Last week, the National Capital Region woke up to the news that Gurgaon – the millennial hub of gleaming office towers, glittering malls and tony residential blocks – is to be renamed “Gurugram” and adjoining Mewat rechristened as “Nuh”. The Haryana government had decided that Gurugram would be the correct name for an area, which, according to local legend, the Pandavas had given their teacher Dronacharya as gurudakshina.
Days later, it was reported that the Himachal Pradesh unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad was keen to change “Shimla” to “Shyamla”, another name for goddess Kali, who is supposed to have had a shrine there. Other demands languish – such as re-designating the hill station Dalhousie, named after Lord Dalhousie, a British Governor General of India, as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. That’s rather a long name for a tiny hill town, but, clearly, cumbersome is cool when patriotism is your pitch.
Inspired by National Chauvinism
As in Gurugram, where a short, crisp, easy to pronounce name has now been transformed into a “guru” (which also means serious in Sanskrit), tri-syllabic mouthful – to yank it right back to its so-called mythic roots.
More often than not, changes in place names spring from nativism and a sense of vigorous national chauvinism. In cases where they hark back to their pre-colonial past, they are an assertion, an emphatic declaration, as it were, that the country has thrown off its colonial yoke and done away with the jetsam of its one-time foreign masters. Officially embracing the commonly-used local names, while rejecting their Anglicised versions, then becomes part of an exercise in building national identity.
Hence, Mumbai. Hence, Chennai. Hence, Kolkata and Bengaluru. Hence too, the formidable Udhagamandalam or Thiruchirapally – even though you’ll find most people still referring to them as “Ooty” or “Trichy” simply because those roll easier off the tongue.
Subtext Behind Renaming
- April 12: Khattar
government decides to rename the corporate hub of Haryana, Gurgaon to Gurugram.
- State government’s
spokesperson attributes the name change to history, citing the link between
Guru Dronacharya and the centre of learning.
- Doing away with
Anglicised names has been a way of asserting that the country has moved beyond
its colonial past.
- Recent naming spree seems
to be inspired by politics; a part of socio-political agenda of the Hindutva brigade.
Subtext is Politics
Indeed, countries and cities around the world have undergone name changes to underline their national, as opposed to colonial, character. Burma and Rangoon became Myanmar and Yangon respectively in 1989, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1984, Upper Volta changed itself to Burkina Faso in 1987, Gold Coast to Ghana in 1957. In 1935, Persia, so called by the Western powers, mutated to Iran, or “land of the Aryans”.
While nationalism and adherence to local tradition are the avowed motives of all such name changes, their real subtext, however, is politics. And all too often, the politics of patriotism translates merely into the politics of we-rule-so-we-get-to-name-stuff. Be it roads, or institutions or buildings or cities, the act of naming and renaming is essentially an effort to brand them with the political hallmark of the powers-that-be.
Sanskritising Gurgaon
Gurgaon, sorry, Gurugram, is a case in point. “Gurgaon” was no colonial mangling of a local name. It was a village that burgeoned into a mega city, even as it retained its simple, rustic moniker. And yet the BJP-ruled Haryana government thought it fit to Sanskritise it as a tribute to Guru Dronacharya.
This, despite the fact that Dronacharya was a decidedly unpleasant man – envious, vengeful, a horrendous casteist who sacrificed the lowborn Ekalavya for his favourite Arjuna, and who later supported the wealthy Kauravas rather than the righteous underdogs, the Pandavas. While the idea of honouring a character like Dronacharya itself seems questionable, historians say the mythical link between him and Gurgaon is also extremely tenuous.
Renaming Spree
The point, however, is that Gurgaon, where the world’s commercial powers come calling, has now been given an epical reference to serve as a reminder of the glories of ancient India. That fits snugly with the socio-political agenda of the Hindutva brigade whose idea of nationalism is inseparable from the supposed mythologies of ancient Indian culture.
If the name of a place has been around for centuries it gets hardwired into its DNA. There is no “good” history or “bad” history; history is just history and the name of a place is but a small window to it. The Russian city of St Petersberg (Sankt Peterburg), named after Peter the Great in 1703, was renamed Petrograd in 1914 because during the First World War, the earlier name suddenly began to sound too German. It was renamed Leningrad in 1924 after Lenin’s death. And in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it swung back to St Petersberg, thus completing nearly a century of fruitless tinkering with a name just to suit the whim of the rulers of the day.
The current renaming spree in India could have as little consequence in the long term. In the short term, though, the potential fallout of such reimagining of place names could be considerable. If a perfectly ethnic Indian name like Gurgaon can be dressed up as “Gurugram”, what of the name of the country itself? Could India – the land of the Indus – be officially re-designated “Hindustan”?
One may be sure that in certain quarters, the matter is already being discussed.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi)
Also read:
Gurgaon to Gurugram: Khattar, Drona and a Question of Caste
After Gurugram, Haryana Should Consider Changing These Names Too
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)