Food bloggers call for word 'curry' to be cancelled over claims it is rooted in British colonialism

[MenInG]

South Asian food bloggers have criticised the overuse of the word "curry" over claims it is rooted in British colonialism.

Earlier this year, Chaheti Bansal, 27, posted an Instagram video calling on people to "cancel the word curry".

In the clip, which has been viewed more than 3.6 million times, she says the term has long been misused by foreigners to describe any dish made on the Asian subcontinent.

"There's a saying that the food in India changes every 100km 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," the Californian food blogger claims.

"But we can still unlearn."

Speaking to NBC News, she added: "Curry shouldn't be all that you think about when you think about South Asian food."

Ilyse Morgenstein Furest is an associate religious studies professor at the University of Vermont and an expert in South Asia.

She said: "The word curry does not exist in any South Asian language to my knowledge."

Professor Furest attributes the term to the "British bad ear" during colonial rule in India.

Several historians claim British officials misheard the Tamil word 'kari', which has varied meanings depending on the region, but can translate to both "blackened" and "side dish".

The professor claims that after the British arrived in the region in the 1850s, they started using the term, and because of the power structures in place, locals started to coin it too.

"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,'" she told NBC News.

Professor Furest claims this is why 'curry' should not be used as an umbrella term, because it is largely incorrect and "rooted in white, Christian supremacy".

Another Instagram food influence Nisha Vedi Pawar, 36, has echoed the calls, saying in one video: "What the hell is curry?"

But Ms Bansal says the word does not need to be 'cancelled' completely, as particularly in South India it describes a variety of dishes from meat ones in gravy to vegetable side plates.

"My partner is Sri Lankan, I have friends that are Malayali, friends that are Tamil, and yes they use the word curry," she says.

"But you shouldn't just lump all of our foods together under this term."

SKY

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

We do actually have a curry called karri, I assumed the blanket term originated from that. It's a yellow salan which has pakoras in it and looks similar to the stuff they serve in chip shops. I get the feeling it's a Punjabi dish, and to be honest I don't like it much.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

South Asian food bloggers have criticised the overuse of the word "curry" over claims it is rooted in British colonialism.

Earlier this year, Chaheti Bansal, 27, posted an Instagram video calling on people to "cancel the word curry".

In the clip, which has been viewed more than 3.6 million times, she says the term has long been misused by foreigners to describe any dish made on the Asian subcontinent.

"There's a saying that the food in India changes every 100km 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," the Californian food blogger claims.

"But we can still unlearn."

Speaking to NBC News, she added: "Curry shouldn't be all that you think about when you think about South Asian food."

Ilyse Morgenstein Furest is an associate religious studies professor at the University of Vermont and an expert in South Asia.

She said: "The word curry does not exist in any South Asian language to my knowledge."

Professor Furest attributes the term to the "British bad ear" during colonial rule in India.

Several historians claim British officials misheard the Tamil word 'kari', which has varied meanings depending on the region, but can translate to both "blackened" and "side dish".

The professor claims that after the British arrived in the region in the 1850s, they started using the term, and because of the power structures in place, locals started to coin it too.

"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,'" she told NBC News.

Professor Furest claims this is why 'curry' should not be used as an umbrella term, because it is largely incorrect and "rooted in white, Christian supremacy".

Another Instagram food influence Nisha Vedi Pawar, 36, has echoed the calls, saying in one video: "What the hell is curry?"

But Ms Bansal says the word does not need to be 'cancelled' completely, as particularly in South India it describes a variety of dishes from meat ones in gravy to vegetable side plates.

"My partner is Sri Lankan, I have friends that are Malayali, friends that are Tamil, and yes they use the word curry," she says.

"But you shouldn't just lump all of our foods together under this term."

SKY

Influencers need any excuse to be outraged. I don;t think these people have many brain cells.

 

[Itachi]

Her reasoning doesn't make any sense.

Whats wrong with umbrella term?

You put different characteristics in front of the curry to choose particular dishes from the umbrella set.

Who has confusions about using the word curry?

Its like solving a problem that doesn't exist in the first place.

 

[Major]

We do actually have a curry called karri, I assumed the blanket term originated from that. It's a yellow salan which has pakoras in it and looks similar to the stuff they serve in chip shops. I get the feeling it's a Punjabi dish, and to be honest I don't like it much.

Nope.

Karri is seperate. Infact, it isnt a salan. Karri pakora is a complete different thing.

The word curry is not used in Pakistan. We call it salan. In restaurants it doesnt get mentioned as curry aswell. Because curry is a big broad term.

We use words like karhai, qorma, handi. Than handis have types like shah jehani handi, hara masala handi etc.

 

[street cricketer]

I've always felt the word "curry" for every south asian dish is kinda stupid. It's a bit like calling baklava, black forest, croissant and apple pie everything as simply by the word "pastry" and not by their specific names. But do we seriously need to engage in some pointless cancel culture for something as trivial as this.

Also the word "kari" certainly exists in south asian languages. Not sure where she's getting the notion that it doesn't exist. It exists in Tamil and also I think the word "tarkari" exists in Hindi. The word "curry" is largely for anglo usage and south asians know all their various dishes by their names. If foreigners are really interested in desi food, they'll certainly make the effort to remember the name of their favourite dish like butter chicken, vindaloo or rogan josh. Sounds to me like slow news day.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Nope.

Karri is seperate. Infact, it isnt a salan. Karri pakora is a complete different thing.

The word curry is not used in Pakistan. We call it salan. In restaurants it doesnt get mentioned as curry aswell. Because curry is a big broad term.

We use words like karhai, qorma, handi. Than handis have types like shah jehani handi, hara masala handi etc.

I know we don't use the term curry for our salans, but as there is actually a dish called karri, I assumed that's where the Brits adopted it from. Even those of us who live in Britain would feel absolutely stupid referring to our food as curries. It's a white people thing.

 

[Varun]

Food bloggers can begin by canceling themselves.

They aren't needed. Writing about food or posting glib photos is barely a profession anyway.

 

[Birdman]

Kari means meat in Tamil, but we have specific names for dishes. It's easy for westerners to use the word as a blanket term than to learn the name of each dish. Who cares.

 

[Major]

I know we don't use the term curry for our salans, but as there is actually a dish called karri, I assumed that's where the Brits adopted it from. Even those of us who live in Britain would feel absolutely stupid referring to our food as curries. It's a white people thing.

Dont think the word is derived from there. Because kari is made from gram flour.

While curry powder is made from turmeric powder and a mixture of coriander.

Kari is a rajastani dish, and while curry comes from the tamil word for kari(salan wali curry)

Kari pakora comes from infact kadhna as curry pakora that is cooked in gram flour and yougert takes time

 

[DeadlyVenom]

We do actually have a curry called karri, I assumed the blanket term originated from that. It's a yellow salan which has pakoras in it and looks similar to the stuff they serve in chip shops. I get the feeling it's a Punjabi dish, and to be honest I don't like it much.

This is where I thought the word came from.

It's my favourite dish that my grandmother would make occasionally. I remember in primary school some white kids would make fun of us and claim that we Pakistani's ate "curry" every day and I was confused and annoyed as my grandmother only made "karrhi" infrequently.

I think you should give it another go CPT, top 5 desi dish imo.

 

[street cricketer]

This is where I thought the word came from.

It's my favourite dish that my grandmother would make occasionally. I remember in primary school some white kids would make fun of us and claim that we Pakistani's ate "curry" every day and I was confused and annoyed as my grandmother only made "karrhi" infrequently.

I think you should give it another go CPT, top 5 desi dish imo.

I think this dish is called by different names all over the subcontinent. I'm pretty sure there's a similar marathi or a gujarati dish that goes by the name "kadhi" and a similar curry is present in south India too.

 

[MenInG]

We do actually have a curry called karri, I assumed the blanket term originated from that. It's a yellow salan which has pakoras in it and looks similar to the stuff they serve in chip shops. I get the feeling it's a Punjabi dish, and to be honest I don't like it much.

Spot on.

 

[Itachi]

I've always felt the word "curry" for every south asian dish is kinda stupid. It's a bit like calling baklava, black forest, croissant and apple pie everything as simply by the word "pastry" and not by their specific names. But do we seriously need to engage in some pointless cancel culture for something as trivial as this.

Also the word "kari" certainly exists in south asian languages. Not sure where she's getting the notion that it doesn't exist. It exists in Tamil and also I think the word "tarkari" exists in Hindi. The word "curry" is largely for anglo usage and south asians know all their various dishes by their names. If foreigners are really interested in desi food, they'll certainly make the effort to remember the name of their favourite dish like butter chicken, vindaloo or rogan josh. Sounds to me like slow news day.

Except a few dishes, most south Indian dishes are very hard to pronounce for non south Indians. Sometimes we just want to eat the dish and as long as the waiter understands it, I don't think it's a big deal.

I personally find south Indian word pronunciation very tough so I tend to stay away from pronouncing it.

 

[street cricketer]

Except a few dishes, most south Indian dishes are very hard to pronounce for non south Indians. Sometimes we just want to eat the dish and as long as the waiter understands it, I don't think it's a big deal.

I personally find south Indian word pronunciation very tough so I tend to stay away from pronouncing it.

That would be the case for every non native. I would find an Assamese dish or word equally hard to pronounce, that's natural.

And yeah, I don't think it's a big deal at all.

 

[gani999]

Influencers need any excuse to be outraged. I don;t think these people have many brain cells.

They have more brain cells than you can bargain for. Just the scr**ed up kind.

Such types are insecure losers who want to use the current obsession with colonialism and other erstwhile injustices to attract attention to themselves.

None of these fools have ever been colonised or enslaved, yet they're kicking up a row everywhere.

 

[ahmedzee]

I 100% agree with the influencer in OP.
Every other gime (precovid) when I used to warm up my food in the office kitchen, one or two particular white guys used to come and ask if it was curry. And every other time I used to explain there is no such thing as curry and food has different spices that gives it that Unique smell. I literally sad down and spoke about the origin and generalization of word curry, and made him love south Asian cuisine with the variety of spices that can be mixed and matched for a change of taste.

So 100% agree with op. Let’s cancel curry.

 

[CanadianG00se]

We do actually have a curry called karri, I assumed the blanket term originated from that. It's a yellow salan which has pakoras in it and looks similar to the stuff they serve in chip shops. I get the feeling it's a Punjabi dish, and to be honest I don't like it much.

The dish which you described is not PUNJABI by any means. It’s a very popular in Gujarat. You can find ‘Kadi Pakoda’ in almost every restaurant in Gujarat. Actually, it is not even called Pakoda, it called ‘Gota’ which is often served with thick yellow kadi.

 

[Giannis]

Growing up I never even knew what white people meant by "curry", like in Pakistani culture "curry" or "kari" was basically this yellow dish with pakoras so I'd get confused when white people would refer to regular desi dishes as "curry". We never refereed to the saalan in the food as "curry", it was just gravy. Also the word curry has been weaponized by anti-South Asian racists as an insult towards south asians and even used to lump all kinds of south asian foods under the curry label even if they don't contain any gravy.

 

[Major]

I 100% agree with the influencer in OP.
Every other gime (precovid) when I used to warm up my food in the office kitchen, one or two particular white guys used to come and ask if it was curry. And every other time I used to explain there is no such thing as curry and food has different spices that gives it that Unique smell. I literally sad down and spoke about the origin and generalization of word curry, and made him love south Asian cuisine with the variety of spices that can be mixed and matched for a change of taste.

So 100% agree with op. Let’s cancel curry.

in pakistan they call a paste made in white sauce with a single layer of cheese as Lasagne.
You cant even get an orginal pizza here.

Does that mean we cancel out the foods here for using the name when infact its not even near.

 

[Giannis]

in pakistan they call a paste made in white sauce with a single layer of cheese as Lasagne.
You cant even get an orginal pizza here.

Does that mean we cancel out the foods here for using the name when infact its not even near.

I don't think you understand, it's not about them making the dish incorrectly - it's using the word curry to label all kinds of south asian dishes, it would be dumb if Pakistanis referred to all Mexican cusine as "tacos" when that's just one of the many dishes.

 

[ElRaja]

people just like to get offended for no reason, nothing wrong with using curry as a common noun for desi food. yes asian food varies signfificantly, but lets be honest sub-continental food is very distinct from chinese, or arab or african.

also [MENTION=51465]DeadlyVenom[/MENTION] [MENTION=48620]Cpt. Rishwat[/MENTION] i think you guys are talking about this



also there is a lot of variability in its taste, ranging from mild to quite sour so i guess it depends on what kinda Curry hits ur taste buds right. i like them more spicy and less sour, with a more dense pakora, whereas ive had some which arent spicy, quite sour with pakoras that fall apart in the salan, which is not to my liking.

 

[Major]

I don't think you understand, it's not about them making the dish incorrectly - it's using the word curry to label all kinds of south asian dishes, it would be dumb if Pakistanis referred to all Mexican cusine as "tacos" when that's just one of the many dishes.

if they are referring curry as salan than i see no issue.

Plus, making a dish incorrectly and giving it a name of Pizza or Pasta when its not to the standard is the same thing. Yet you dont see an outrage over that

 

[Giannis]

if they are referring curry as salan than i see no issue.

Plus, making a dish incorrectly and giving it a name of Pizza or Pasta when its not to the standard is the same thing. Yet you dont see an outrage over that

Did you even read OP, white people refer to any south asian dish, some even think samosas contain curry.

 

[maverick85]

We have karri pronounced with an r, which is a spicy yogurt based dish and yes it's a typical Punjabi dish. I enjoy dill inside it and like to mix roti into it. We also call saalan 'laaman' eg choosay ki laaman or gosht laaman.

 

[Giannis]

We have karri pronounced with an r, which is a spicy yogurt based dish and yes it's a typical Punjabi dish. I enjoy dill inside it and like to mix roti into it. We also call saalan 'laaman' eg choosay ki laaman or gosht laaman.

It's not specifically Punjabi, it's eaten by all south asians

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

This is where I thought the word came from.

It's my favourite dish that my grandmother would make occasionally. I remember in primary school some white kids would make fun of us and claim that we Pakistani's ate "curry" every day and I was confused and annoyed as my grandmother only made "karrhi" infrequently.

I think you should give it another go CPT, top 5 desi dish imo.

I actually used to like it as a kid when my mum made it, but since my wife makes my food these days and she cuts down on all the stuff which makes food taste good like salt and butter, maybe that has something to do with it. I'm not even overweight but she's a health nut.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

people just like to get offended for no reason, nothing wrong with using curry as a common noun for desi food. yes asian food varies signfificantly, but lets be honest sub-continental food is very distinct from chinese, or arab or african.

also [MENTION=51465]DeadlyVenom[/MENTION] [MENTION=48620]Cpt. Rishwat[/MENTION] i think you guys are talking about this

View attachment 111087

also there is a lot of variability in its taste, ranging from mild to quite sour so i guess it depends on what kinda Curry hits ur taste buds right. i like them more spicy and less sour, with a more dense pakora, whereas ive had some which arent spicy, quite sour with pakoras that fall apart in the salan, which is not to my liking.

Yep that's the one. To be fair, that looks like it would be a pretty tasty version, it's been pimped up quite a bit.

 

[topspin]

Yep that's the one. To be fair, that looks like it would be a pretty tasty version, it's been pimped up quite a bit.

It's really nice. Definitely worth giving it a try.

 

[cric_man]

people just like to get offended for no reason, nothing wrong with using curry as a common noun for desi food. yes asian food varies signfificantly, but lets be honest sub-continental food is very distinct from chinese, or arab or african.

also [MENTION=51465]DeadlyVenom[/MENTION] [MENTION=48620]Cpt. Rishwat[/MENTION] i think you guys are talking about this

View attachment 111087

also there is a lot of variability in its taste, ranging from mild to quite sour so i guess it depends on what kinda Curry hits ur taste buds right. i like them more spicy and less sour, with a more dense pakora, whereas ive had some which arent spicy, quite sour with pakoras that fall apart in the salan, which is not to my liking.

Damn, now I am jonesing for some karrhi with white rice. When the wife makes it , i usually munch on some of the Pakoras before they go into the Karrhi

 

[Giannis]

Karri is the one desi dish I dislike the most, it has no flavor and I've never been a fan of pakoras. Even daal chawal is better than karri and that says a lot.

 

[IMMY69]

Yep that's the one. To be fair, that looks like it would be a pretty tasty version, it's been pimped up quite a bit.

Bhajia ke Kari with Kichiri (yellow Rice) is the ideal combination for me...
.i.e kari Kichiri

 

[ElRaja]

Karri is the one desi dish I dislike the most, it has no flavor and I've never been a fan of pakoras. Even daal chawal is better than karri and that says a lot.

i put hot sauce on mine sometimes, tobasco goes great with karrhi, pakora texture was invented for sauces.

 

[IMMY69]

Ok so addressing the topic, what about the Curry Leaf?
Surely the name curry comes from the fact that curry leaves are used for certain curry's?

Anyway, all this talk is making me fancy a curry right now..

 

[Technics 1210]

Dont think the word is derived from there. Because kari is made from gram flour.

While curry powder is made from turmeric powder and a mixture of coriander.

Kari is a rajastani dish, and while curry comes from the tamil word for kari(salan wali curry)

Kari pakora comes from infact kadhna as curry pakora that is cooked in gram flour and yougert takes time

The etymology of the word curry:

'Curry originated in the Indian subcontinent and the word comes from the Indian Tamil word “Kari”meaning a sauce or soup to be eaten with rice. It consists of a mix of spices of which coriander, turmeric, cumin, and red chilies are almost always a constant.'

 

[Giannis]

The etymology of the word curry:

'Curry originated in the Indian subcontinent and the word comes from the Indian Tamil word “Kari”meaning a sauce or soup to be eaten with rice. It consists of a mix of spices of which coriander, turmeric, cumin, and red chilies are almost always a constant.'

That makes it worse. The British used a word for sauces in one south asian language and then decided to use as an umbrella for all other south asian cuisines. This whole time us Pakistanis and north indians were assuming the British were thinking of karri when they came up with the word but turns out it's a Tamil word for gravy lol.

 

[street cricketer]

That makes it worse. The British used a word for sauces in one south asian language and then decided to use as an umbrella for all other south asian cuisines. This whole time us Pakistanis and north indians were assuming the British were thinking of karri when they came up with the word but turns out it's a Tamil word for gravy lol.

The British did a lot of funny things during their time here. I believe that a soup called the mulligatawny soup exists in the western world (it's not a thing in the subcontinent). It basically developed from a mispronunciation of a tamil word "milagu thanni" literally meaning "pepper water" for a popular south indian dish that's prepared till date called the rasam.

I'm pretty sure there must be similar examples in other languages like hindi/urdu or Punjabi where the Brits felt like "Ah, this word is difficult to pronounce. I might as well name it the way I pronounce it"

 

[guna]

Just cancel everything and sit at home. Someone or the other always get offended over silliest of things.

 

[Ashraful_Rox]

People nowadays get offended from little things, we always need to ming what we are saying. There were times when we could freely express ourselves as men, the world has become very sensitive. The other day I asked a girl on Tinder if she cooks, she started lecturing me about feminism. Areh Bhai even I can cook