It was considered a sin for Hindus to sell food till 20th century. The tradition of Annadhanam, the practice of providing free food to the hungry, was deeply rooted in Hindu culture for centuries. Annadhanam was done by charities and the affluent took care of the hungry and the tired. Several people with dharmic mindset hoisted Anna Kodi at their homes and did Annadhanam every day. My great great grandfather home at Cheranmahadevi in Tirunelveli district hoisted one such flag for centuries till his death.
With British dismantling our systems, many charities crumbled and so did the habit of annadhanam. With people travelling inter city becoming frequent and with the charities crumbling, hotels both for eating and lodging emerged in the beginning of 20th century. A new concept.
Bus stand hotels emerged. A small hotel serving food at very low price either sitting on the floor or old bench and stool was the norm then. Along with such hotels, IRR hotels or the canteens at Railway stations too emerged serving high quality food at very affordable prices. Old timers still recall Chandra Vilas franchisees at Railway stations of Southern Railway and many iconic IRRs at popular railway junctions like Shoranur, Waltair, Guntakal, Vizhupuram.
Yes, most vegetarian hotels were run by Brahmins as pointed out by the A2B owner KT Srinivasa Raja. No denial of fact. They were the first movers. Many took up the profession just to come out of poverty. Unlike the other so-called “forward castes” who had the luxury of owning lands, Brahmins did not have that luxury. With no patronage from government, poor Brahmins fell back on cooking, serving and table cleaning to support their families. Hotel industry was a low margin business then as charging high was a sin. One has to slog 24*7 in the kitchen breathing smoke unlike hotel owners travelling in Benz now.
This story continued for decades till 1980s. The industry remained unattractive that none bothered to start a hotel to slog in coal and smoke dust. You can see the ambience of such old hotels to this day. Dark like a dungeon but the food is heaven.
There is an eatery called Hotel Sri Ganapathy Vilas located along the Chennai-Trichy highway in Acharappakkam. That hotel is a living testimony to the point that I am making here. It was started in 1963. You get transported back to that period once you enter the hotel. Such is the ambience which is very modest. The price of the food too is modest. Their eatery sees good business through word-of-mouth even to this day. Foodies can checkout the hotel here.
Anybody who has eaten at Madura Lodge in Trichy or Chandra Vilas in Tirunelveli can also relate to the point being made.
Then came the era of LPG – Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization. Prosperity zoomed and people’s buying power increased dramatically. There were takers for a 50 paisa idly sold at ₹5. There were takers for posh ambience too. Show the ambience and extract consumer premium, that became the mantra of for the new hotels emerging.
Margins expanded from 5% to 80% with the ability to extract consumer surplus – What was an undesirable biz became sexy with everyone jumping in and making it big. Rest is history.
This is the actual story.
It is sad to see the rich entrepreneur dragging EVR into this and portraying as though Brahmins prevented others and monopolized. He himself acknowledges his dad learnt the art of cooking from a Brahmin and it was well known that the other big chain Hotel Saravana Bhavan too had a Brahmin working partner.
That being the case, attributing this to EVR (hailed as ‘Periyar’ by his followers) and bringing kulathozhil (hereditary profession) angle and vilifying Brahmins is uncalled for!
(Nanmozhian is an entrepreneur based out of Chennai.)
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