed introduced the concept of shampoo baths and Indian cuisine to Europe. It was in 1810 when Mahomed opened the first Indian restaurant in England, called the Hindoostane Coffee House in George Street, near Portman Square, Central London. However, the restaurant has to be closed down due to financial difficulties which Mohamed was facing.
He died in 1851 at 32 Grand Parade, Brighton. Mohamed was buried in a grave at St Nicholas’ Church, Brighton. He had been largely forgotten in the history books, until the scholar and poet Alamgir Hashmi started to draw attention to him in the 70s and 80s.
