Renaming

There have been much hue and cry, when Allahabad was name was changed to Prayagraj , Faizabad district to  Ayodhya  district by UP Govt. It is not the first time govt has changed the name of the place/city etc. But before going into the details, why  or why not the name should be changed, first one must know the original name of the place/city/country

1. Hindustan aka Bharat aka India- its original name is Aryavart.
2. Kanpur’s original name was Kanhapur, it was changed to Cawnpore then to Kanpur by British.
3. Delhi’s original name was Indraprasth. During Mughal’s time it was changed to Delhi.
4. Hyderabad’s original name was Bhagyanagar.
5. Allahabad original name was Prayag.
6. Aurangabad original name was Sambhaji Nagar.
7. Bhopal’s original name was Bhojpal, changed during Mughal time.
8. Original name of Lucknow was Lakshmanpuri.
9. Original name of Ahmedabad was Karnavati.
10. Faizabad’s original name was Ayodhya.
11. Aligarh was originally called Harigarh.
12. Rohtak was originally called Rohitaspur.
13. Muzaffarnagar was originally known as Laxminagar.
14. Porbandar was known as Sudamapuri.
15. Patna was known as Patliputra.
16. Nanded was known as Nandigram.
17. Azamgarh was known as Aryagarh.
18. Ajmer was known as Ajaymeru
19. Ujjain was known as Avantika.
20. Guwahati was earlier known as Gauhati
21. Burhanpur was orginally known as Brkhampur.
22. Indore was originally called Indur.
23. Sonopat was known as Swarnprastha.
24. Panipat was known as Parnprastha.

Above are the few examples of the places/cities whose names were changed by either British or Mughal rulers.

At the time of partition Pakistan’s govt changed the names of thousands of roads, Locality, Cities, Districts. They gave them the new names which were Islamic names. Same way earlier Mughal changed the names of so many cities etc in India, and the changed named represented Islamic culture.

There are some other interesting facts about name changing  process

1. Going back to original name- As mentioned earlier recently UP govt changed the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj, and Faizabad Dist.became Ayaodhya Dist. Haryana govt also changed the name of Gurgaon to Gurugram (in this case there was no logic).  Earlier the name changes were due to political reason and presently the name change is because of religious reason or  reverting back to original name before Mughal era. For instance Ismail Khurd village is now known as Pivhanwa Khurd, while new name for Miyan Ka Bara is Ramesh Nagar in Rajasthan.
2. Getting the pronunciation right- In 2014    Central Govt  changed  the name of 12 cities in Karnataka on the recommendations of State Govt- Bangalore became Bengaluru, Mangalore – Mangaluru,, Mysore-Mysuru,Belary-Ballari, Bijapur-Vijayapur, Belgaum-Belgavi, Chikmagalur- Chikkamagaluru, Gulbarga-Kalaburagi, Hospet -Hosapete, Shimoga-Shivamogga, Hubli-Huballi and Tumkur-Tumkuru. Similarly earlier Bombay was changed to Mumbai, Calcutta to Kolkata and Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram, also fell into this category. In case of Bombay to Mumbai was going back to local name of the city, same case was with Madras who became Chennai.
3. My name is better than yours- In UP, earlier Akhilesh Yadav’s govt renamed the eight districts earlier named by Mayavati govt. Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar became Amethi, while Ramabai nagar as Kanpur Dehat, , Bheem Nagar to Sambhal, Prabudha Nagar to Shamli, Panchsheel to Hapur, Kanshiram Nagar to Kasganj, Jyotiba Phule Nagar became Amroha. It looks like Akhilesh’s govt gave the original name back.
4. The curious case of Hathras dist in UP- In 1997 Mayawati govt created a new dist. carving out areas around Hathras town from Aligarh and Mathura dists. She named it Mahamaya Nagar. Kalyan Singh’s govt changed it to Hathras only for it to become Mahamaya Nagar again in 2002, when Mayawati returned to power. Mulayam Singh Yadav again changed it to Hathras in 2006. Mayawati stormed to power in 2007 and it became Mahamaya Nagar again, to become Hathras again when Akhilesh Yadav came to power in 2012. Now suppose in next UP assembly election, if Mayawati & Akhilesh Yadav combine win the state, then it is difficult to guess what will be the new name of Hathras.
5. Railway Stations- Recently Mughalsarai station was renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhayay  Junction. The renaming of railway station is old phenomenon. built in 1887 Mumbai’s iconic Victoria Terminus (VT) was renamed as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) in 1996, it acquired a further honorific name of Chhatrapati Shivali Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in 2017. Similarly in Mumbai Local Network- local stations names keep on changing like VT to CST to CSMT, Eliphinstone Road to Prabhadevi, Oshiwara to Ram Mandir Road. There are many proposals to change the names of many stations in local train network.

We are not alone in changing the names, this happens all over the world. The countries whose names were changed in last few decades- Ceylon became Sri Lanka, Persia became Iran and Burma became Myanmar. some of the important cities of the world whose names are changed- Peking, the Chinese capital becoming Beijing, Saigon becoming Ho Chi Minh City (in Korea), Leningrad coming back to original name St. Petesburg, Constantinpole is Istanbul and Stalingrad is now Volgograd.

In India , the process of changing name is- State Govt send the proposals to Union Home Ministry. If found appropriate the ministry give NOC to state for issuing the required Gazette Notifications.

So friends,  name changing is process is prevailing all over  the world and India is not alone. Just because BJP govt wants to revert to original names of the places/cities, there is much halla gulla by opposition. Can any opposition party  tell that their party has not resorted to name changing gimmick to appease their vote bank.

waiting for your views/comments/ feed backs.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

12th Nov 2018.