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The recent renaming of Allahabad to Prayagraj has made us think of all the times India changed the name of its cities for one reason or another! The fact that there’s a whole Wikipedia page dedicated to the renaming of cities in India speaks volumes about the obsession and don’t even get us started on the names of states!
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Since we cannot cover all the cities that have been renamed by India so far (because there are many!!!), here are four notable metropolitans that have bore the brunt and why!
1. From Bombay to Mumbai!
India’s busiest city, Bombay was officially changed to Mumbai in 1995 when Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu nationalist party came to power. The word “Mumbai” was inspired by the Mumba Devi temple in the city.
While getting rid of the colonial legacy was used as a pretext, the underlying reasons revolved around Shiv Sena’s efforts to consolidate mandate among Marathi speaking populace of the city.
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Shiv Sena also tried changing the word “Bollywood,” which is a mixture of Bombay and Hollywood, but failed!
2. From Madras to Chennai!
In 1996, Madras was renamed to Chennai, this time in order to promote Tamil language and culture. The development came at the heels of the movement led by the government of the time to carry out christening countrywide in order to erase the marks of colonialism from the land.
3. From Calcutta to Kolkata!
The government of West Bengal officially changed Calcutta which is an anglicized version, to the Bengali name Kolkata in 2001.
Done in the spirit to restore indigenous Indian culture, this time again the hidden agenda had to do with empowering one linguistic group over others in order to strengthen vote bank.
4. From Allahabad To Prayagraj!
The latest on the list, only a few weeks ago the name of one of the most historically rich cities of India, Allahabad, was changed to Prayagraj which is something the place was called prior to Mughal’s conquest.
That said, Yogi Adityanath, the Hindu nationalist and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, seems like on a spree, giving Hindu names to towns and cities under his constituency in order to exploit religious sentiments, especially when the general elections are just a few months away. So far, the following changes have been made.
∼ Urdu Bazar changed to Hindi Bazar
∼ Ali Nagar changed to Arya Nagar
∼ Miya Bazar changed to Maya Bazar
∼ Islampur changed to Ishwarpur
∼ Humayun Nagar changed to Hanuman Nagar
Renaming of Allahabad to Prayagraj also led to many memes, trolling Yogi Adityanath.
https://twitter.com/Abid_Sid/status/1053218563681480704
Changing so many names. Such a hard working Yogiji
Changing so many clothes. Such a hard working Modiji#AajSeTumharaNaampic.twitter.com/btD7ScKIj8
— Piyushakak4 (@piyushakak4) October 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/vitalhumour/status/1053203155868106752
https://twitter.com/vitalhumour/status/1053203272474021888
https://twitter.com/Singhh_Rashu/status/1053181836669595649
Proposal for changing Muzaffarnagar to Laxminagar has also been initiated and is likely to materialize soon.
The speed at which renaming of cities, states and town is taking place in the country, it won’t come as a surprise if they decide to change India to Bharat, altogether.
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