CURRY houses across Scotland are set to take ''Indian'' food off the menu in a move that could spell the beginning of the end for Scotland's other national dish.

In the new year, one of the most important periods in British curry history will unfold as restaurateurs will launch a campaign to have the description Indian removed from business signs and menus.

This is because 87% of ''Indian'' restaurants are, in reality, Bangladeshi establishments, a fact that has led to an identity crisis and some hot questions for an industry which is worth #3000m to the UK economy.

Scotland is leading the offensive in the curry wars with a day of action planned for the spring when the public will be told who is grafting away for them in the kitchen.

President of the Guild of Bangladeshi Restaurateurs in Scotland, Mr Foysol Choudhury, said: ''It's about time people knew who was cooking their curry. We have been under someone else's banner for too long and we intend to go heavy on the campaign in Scotland, asking owners to change their name en masse in one day. It's like Cantonese and Chinese, we just want credit where credit is due.''

Hundreds of Bangladeshi restaurateurs will meet in London in February to launch a curry awareness day ahead of the protest. The goal is to rename Britain's 8500 Indian restaurants Bangladeshi.

The confusion stretches back to 1971 when Bangladesh became independent. As the curry boom got under way in Britain, few people had heard of the country and it was agreed that ''Indian'' cooking was a useful tag. But second generation restaurateurs feel that the time has come for the phrase ''Fancy going out for an Indian?'' to be exposed as an anachronism.

Owner of the award-winning Balaka Bangladeshi Restaurant in St Andrews, Mr Abdur Rouf, has already dropped his Indian title but admits that many owners are wary about following suit.

Mr Rouf claims that the Balaka, formerly called the New Balaka Indian Restaurant, has gone from strength to strength since its change of identity, culminating in it being voted the best Bangladeshi in the UK in the 1999 edition of Pat Chapman's Good Curry Guide.

''It takes a lot of courage to rename your restaurant but I think we have to realise that the majority of people in Scotland don't know what they are eating,'' added Mr Rouf.

''Some people fear that when the Indian tag goes so will their business, but it is down to us to teach people that the restaurants are run by Bangladeshi people who sell Bangladeshi food.''

Guild members are lobbying for Prime Minister Tony Blair to throw his weight behind the campaign which has trickled down to even the humble takeaway. The sign above the Saffron Indian Takeaway in Edinburgh has been discreetly changed to the Saffron Bangladeshi Takeaway recently and it is estimated that three-quarters of Britain's curry houses will eventually be renamed.

The burning issue is recognition for Bangladeshis who are largely responsible for creating a billion pound industry which employees around 100,000 people and consumes about 33p of every pound spent eating out.

Meanwhile, Indian restaurateurs expressed mixed feelings about the campaign with some setting up their own rival group in the form of the Elite Indian Restaurateurs' Association.

Owner of Edinburgh's Suruchi Indian Restaurant, Mr Herman Rodrigues, said that the real origins of Indian cuisine in Britain were as much a product of the west as the east.

He said: ''I think everyone knows that if you asked for a chicken bhoona or madras in India they wouldn't know what you were talking about because curries have become westernised.

''The good news is that the Indian meal is finally losing its post-lager cuisine image but I think things can be taken too far. It's like Mohammed Al-Fayed renaming Harrods the Nile because he is Egyptian.''