“why are you touching jalebi?” School draws widespread criticism online over renaming of Indian foods

Indian social media boiled after a post featuring a school's attempt to rename traditional Indian foods in English went viral, sparking an outrage.

A Reddit post showcased a message shared by a school’s WhatsApp group with students that contained awkward translations of beloved Indian dishes. The post quickly went viral, leading to heated discussions about cultural preservation and the alleged impact of colonialism.

Colonial slave mentality is crazy in English medium schools.

byu/mrtypec inindiadiscussion

As per the screenshots, traditional names like dosa, poha, and pakoras were changed to “crispy rice pancake,” “beaten/flattened rice,” and “fritters,” respectively. However, the translations did not sit well with netizens, who accused the school of cultural insensitivity on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.

Many argued that there was no need to translate Indian dishes' names, pointing out that other countries like Japan and France do not change the names of their traditional foods. “Have you ever heard someone trying to rename sushi? Then why are you touching jalebi?” asked one user.

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Social media was flooded with comments mocking the practice, with many users calling the translations absurd and unnecessary, urging schools to avoid such practices. Meanwhile, others also chimed in with humorous responses while underlining the core issue.

“Every day I am made to believe that schools are just a scam,” wrote one. Another stated, “No let us figure out what to call litti chokha, pav bhaji”. While many said it was all alright to simplify names and pronunciation, it definitely did not feel right to rename.

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"Where is the Indian identity in these?" one furious user commented while another explained reasonably with "Students need to learn inclusiveness and not separation from Indian-ness".