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The point is that “curry” is a British generalization. Indian restaurants were historically called curry houses as a pejorative. India has many dishes that on
by dagmx 4y ago
The point is that “curry” is a British generalization.
Indian restaurants were historically called curry houses as a pejorative.
India has many dishes that one might consider a curry, but we have no dish called curry. The only use of the word curry in restaurants is to appeal to British nationals (and anyone they spread their culture to).
It’s an artifact of colonialism.
I also don’t understand why you think it’s virtue signalling. If anything, your appeal to “150 languages in India” is virtue signalling because you’re trying to make a benevolent justification for a word whose history you don’t understand. Also rich that you say “learn a little history folks” when you yourself clearly didn’t learn it in this instance.
Now, there is a word “Kari” in several South Indian languages but it’s used to mean spicy sauce or “kadipoda” which means spice mix, both derived from “black” in reference to the use of black peppercorns. The generalization into “curry” was one of colonial misinterpretation.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/04/why-we-call-indian-dishes-curry-colonial-history/586828/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/04/why-we-ca...
- sampo 4y ago> Now, there is a word “Kari” in several South Indian languages but it’s used to mean spicy sauce or “kadipoda” which means spice mix, both derived from “black” in reference to the use of black peppercorns. Is this the same word as "kara", black, in Turkic languages? Apparently, speculatively, yes: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Japonic/kuro https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Japonic/... Also Japanese "kuro".
- dagmx 4y agoYes Turkish and Sanskrit have a lot of shared words or similar ones due to various cultural sharing
- unmole 4y ago> The only use of the word curry in restaurants is to appeal to British nationals (and anyone they spread their culture to). So, the Curry Points that dot Hyderabad are artefacts of British colonialism? > The generalization into “curry” was one of colonial misinterpretation. Yeah, no. The Telugu kura which is obviously cognate with kari is used to mean, well curry. How about you tone down the misinterpretation and false generalization?
- j45 4y agoAgreed, and, using a word from one area of India might not be suited for applying to all of it. That cross pollination of words is something the English language seems to do from time to time. Every area of the Indian subcontinent was a rich area of its own languages, music, food and more. For me north, South Indian cuisine and everything in the between is worth getting to know as and where it is.
- dagmx 4y agoTelugu Kari doesn’t mean curry in the sense that British people understand it. Please actually look up the history of what kari is. The use of curry in Indian restaurants in Hyderabad are an artifact of colonialism. Hyderabad in particular caters a lot to foreign nationals due to the proliferation of the tech sector there. Anyway What curry dishes are they serving there? “Hyderabadi chicken curry”? What is it called natively?
- j45 4y agoProbably just chicken something. Well said.
- unmole 4y agoI assure you, if you ask for chicken curry in any restaurant in Hyderabad, they'll know exactly what you mean. They might not necessarily serve it though.
- dagmx 4y agoOf course they know it. They don’t exist in a vacuum. That doesn’t mean the dish is “curry”. Just like how many Indians will call it Butter Chicken Curry colloquially but the dish is Murgh Makhani.
- unmole 4y ago> That doesn’t mean the dish is “curry”. Is this supposed to be some metaphysical argument? The dish is literally chicken curry i.e. kodi kura.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- plaguehammer 4y ago“Curry” isn’t a British generalization. “tarkari” literally means a cooked vegetable dish in several north and eastern Indian languages.