Recently at work, a team launched an internal tool. It's a great, well done tool, and the team got a lot of congratulatory responses on the launch email. Then after a day or two, the launch email got a reply from the original author, apologizing about the naming choices, and that they'll be renaming the tool with immediate effect.
I was very puzzled, I hadn't seen anything wrong with the name. It turned out the bad naming choice they'd made was to include the word "guru" in the name. Per Wikipedia,
Guru (/ˈɡuːruː/ Sanskrit: गुरु, IAST: guru; Pali: garu) is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field.[1] In pan-Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverential figure to the disciple (or shisya in Sanskrit, literally seeker [of knowledge or truth]) or student, with the guru serving as a "counselor, who helps mold values, shares experiential knowledge as much as literal knowledge, an exemplar in life, an inspirational source and who helps in the spiritual evolution of a student".
This is consistent with the meaning of the word I grew up with in India. However, the English word Guru, even if borrowed from Sanskrit, has come to mean more like an expert, and in that sense, the use of the word made perfect sense to me. We have Gadget Gurus, Car Gurus, etc. Whether this is a good thing or not, I don't know. It is definitely an established meaning of the word, and not at all offensive to me or most Indians I know -- we use the word in the loose sense all the time. We even have frauds who use the word to describe themselves as superior-to-you, but hey, I too get to call myself what I like, so what gives.
What irritates me the most is that some people (sometimes not even Indian!) feel the need to be pained at the potential hurt that might be caused to the entire community of people identifying as "Indians" by the usage of a common word intended to describe something completely legitimate.
Replace Indian with Black, LGBTQ+, or any other group it is fashionable to pretend to understand the pains of today, and it usually holds: Maybe this is too cynical, but it has been my observation.
Last year, Stanford also tried to ban a bunch of words in their IT comms. They had to take it back after a backlash from people on and off campus. That guide suggested using the following words instead of Guru: expert, subject matter, expert (SME), primary, leader, teacher, guide. And the "context" for that is given as:
In the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, the word is a sign of respect. Using it casually negates its original value.
It does not "negate" anything, when used in the context of our traditions, the word carries the weight it deserves. My Dhrupad Guru is not just an expert/teacher for me. But a dude who claims to be a Gadget Guru can have it too, I assume he knows a bit about tech gadgets, good for him.
Banning words to please a section of powerful people who pretend to feel sad for others who might be offended is not very wise. It is a slippery slope that must be avoided to maintain a free thinking society. I do think there are legitimate reasons to restrict use of certain words, e.g., those which symbolize oppression of a community. But usually, we don't need a messiah from outside those communities for that. In fact it is quite offensive that people think we cannot handle a dude calling himself Gadget Guru.
There is plenty of actual useful work to be done to help communities in need, banning words is usually not high on such lists.
