Chess is one of the richest examples of globalization we can find; its modern form is a consequence of centuries of trade, travel, cross-culture interaction, and a universal love of competition and strategy. The Queen’s Gambit (and Covid-era loneliness) may have thrust chess into the spotlight, but since its inception chess has consumed passionate players worldwide. What does India have to do with it? To discover that, we will have to travel to India’s golden age of the 6th century CE, during the reign of the Gupta Empire.

The memory of being a little girl, sitting cross-legged in front of your mother or grandmother, your head tilted to the left as she used a heavy hand to apply heated mustard oil into your hair, is a memory that lingers on. For the women of South Asia especially, there is unification in the memory of oil. Of the love and care and bonding they experience with the women in their families during this ritual of self-care. In the latest Brown History Newsletter, Rosa Kumar remembers hair oiling from our collective childhood memories, she revisits its 5000-year-old Ayurvedic history, and views the ritual through the warm scope of hindsight.

Heera Mandi, nestled in the northern sector of Lahore's walled city in Pakistan, has been a historic red-light district for as long as anyone can remember. Before British influence and the emergence of anti-colonial movements, it was considered a lively hub of class and culture, where men came for the company of beautiful women skilled in song, dance, and seduction. In fact, the renowned courtesans of Heera Mandi were sought out by emperors and nawabs, fostering an atmosphere of poetry, art, and elegant performances. However, today, Heera Mandi has long since fallen from its high position in society. Its buildings crumbling, and the courtesans reduced to a trade of flesh.

Indian housewives allegedly own 11% of the world’s gold. Gold for South Asian women is life insurance, protection, business opportunities, and legacy. Gold inheritance, most often passed down from mothers to daughters, has been historically one of the only ways in which South Asian women could express some sort of financial autonomy. It’s practiced across South Asian cultures, in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Muslim, Sikh, Christian, and Hindu women bedeck their brides and daughters in gold. Land can be taken away, acid thrown to disfigure women in heated property disputes, but gold? Gold is acceptable. Gold is a currency women are allowed to have.

It is said that when Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631, her grieving husband, the Emperor Shah Jahan, refused to wear perfume ever again because it would only remind him of her. Scent has a power stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or intent. The persuasive power of a smell cannot be fought off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs and fills us up. The art of perfumery has always been linked with the medieval town of Grasse in Southern France, which does indeed have a long tradition of perfume manufacturing, however, the ancient city of Kannuj in India has been crafting scents and fragrances far longer - more than two centuries before Grasse. In the latest Brown History Newsletter, Rosa Kumar returns to an enchanting old world of fragrances and perfumes.

Take a look around your room, there might be a succulent on your windowsill, a jade plant growing steadily on your coffee table, maybe a leafy monstera climbing the walls of your living room. Surprisingly, just like many of us, the presence of these plants in our Toronto condos, Brooklyn townhomes, London flats and Parisian penthouses are actually the result of a colonial trend and a Victorian obsession. Yes, I know you picked it up from a sale at Home Depot, but how that plant ended up at Home Depot for $14.99 in the first place is the result of a long and arduous history.