Why is the Campaign Against India Spicing Up?

Spice is nice. In fact, for much of the world, it is nicer and nicer these days. Adding chilli flakes to everything from soup to pizzas is no longer an Indian obsession but an international phenomenon. The love affair that started with black pepper in Roman times has now expanded to the entire garam masala pantheon, with the five Cs—cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, coriander and cumin—now as ubiquitous as parsley, thyme, and rosemary. So why give spice a bad name and ban it? Even if people are no longer familiar with the original idiom, there is no doubting there is a…