In my family, gulab jamun as a whole is much more than simply a sweet we get during religious festivals. Whether it be a big event like buying a new car or a new computer, or something smaller like the end of another school year, my dad would always go out and buy some gulab jamun if he could. We weren’t able to make it from scratch as often, but during big religious festivals, Diwali or Chhath for example, my hands would always be covered in flour or some other concoction of substances. Me, my mom, my grandma, and occasionally my brother would begin our lengthy process by preparing dry ingredients, including the key milk solids, and proceed to combine them with the wet ingredients like ghee (essentially Indian butter) and milk. After making the dough balls, we would move on to making the syrup, which consisted of sugar, water, rose water, saffron, and cardamom. After frying the dough balls, they were soaked in the sugar water and left to rest and were ready for me to eat at least half of them!

Tracing gulab jamun back to its origin, we can see that it “has its roots in Persian and Turkish cuisine, evolving from the Luqmat al-Qadi fritter brought to India by invaders and merchants,” and since then it has become a staple in Indian culture (Ahsan). This shows how important it is for us nowadays to share our culture with others all over the world, as this delicacy came from a whole different geographical area and has blossomed into a crucial part of Indian culture today. Gulab jamun is traditionally used in celebrations such as Indian weddings or festivals like Diwali, but they can also be eaten simply as a sweet treat, for religious purposes as offerings, or for any other special occasions. Additionally, this sweet originally started as exclusive to those who were part of the Mughal courts, but after the fall of the empire, the royal chefs eventually began to sell to the people and word of gulab jamun spread very quickly (Ahsan).

The cultural influence of gulab jamun can be seen in countless ways. Of course, Indian festivities will always include gulab jamun, but its influence has spread beyond Indian culture as well. Take the Bengali dessert sitabhog, which incorporates small pieces of gulab jamun as a part of the dish. Gulab jamun has also made its way to the US, being used in many different fusion dishes and Indian restaurants in places like NYC, Chicago, and LA (Sarkar).