There are few inventions and innovations which are ‘Made in India, For India’. We either reverse engineer, adapt, copy or adjust!
So from that perspective, I think the Coimbatore Wet Grinder is a marvel. The need for batters on an everyday basis is Indian. How can households run without a steady supply of idli batter, dosa batter, vada batter, adai batter, pesarattu batter, appam batter, paniyaram batter etc., etc.? While these dishes are all South Indian, they are extremely popular across India too.
In the days of yore, women used to grind these batters in a stone device. Frail-looking mamis turned into Karnam Malleswaris and Kunjarani Devis, wielding huge stone pestles with nonchalance! It took an hour or more of this heavy duty work to grind the breakfast batter for a large family and clean out the device.
Then came electric mixer-grinders. But always the refrain: ‘Oh, so small a jar. I have to do so many rounds for the quantity I need.’ Or ‘The motor heats up the batter as it grinds. Dosas never taste the same.’ Or ‘Uff, so much time it takes, I have to stand holding the lid.’ Because the mixer-grinders were not really conceived for our needs.
And then came WET GRINDERS! Magic! Small enough to fit in a corner of the kitchen but fairly good capacity; using the familiar stone-on-stone approach, thereby making mamis fully comfortable; no heating while grinding; and pretty easy to clean too!
An amazing individual called P. Sabapathy developed the wet grinder in Coimbatore in 1955, after much trial and error. Sabapathy introduced the grinders to other cities such as Chennai and Madurai. From the basic model, others innovated the tilting wet grinder, the table top grinder etc.
Coimbatore developed as the center for the manufacture of wet grinders. This was helped along by the fact that granite was available nearby. Also, as Coimbatore is anyway an industrial hub, manufacturing equipment, electrical motors etc. were all available within the same area. The city contributes to about 75% of the 1 lakh total monthly output of wet grinders in India. And apparently, there are 40 types of wet grinders today, from domestic to commercial. In 2007, Tamilnadu Government opened a center for manufacturing raw materials for wet grinders and a research center here.
Historian CR Elangovan has documented the history of Coimbatore wet grinders in his book ‘Automatic Aataangal: Kovaiyin Seetanam’. Alas, I cannot read Tamil. But I shall search to check if there is an English translation.
It is said that Mr. Sabapathy invented the wet grinder to save his wife labour. In the process, he has saved lakhs of women-hours. But who even knows his name? Shouldn’t he be in textbooks, as a supporter of women’s emancipation and a designer-inventor-entrepreneur of the highest order? We may even classify him as a social entrepreneur in today’s jargon! Shouldn’t he have got the Padmashri?
And coming back to one of my recent-favourite topics, the Coimbatore Wet-Grinder is GI (certified for Geographical Indicator).
–Meena
PS: This one is for my Mother in Law
Millennial Matriarchs 
Hello,
My name is Supriya and I have been reading about the history of the wet grinder too:-) I work in a lab and use a mill to make pastes. Everytime I mill a paste my mind immediately wanders to the grinder and the idli batter I prepare every week. So I decided to read more about this miracle device. I read about Mr Sabapathy, an article in the Hindu about wet grinders and Mr Elangovan’s book. Alas, I cannot read Tamil either although I am a Tamilian (shame on me) but I was wondering if you found a translation of the book!
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Dear Supriya. Sadly I haven’t yet been able to find a translation yet. But when I do, I will post on the blog. And should you come across it, do share. Have a lovely day.
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