Dahi vs thayir: Order that left sour taste withdrawn

A move to rename curd packets as 'Dahi' in Hindi has sparked a controversy with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin stating that this is an "attempt to impose Hindi."

The Food and Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had issued the directive to the Federation of Milk Producers in Tamil Nadu, asking them to change the labels of their curd packets from 'Curd' in English and 'Thayir' in Tamil to 'Dahi' in Hindi.

After the controversy erupted, the FSSAI has now issued new guidelines saying five regional words of 'Curd' can be used on the curd packets. In a press release, FSSAI said that the five words that can be used are: Dahi, Mosaru, Zaamut daud, Thayir or Perugu.

General Standards for Milk and Milk Producers under the Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2011, clearly lays down guidelines for use of dairy terms in nomenclature of dairy products and related prohibitions for such use in non-dairy products. Accordingly when the term 'Curd' was written along with 'Dahi', in the said regulation, it was restricting its use for non-dairy products," the release said.

"As many representations were received recently on the omission of the term 'Curd' from the Standards of Fermented Milk Products, it has been decided that the term 'Curd' along with any other designation can be used on the label," the release also said while listing out the five terms.

The first directive had been slammed by Stalin as a case of Hindi imposition and warned that it would alienate the people of South India. "The unabashed insistences of #HindiImposition 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 South forever," Stalin said in a tweet.

The criticism was backed from an unlikely ally, K. Annamalai of BJP, who demanded the immediate rollback of the decision. He said that he demanded a rollback of the directive, while adding that it was not in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policy of promoting regional languages.