Indian renaming controversy
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The Indian renaming controversy is a result of a movement[citation needed] to change the names of Indian cities from those used during the British imperial period, back to regional or Indian names. Beginning in 2006, the ruling Congress Party in India pushed through the renaming of Indian cities to their "pre-colonial" names and pronunciations. The two cited reasons behind renamings were to remove an imperial name, or to change pronunciation and spelling to fit local custom used as a ruse to attempt to erase the British legacy of India in order to modify any 'distasteful' aspects of India's rich history by misguided nationalists. Opponents point to the multi-cultural nature of India as well as that nation's changing role in the global economy.
Major cities that have been renamed in English language after independence include Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum), Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Chennai (formerly Madras), Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Pune (formerly Poona) and Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore).
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[edit] Controversy
While local politicians and some historians praised the move, others, particularly in the business community of the affected cities, felt that it was a step backward in building a global reputation. [1] Nowhere was the controversy greater than in Bangalore, renamed as Bengaluru. On December 11, 2005, chief minister Dharam Singh had announced that the Karnataka state government accepted Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy's suggestion to rename ten cities to their Kannada names. The new names became effective from November 1, 2006. In most of these cases the 'new' names are simply the names by which these cities have always been known in the native language. Thus, local Kannada language newspapers announced that "Bengaluru (Bangalore) is to be renamed as Bengaluru". The reason was that Bangalore had become, in the past 15 years, home to more than 1,500 information technology companies and was nicknamed "India's Silicon Valley". So many American companies had moved their operations to the Indian city that a worker whose job was lost to outsourcing called it being "Bangalored". Others feel that Bengaluru is too provincial, when Bangalore is recognized worldwide as synonymous with high tech. Critics across India complained of the cost of changing signage, pointing to better uses for money, such as the improvement of urban infrastructure.
In the case of Madras the naming of the city has proved rather controversial and confusing with supporters saying it is removing traces of imperialism imposed on the city and opponents saying it is nothing but an attempt to rewrite history. Prior to the development of the modern city, Chennapatnam and Madraspatnam were two different settlements in the area it now covers. With the development of the area however the two towns gradually began to merge and one name began to be used to refer to both of them; to many locals this name was Chennapatnam however to other locals, the authorities and people from elsewhere in India and the world at large the name Madraspatnam (often shorted to Madras) was usually used.
Earlier, Bombay (a pronunciation of Portuguese origin) had successfully been renamed Mumbai. The new changes concentrated on eliminating the pronunciations from the days of British India, and were carried out in response to the demands of the Hindu Nationalist Shiv Sena party. 'Mumbai' has long been the name of the city in Marathi and Gujarati, whilst Hindi-speakers called it Bambai.[2] However, some argue that as the renaming was part of the Shiv Sena's Bhumiputra (son of the soil) policy, it is an attempt to erase evidence of the city's cosmopolitanism and multi-lingual character.[3]
[edit] Usage of new and old names
In many cases the older names continue to be used informally, or survive in the names of universities and other institutions. The Bombay High Court and Madras High Court were named after the erstwhile Bombay and Madras presidencies, and have not been renamed. The Indian Institutes of Technology at Chennai and Mumbai continue to be called IIT Madras and IIT Bombay.
In certain cases, the effort has extended to buildings and institutions named by the former colonizers. For example, Mumbai's Victoria Terminus railway station has been renamed Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus after the 17th century Maratha Emperor. Many colonial-era street names, particularly in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai have been changed, but many, particularly in southern cities, continue to have British-era names.
[edit] Proposed future changes
Other name changes that have been proposed include Ahmedabad to Karnavati, Lucknow to Lakshmanpuri or Lakhanpur, Patna to Pataliputra, Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar, Allahabad to Prayag, Faizabad to Saket and Delhi to Dilli, Hastinapur or Indraprastha[citation needed].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ City of Boiled Beans prepares to change its name
- ^ Samuel Sheppard Bombay Place-Names and Street-Names (Bombay: The Times Press) 1917 pp104-5
- ^ Sujata Patel "Bombay and Mumbai: Identities, Politics and Populism" in Sujata Patel & Jim Masselos (Eds.) Bombay and Mumbai. The City in Transition (Delhi: Oxford University Press) 2003 p4; Suketu Mehta Maximum City. Bombay Lost and Found (New York: Alfred Knopf) 2004 p130
