APPLE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF INDIA

To track the history of apples is to track the history of mankind. While most historians speculate that it wasn’t the apple responsible for man’s downfall in the Garden of Eden--the culprit is more likely a pomegranate--apples still receive mention in humanity’s earliest recordings. Indeed, Europeans grew apple trees as far back as the stone ages.

The precise origin of the fruit gets bantered around between botanists: Some claim it’s Switzerland or Scandinavia, but others more credibly point to the Caucus regions, specifically Kazakhstan. Another theory is that apples came from the ancient super continent of Laurasia. When it split, North Americans had sour crab apple varieties, whereas Central Asians were blessed with the larger, sweeter varieties.

Apples have been in India for centuries. Although the British like to credit their introduction to India during their rule, the nation had the fruit much before then—N. Jayapalan writes in his book, “Economic History of India” that the Muslim ruler Firoz Tughlaq grew apple trees throughout Delhi neighborhoods during his life from 1309 to 1388. When the British came centuries later and planted apple trees in the north, their reception amongst the locals was poor on account of their sour crabapple taste. It was only when Samuel Evans Stokes of Philadelphia came to India in the early 1900s bringing with him several seeds from sweet apple variants—that the farmers of Himachal Pradesh took note and the country’s apple industry exploded.