From a Delhi clinic to iftar tables in three countries: 120 years of Rooh Afza

When Ramadan comes, a thick red sharbat takes its place beside the piyaju, beguni and chola-muri on iftar tables in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. Rooh Afza, BBC Bangla wrote on 8 March 2026, began in Delhi in 1906, which made the brand 120 years old. In Urdu rooh means soul and afza that which refreshes, so the name means a drink that refreshes the soul. During the previous Ramadan a Facebook trend in Bangladesh ran: "As a child I thought drinking Rooh Afza sharbat earned religious merit."

Citing the history magazine Heritage Times, BBC Bangla said Rooh Afza was created by Hakim Hafiz Abdul Majeed, a Unani physician whose clinic in Lal Kuan bazaar in old Delhi was called Hamdard Dawakhana, hamdard meaning a companion in suffering. In an account it attributed to the journalist Sanam Maher, the scent of roses drifting from the clinic on a hot day drew a crowd, and the first batch sold out before evening. The alcohol-free tonic was made for patients suffering in the heat.

The National, an Abu Dhabi daily, reported in 2012 that Hamdard dates from 1906 and that Rooh Afza was introduced in 1907, the year a 2022 Delhi High Court order also gives for the adoption of the name. Mass production later moved to a factory in Ghaziabad. According to The National, the ingredients include essences of coriander, orange, pineapple, carrot, rose petals, spinach and mint. Hamdard itself has said the origin of the name is unclear: one possibility is the princess Rooh Afza in Masnavi Gulzar-e-Naseem by the 19th-century Kashmiri poet Pandit Daya Shankar Naseem, another a late 19th-century weekly magazine called Rooh Afza published in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh.

By 1920, BBC Bangla said, the bottles were packed and labelled by hand; the glass bottle and the traditional label were designed by the Delhi artist Mirza Noor Ahmad. When Hakim Abdul Majeed died in 1922, Hamdard passed to his elder son Abdul Hameed, then 14. After Partition in 1947 Abdul Hameed stayed in Delhi while the younger son, Hakim Mohammed Said, moved to Pakistan, and Hamdard India and Hamdard Pakistan took shape.

According to BBC Bangla, expansion in 1953 and 1956 saw Hakim Mohammed Said open sales outlets in Chittagong and Dhaka in what was then East Pakistan; The National dates Hamdard's Dhaka branch to 1953. After Bangladesh's independence in 1971 the operation became Hamdard Laboratories (Waqf) Bangladesh, where Yousuf Harun Bhuiyan later joined and began making and selling Rooh Afza. The original recipe is still a closely guarded secret and almost unchanged.

BBC Bangla recounted that during the Soviet-Afghan war Rooh Afza was sent as relief to Afghan refugee camps, and officials were puzzled by how many bottles were needed each day until they found the refugees were drinking it neat, without water or milk. In May 2019, as Ramadan began, Rooh Afza vanished from Indian shops. Al Jazeera reported that Hamdard Laboratories India blamed a temporary shortage of certain herbal ingredients, and that Usama Qureshi, a former chief executive of Hamdard Pakistan, offered on Twitter to send supplies across the Wagah border.

In India the dispute was over the trademark. According to the Delhi High Court's orders, Hamdard National Foundation (India) and Hamdard Dawakhana complained that Rooh Afza made by Hamdard Laboratories (Waqf) in Karachi was being sold on Amazon's Indian website. On 5 September 2022 the court ordered listings of Rooh Afza not originating from Hamdard India removed within 48 hours, and on 11 November 2022 Justice Prathiba M. Singh granted a permanent injunction.

In Bangladesh, Bangla Tribune reported that on 12 June 2018 Dhaka's Pure Food Court 1 fined Rooh Afza 400,000 taka for making food with unapproved ingredients and for misleading advertising. The company's chairman and managing director pleaded guilty and paid the fine. BBC Bangla said the verdict and fine were set aside on appeal in 2022.

Not everyone is a fan. The drink's sugar content, colouring and preservatives draw criticism, and many people consider home-made sharbats healthier. Still, BBC Bangla wrote, beyond any debate over taste or health, Rooh Afza has witnessed a century of history and become a symbol of Ramadan rituals.

Photo: Muffingg / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Sources: BBC Bangla, The National (2012), Al Jazeera (2019), Bangla Tribune (2018), Delhi High Court orders (LiveLaw, 2022)