Row Over ‘Dahi’, ‘Thayir’ & Curd: What Will It Finally Be Called?

In a press release, FSSAI said, “As many representations were received recently on omission of the term “curd, from the Standards of Fermented Milk Products, it has been decided that FBOs may use the term Curd along with any other designation (prevalent regional common name) in brackets on the label”.

The usage of the term ‘Dahi’ led to a massive row with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin calling it “unabashed Hindi imposition”.

In a tweet, Stalin had said, “The unabashed insistence of Hindi Imposition have come to the extent of directing us to label even a curd packet in Hindi, relegating Tamil & Kannada in our own states. Such brazen disregard to our mother tongues will make sure those responsible are banished from the South forever (sic)”.

On Wednesday, The Hindu reported that the FSSAI instructed the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), which owns the ‘Nandini’ brand of dairy products and the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation, which manufactures the ‘Aavin’ brand of dairy products, to use the Hindi term ‘Dahi’ in its curd sachets.

According to the FSSAI directive, ‘curd’ (English) or ‘tayyir‘ (Tamil) will now be labelled as ‘dahi‘ (Hindi).  FSSAI also said that Tamil words such as “tair” or “tayir” could be used in brackets. It also said the Tamil and Kannada words – ‘tayyir‘ and ‘mosaru‘, respectively – ‘can be used in brackets’.

Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, too, called for a rollback of the FSSAI’s directive. In a tweet, he said, “The notification released by FSSAI for the use of “Dhahi” in curd sachets produced by state-run cooperative societies is not in tandem with the policy of our Hon PM Thiru @narendramodi avl to promote regional languages. We want an immediate rollback of the notification”.