INDIAN SUGAR INDUSTRY: A BRIEF STUDY

Abstract

Sugar is a great invention of men in the world of taste. The origin and growth of sugar industry is full of tales of adventure. It received attention from time to time. At a time, when the rest of world was not familiar with its name we were using sugar in India. India is known to be the birth place of sugarcane. The history tells us that about 327 B.C. Alexander the Great invaded India. His soldiers and he was the first European to see sugarcane in India. On their return to westward, they took sugarcane to Europe, but it was about 700 A.D. that it was actually cultivated and found a place in Sicily in 703 A.D. and in Spain in 715 A.D.It was between the fourth and the sixteen centuries that the art of making sugar from sugarcane was discovered in India. The process was simple; the sugarcane was cut into small pieces and crushed under a heavy weight. The juice, thus obtained, was boiled and stirred until solids formed, which were called ‘Sarkara’ in Sanskrit. With the passage of time, there is a change in the methods and ways of producing sugar.