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Changing name of cities an attempt to re-write history

By Kushal Jeena. Dated: 11/17/2018 1:24:09 PM

The motive behind the move to rename Indian cities bearing Muslim names is indicative of the narrow-mindedness of Bhartiya Janata Party attempt to re-write history.
The idea is polarizing majority Hindu community and to create a communal divide within the society to win next year general elections. At the behest of the central government the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh is currently busy changing the names of the centuries old cities that have the Muslim names.
The name changing exercise that has been spearheaded by none other than the chief minister of the India's largest populated state of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath assumes significance as it has been undertaken keeping in mind the ongoing assembly elections in three north Indian states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where BJP has been ruling for three consecutive terms in two states of MP and Chhattisgarh and for one term in Rajasthan and facing strong anti-incumbency.
The exercises that started with the renaming of Allahabad to Prayagraj and will continue until the results of the elections come in the favor of BJP. By making such a move the ruling party is trying to send a message to the majority Hindu community that it is determined to 'get rid' of the 'Muslim' legacy of the past and is inching towards making India a predominantly Hindu state. The idea is to ignite communal frenzy among Hindu similar to that which was witnessed before and after the demolition of ancient Babri mosque that led to large scale communal riots across India and led to the killings of scores of people from minority community.
The hatred of the right-wing BJP and its several affiliates that was writ large at the time of the demolition of the mosque continues as it has always yielded electoral benefits for BJP. It expects to get support of the majority community to come back to power again as the government at the centre has failed to deliver goods or fulfill its electoral promises.
This time things look changed because the BJP had come to power in 2014 general elections riding on tall poll promises it made during campaign, which were based on the agenda of development. The Hindu card appears to have lost its shine as the same has played so many times.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the centre has cleared proposals of renaming at least 25 towns and villages across India in the past one year. The latest addition to the list of renaming cities included Allahabad and Faizabad, which have been renamed as Prayagraj and Ayodhya respectively. Several proposals for renaming cities like Lucknow, Agra Muthura and some in West Bengal are pending.
The union home ministry is the nodal agency for changing the names of the cities. As per the process the home ministry after receiving no-objections from the departments of railways, postal and survey of India gives its consent to the proposal to change the name of a particular place. The federal constitution says the renaming of a place requires an amendment in the Constitution with simple majority in Parliament.
The issue is all set to create uproar in the forthcoming winter session of Parliament as the ruling coalition doesn't enjoy majority the Rajya Sabha, the upper House of Parliament. It is mandatory for any government order to be passed by both the Houses of Parliament to before it is converted into a law.
The renaming of cities in India started in 1947 after the end of British colonial rule that lasted for nearly two centuries. The successive governments that came into being after the collapse of British regime made several changes in the newly drafted Constitution and many of them were not implemented for being controversial.
The obsession with changing historic cities is not confined to northern parts of the country only, it is spreading its wings downwards with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani following path of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath contemplating to rechristen state capital Ahmadabad to Karnavati. One of the BJP law makers has voiced to rename Hyderabad to Bhagyanagar.
"Earlier, Hyderabad was Bhagyanagar and in 1590 Quli Qutub Shah came to Hyderabad, he changed Bhagyanagar to Hyderabad. At that time many temples were destroyed. We are planning to rename Hyderabad," said Raja Singh, one of the five members, the BJP Had in outgoing assembly in Telengana.
A minister in the BJP chief minister Yogi Adityanath government in politically sensitive state of Uttar Pradesh, Om Prakash Rajbhar, who heads a local political outfit and an ally of the BJP, was first among the allies to raise a banner of revolt against the move which he said was taken unililaterally.
"The BJP says that the cities were names by Mughuls. In the BJP, there is Shahnawaj Hussain, who is national spokesperson; Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is union minister; and in UP, there is Mohsin Raza, who is minister of state in the Yogi government. First names of these three persons should be changed," the disgruntled leader said in a video message that went viral.
It is not that the voice of dissent is coming out from the alliance partners only, it is gaining ground within the party itself as some of the senior party leaders and former union minister have also launched scathing attack on the ground against the move.
The move of renaming of cities has also attracted opposition from intellectual community with historians and academicians coming out in to speak against the exercise that they say would be detrimental to the interest of the country. Noted historian Irfan Habib was among the first who led the campaign against the renaming exercise from the front. He even questioned the originality of the BJP president Amit Shah's surname.
"Shah is a Persian word, it is not Sanskrit. If they (BJP) are changing the names of cities, they should first start with their own names. Even the term Gujarat itself is of Persian origin. It was called Gurjaratra earlier. They should also change it," said Habib, the professor emeritus at the prestigious Aligarh Muslim University.
—[IFS]