The overuse of the word "curry" to describe the majority of South Asian meals is under fire from food bloggers and experts alike due to its roots in British Colonialism.
According to the Evening Standard, 27-year-old food blogger Chaheti Bansa posted an Instagram video calling on her followers and the public to "cancel the word 'curry'".
In the short clip uploaded earlier this year -which has been viewed almost 4 million times - she says the term has been misused by people in Western countries to describe almost any Indian dish.
"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," remarked the South Asian American cook.
"But we can still unlearn."
Amid an ensuing backlash, her account has now been made private.
But other food bloggers and experts have backed up her claims, pointing out the umbrella term is often what people in Western countries think of when picturing South Asian food.
Ilyse Morgenstein Furest, a religious studies professor at the University of Vermont, told the Independent the word 'curry' doesn't actually exist in any South Asian language.
Professor Fuerst told the newspaper that the term curry could likely be attributed to the "British bad ear" during colonial rule in India.
Multiple historians have claimed that British officials misheard the word "kari", which can translate to both "blackened" and "side dish". The professor said it was probably a way for the British to avoid learning the names of extremely regional dishes.
Chef Sanjyot Singh Keer, a former producer of MasterChef India, agreed Indian cuisine is "much more than just curry".
"Our food cannot be summed up with that word and our cuisine is an amalgamation of so many different cultures prevalent in India," said Keer.
Instead, he suggests we make an effort to learn some of the different respective dish names we might order on a takeaway night and use them more colloquially in conversation.
