Renaming of cities in India

The Renaming of cities in India started after the end of the British imperial period in 1947 and continues to date. There were political controversies about several renamings. Not all proposed renamings were actually implemented. Every renaming of a city in India has to be approved by the central governmentFact|date=August 2008.

Major cities that have been renamed after independence include Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum)Fact|date=August 2008, Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Chennai (formerly Madras), Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Pune (formerly Poona) and Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore)Fact|date=August 2008.

Reasons for renaming

There are several different reasons for proposals of renamings:
* to adjust the spelling in English language to the spelling in the local language and thus to correct misspellings introduced by the British colonial authorities (e.g. Cawnpore to Kanpur)
* to switch from a name of European origin to a name of Indian origin (e.g. Madras to Chennai)
* to switch from a name of Muslim origin to a name of Hindu origin

Controversies

While local politicians and some historians praised the move, some others, particularly in the business community of the affected cities, felt that it was a step backward in building a global reputation. [cite web
last =
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title = India's Bangalore in name change
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publisher = [http://news.bbc.co.uk/ British Broadcasting Corporation News]
date = 2006-11-01
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6107082.stm
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accessdate = 2006-09-28] 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". Many American companies had moved their operations to the Indian city that a worker whose job was lost to outsourcing called it being "Bangalored". OthersWho|date=July 2008 feel that Bengaluru is too provincial, when Bangalore is recognized worldwide as synonymous with high tech.Fact|date=July 2008

Earlier, Bombay had been renamed as 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". [ Samuel Sheppard "Bombay Place-Names and Street-Names" (Bombay: The Times Press) 1917 pp104-5] 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. [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]

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.

Proposed changes

Other name changes that have been proposed include Ahmedabad to Karnavati [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-468087,prtpage-1.cms] , Lucknow to Lakshmanpuri [http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/01042001/Art22.htm] , Lakhanpur http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/15022001/Art08.htm] or Lakhnavati , Patna to Pataliputra [http://news.smashits.com/NewsPrint.asp?nid=62938] , Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar http://www.islamicvoice.com/2001-08/community.htm#bac] , Osmanabad to Dharashiv , Allahabad to Prayag or Tirth Raj Prayag [http://www.expressindia.com/news/ie/daily/20010312/ied12028.html] , Faizabad to Saket , Mughalsarai to Deen Dayal Nagar [http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/feb/11deen.htm] , Bhopal to Bhojpal http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-828162,prtpage-1.cms] , Indore to Indur , Jabalpur to Jabalipuram and Delhi to Dilli, Indraprastha Fact|date=July 2007.

ee also

* List of renamed Indian public places

References

External links

* [http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/09/21/stories/0421402v.htm Renaming roads: A 'meaningless' exercise]
* [http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~easwaran/papers/india.html The Politics of Name Changes in India]
* [http://www.digi-help.com/pub/bangalore-bengalooru.asp Bangalore to become Bengalooru: The politics of renaming cities]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6107082.stm City of Boiled Beans prepares to change its name]
* [http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu4&subLeft=6&autono=301832&tab=r Shashi Tharror : Becoming Bengaloorued]