Okay, let’s face it, Gurgaon wasn’t the sexiest name to begin with. But it’s been around for a while and we have gotten used to it. The Haryana government has now decided to change the name of the Delhi suburb to Gurugram. The reason behind the renaming is a bit unclear. Gurgaon isn’t the first city to have had its name changed in recent times. But unlike Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai or Mumbai, Gurugram isn’t going to be the result of dropping an anglicised name for an older or local variant.
First, Haryana chief minister and RSS pracharak Manohar Lal Khattar said the new name was to honour Guru Dronacharya, the Brahmin who trained the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharat. Almost immediately after, reports quoted sources close to the CM, saying that the renaming was not, in fact for Dronacharya alone, but rather because “locals have long been demanding that name be changed (back) to Gurugram”.
The reluctance to wholeheartedly use the Dronacharya rationale for the name change is understandable. Drona is far from a universally admired character and there are those who may draw some uncomfortable parallels between him and Manohar Lal Khattar.