Food Bloggers Call to Boycott Term 'Curry' as 'White People Don't Bother to Learn' Indian Dish Names

Chaheti Bansal, a California-based food blogger of Indian origin has pointed out that the term "curry" is "misused" as an "umbrella term" while referring to south Asian dishes. In an Instagram post, Bansal has highlighted that south Asian cuisines are diverse and cannot be generalised as "curries".

Food bloggers from South Asia are calling for a boycott of the word "curry" to refer to their delicacies, noting that the term has its roots in the British colonial era. 

“There’s a saying that the food in India changes every 100 kilometres and yet we’re still using this umbrella term popularised by white people who couldn’t be bothered to learn the actual names of our dishes,” food blogger Chaheti Bansal said in an Instagram post.

Following an overwhelming response to her post, Bansal has made her account private for the time being. 

Another Indian-origin food blogger Nisha Vedi Pawar echoed Bansal's views, while revealing the kinds of "racist" things she has to hear about her Indian-style food preparations. 

“Your food must be really spicy. It must be stinky. It’s curry," Pawar revealed.

According to Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, an associate religious studies professor at the University of Vermont, the word "curry" does not originally exist in any South Asian language. 

Furest said that when the British officials reached the southern Indian states in the 1850s, they repeatedly heard the Tamil language word "Kari", which translates to "blackened" or "side dish", depending on the context and varied regional languages of southern India. 

She further added that Indians at the time went with the flow and began using the term "curry" to appease British officials, who could not learn the real names of the regional Indian dishes. 

"South Asians can turn around and say, ‘OK, if these British officers want curry, and I stand to profit, whether that’s socially, politically, financially, then I set up a curry house,’” NBC News quoted Fuerst as saying. 

Meanwhile, the topic has gained major momentum on social media. 

While netizens are sharing their opinions on whether the word "curry" should be boycotted, polls are also being initiated on social media on the topic. 

"The "Food influencer" Chaheti Bansal, 27, has now protected her tweets so the public cannot respond to her comments on the word 'curry'! Obviously, hasn't got the courage of her convictions.

— George T Lynes (@lynes_george) August 9, 2021

See of you actually read the article you would know they acc just want it to stop being used as a blanket term for all Indian food and their fine with curry being called curry.

— Scott Doherty 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@Scottd1885) August 9, 2021

#CurryPoll - South Asian food bloggers are saying the word "curry" is misused to represent all food delicacies of the region. pic.twitter.com/0lTJsjg4HQ

— Radhika Parashar (@_RadhikaReports) August 10, 2021

​Earlier, Indo-American actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas had also pointed out that the word "curry" is used in a racial slur in the US. In a 2017 interview with NDTV, the actress revealed that she was nicknamed "Curry" when she was pursuing her school education in the US.