Does Balti exist?
A lot of people, Indians in particular, wish you to believe it does not. It is not helped by the fact that in Hindi, the word Balti means a cast iron slop pot or bucket. More significantly, it originated in Pakistan, no friend of India. It was not helped in Britain either, because it came to light in Birmingham, not in mighty London, where the national press is based. These are facts. In the high mountains of north Pakistan, is the ancient state of Baltistan, (latitude 36?E, longitude 74?N). It is part of Pakistan’s Kashmir, and was known as the Northern Frontier Territories by the Raj. It has a mostly Moslem population of under 1 million and shares its borders with China (it was once on the Spice Route to China) and India’s Kashmir, These days, with Pakistan and India in a permanent state of war, the few roads connecting the two countries are permanently closed. Little may have been known about Balti food outside its indigenous area, had it not been for a small group of north Pakistan
