RENAMING PLACES IN INDIA
Mumbai as we know it today has underwent many changes in her name. The Portuguese gave away the islands (originally comprising of Mazegaon, Parel, Wadala, Mahim, Matunga, Old Woman's Island and Colaba- and later made into one united land mass by landfill) they called Bom-Bahia (Good Harbour) to Prince Charles II of England as a dowry gift for marrying the Portuguese princess, Catherine de Braganza in 1661. Then it became Boon Bay before becoming the anglicized Bombay. This city was renamed in 1995 to Mumbai, in the name of the Mumbadevi Goddess (also known as Mumabai) whom the locals worshiped. Shiv Sena contended that the Marathi name was Mumbai and Bombay was a corrupt version. The renaming suggested a cultural imposition of Maratha pride upon the Muslims, Parsis, Christians and non-Marathi inhabitants of the region, who were largely favouring the use of Bombay for centuries.
Down south, DMK government took a cue from Shiv Sena and started renaming cities and towns in Tamil Nadu to their regional names. The most notable change was that from Madras to Chennai, in August 1996. The Raja of Chandragiri gave permission to the British to build a fort in a place called Madraspattinam. The locals built another settlement called Chennapattinam (named after the ruler's father, Chennapa) close to it. This was the earliest British settlement in India, which dates back to 1640. The British used Madraspattinam, and renamed their fort town to Madras, whereas the locals who largely inhabited the nearby Chennapattnam, adopted a name Chennai to their town. Another source for the origin of Madraspattinam indicated a Portuguese link; that Madras was named from Madre di Dios after the Church of St.Mary. Though suspicious, this claim seems plausible as Portuguese presence in the area was felt since 1504. Tamil speaking people refer to the place as Chennai, much before the renaming took place officially. The DMK government effected a renaming spree, and the idea was taken up by Kerala too. Several towns were renamed, street and roads with English sounding names were replaced with Tamil/Malayalam names.
Calcutta, the former capital of India was changed to Kolkata in 2001. Bengalis use Kolkata in their language to refer to this city and it seemed plausible to rename it. The origins of this name are shrouded in mystery- some suggest it might have come from "kali Katta", after the Goddess Kali, worshiped extensively in the region. The momentum to rename places back to their regional names gained momentum initially from the creating of Bangladesh from East Pakistan, whence Urdu was overthrown and Bengali was the official language. The mood spilled over to India, giving rise to the idea of being regional and proud. The whole state of West Bengal was renamed as BANGLA, along with Kolkata.
While these are the more famous ones, many followed suit. The Bombay to Mumbai and Madras to Chennai changes were the trend setters; and it sparked off a regional, nationalistic and often jingoistic name changing spree. Most places in Kerala underwent a name change. More recently, Bangalore became "Bengaluru"- the history goes that a king masquerading in disguise was given boiled beans or "Bendha Kaalu" in this place or "ooru", which became known as Bengaluru. Kannada script and language also refers to this place as Bengaluru even before the name change. The following would give a list of some of the name change that has taken place recently in India. The list I am sure is not exhaustive, and there are many more names which I might have missed.| OLD NAME | NEW NAME | ||
| Bombay (Maharashtra) | Mumbai | ||
| Madras (Tamil Nadu) | Chennai | ||
| Calcutta (Bangla) | Kolkata | ||
| Bangalore (Karnataka) | Bengaluru | ||
| North Kenara (District, Karnataka) | Uttara Kannada | ||
| South Kenara (District, Karnataka) | Dakshina Kannada | ||
| Trivandrum (Kerala) | Thiruvananthapuram | ||
| Quilon (Kerala) | Kollam | ||
| Cochin (Kerala) | Kochi | ||
| Calicut (Kerala) | Kozhikode | ||
| Cannanore (Kerala) | Kannur | ||
| Allepey (Kerala) | Alapuzha | ||
| Palghat (Kerala) | Palakkad | ||
| Trichur (Kerala) | Thrissoor | ||
| Tellicherry (Kerala) | Thallassery | ||
| Ramnad (Tamil Nadu) | Ramanathapuram | ||
| Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu) | Thoothukudi | ||
| Conjeevaram (Tamil Nadu) | Kanchipuram | ||
| Coleroon (Tamil Nadu) | Kollidam | ||
| Tanjore (Tamil Nadu) | Thanjavur | ||
| Ooty (Tamil Nadu) | Udhagamandalam | ||
| Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) | Kovai | ||
| Trichy (Tamil Nadu) | Tiruchirapalli | ||
| Cape Comorin (Tamil Nadu) | Kanyakumari | ||
| Chingleput (Tamil Nadu) | Chengalpattu | ||
| Point Calimere (Tamil Nadu) | Kodikkarai | ||
| Porto Novo (Tamil Nadu) | Parangipettai | ||
| Wardha East (Maharashtra) | Sewagram/Varud | ||
| Aurangabad (Maharashtra) | Shambhaji Nagar | ||
| Poona (Maharashra) | Pune | ||
| Bassein (Maharashtra) | Vasai | ||
| Baroda (Gujarat) | Vadodara | ||
| Bulsar (Gujarat) | Valsad | ||
| Broach (Gujarat) | Baruch | ||
| Pondicherry (Union territory) | Puducherry | ||
| Gotegoan (Madhya Pradesh) | Sridham | ||
| Benaras (Uttar Pradesh) | Varnasi | ||
| Bejawada (Andhra Pradesh) | Vijayawada | ||
| Serampore (Bangla) | Srirampur | ||
| Gauhati (Asom) | Guwahati | ||
| Balasore (Odisha) | Baleshwar | ||
| West Bengal (State) | Bangla | ||
| Assam (State) Orissa (State) Oriya (Language) | Asom Odisha Odia | ||
| Margao (Goa) | Madgaon | ||
| Jullender (Punjab) | Jalandhar | ||
| Ganges (River) | Ganga |
The BJP government wanted to rename Ahmedabad to Karnavati, Delhi to Dilli or Indraprastha, and the big fish- India to Bharat. Those have not occured- but just not yet. I won't be surprised if we find names like Prayag (Allahabad), Ujjaini (Indore), Patiliputra (Patna) or Lakshmanpuri (Lucknow) in the Indian map. Peking to Beijing, Burma to Myanmar, or Ceylon to Sri Lanka showed us that any name change is possible. If history and the recent renaming spree is any indication, India would soon be officially called BHARAT.
Photo copyright: Ashish Kuvelkar, 2006
posted by SHAILENDRA at 7:15 PM
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