MUMBAI: ‘What’s in a name?’ the Bard of Avon asked. Plenty, if you ask Maharashtra’s politicians. Identity politics is heating up in the state with political parties and social organisations making a huge number of demands for renaming cities and institutions after icons. While parties like the NCP and Shiv Sena have jumped on to the bandwagon as expected, caste-based organisations like the Maratha Sewa Sangh (MSS), and OBC outfits are not too far behind.
Maharashtra is known for being sensitive to such politics with the Dalit demand to rename Marathwada University after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar sparked debate and attacks by upper castes before it was finally granted 16 years later in 1994. During the tenure of the erstwhile Shiv Sena- BJP state government from 1995-1999, Bombay was renamed Mumbai and the international and domestic airports were renamed after Chhatrapati Shivaji. The names of Peddar road, Arthur Road, Jacob Circle, Delile Road and Warden Road were changed and the iconic VT terminus in Mumbai was renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. The Shiv Sena also took on the ruling Congress-NCP over the Mumbai-Pune Expressway being named after former Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan rather than Marathi litterateur P L Deshpande and NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s successful insistence to rename the Bandra-Worli Sea Link after Rajiv Gandhi also caused consternation.
In a bid to attract Dalits, the NCP has demanded that the Dadar Railway station be renamed as Chaityabhoomi after the nearby memorial to Dr Ambedkar. The demand has been opposed by the Shiv Sena and the MNS. Incidentally, the Shiv Sena wants Aurangabad to be renamed Sambhajinagar (after warrior king Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj) and Osmanabad to be called Dharashiv. Athavale wants Mumbai Central Railway Station to be renamed after Ambedkar, while the Sena wants the name to be changed to honour philanthropist Jagannath ‘Nana’ Shankarseth and Churchgate station to be named after Ambedkar instead.
The MSS, whose youth front, the Sambhaji Brigade ransacked the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune to protest the writings of American writer James Laine which ‘denigrated’ Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his mother Rajmata Jijabai, has supported the demand by Leftist intellectual Sharad Patil to name Aurangabad after Malik Ambar and Pune after Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. While Ambar was a 17th century Nizamshahi nobleman credited for the development of Aurangabad from the erstwhile village of Khadki, Sambhaji and associate Kavi Kalash were killed by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb at Vadhu Tulapur near Pune. The MSS has demanded that the Nagpur railway station be named after Jijabai, who was born at Sindhkhedraja in Vidarbha, while OBC organisations want universities to be renamed after icons like Savitribai Phule.
“For us, this is not an emotional issue but that of identity,” said Hanumant Upre of the Satyashodhak OBC Parishad, which has formed an action committee to name the University of Pune after Savitribai Phule. Upre has also demanded that the Marathwada agricultural university in Parbhani be named after former Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik, the University of Solapur after warrior queen Ahilyabai Holkar and the University of Mumbai after bhakti saint Tukaram.
“There is a position behind the demand for the renaming. The name which has been sought should have some historic, social or cultural relation with the place, area or activity,” said MSS chief Purushottam Khedekar. However, Hari Narke, Head and Professor, Mahatma Phule Chair at the University of Pune and activist, pointed out that such demands “were a part of identity politics and made in an attempt to divert the attention of people from main problems concerning issues like health, education, infrastructure and budgetary provisions.” “This is nothing but caste politics,” added Narke, a member of the state commission for backward classes.
“In the era of globalisation, issues of identities are sharpened due to social churning, assertiveness of the individual selves and commercialisation. In such times, emotional issues come to the fore,” said Surendra Jondhale, Professor and Head, Department of Civics and Politics at the University of Mumbai. “Even if these topics have symbolic value, they cloud the important issues,” Jondhale added.