What's in a re-name? If you can't find a better adjective, then change the noun. If you can't change the verb, replace it with another noun to give the old identity a fresh take.
India is in the grip of a re-naming frenzy. Cities, airports, universities, sarkari bhawans, railway stations, roads, hospitals et al. have been bestowed with novel monikers. More time is spent poring over the Thesaurus of Historical Handles in the chambers of power than on cleaning the monsoon waters which inundate the roads, sewers and drains in every big city.
In some states, the number of files proposing new names exceeds that of better governance. Hardly a month passes without a state or Central government conjuring up new epithets to rechristen existing institutions and legislations. The only guiding principle behind cosmetic or phonetic alterations is to project change in the name of cultural and regional pride. So far, the saffron establishment has led from the front in the new nomenclature segment. Even as their detractors savage them for rewriting history and erasing the past with stilted historical present tense, changing names and calling names is the New Mantra chosen by all the political parties to expand political markets with high yields at public cost.
Don't blame the BJP alone for the current excessive rebranding zeal. Comrade Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala's Marxist CM, checked the wordfinder on behalf of all Keralites from the shelves of the Dravidian library and found a new label. The resolution moved by Vijayan and supported by all parties, including the Congress, has proposed that the state, founded in 1956, be called Keralam. Its official language will be 'Keralam' instead of 'Malayalam', including in all other languages and central government records. 'Keralam' comprises two words – "Kera" (coconut) and "Alam" (land), which becomes the "Land of Coconut Trees"; the state accounts for 45 per cent of India's coconut production.
This isn't the first time the state has gone nuts over sobriquets. In a bout of decolonisation fever, its capital's name was changed from Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram. The LDF and the UDF have re-named over a dozen towns and cities by leveraging local history and cultural connotations. However, each action was politically motivated to capture targeted vote banks in specific areas. The decision to re-name the state and its official language has come just a few months before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. There was no provocation or public pressure other than the 2024 elections to give a new textual identity to God's Own Country.
India's only red state alone can't be blamed for the appellative appetite for Indianised names to replace ones given by the British or the Mughals.
The BJP is the best wordsmith in coining new names, most of which are ideologically aligned. During the last Parliament session, Home Minister Amit Shah introduced a series of Bills to reform the Indian criminal justice system. Dropping original British names like Indian Penal Code (IPC), Shah bestowed Sankritised Hindi names to reflect the BJP's enthusiasm for Bharatiyata. This pre-election re-naming is being justifiably seen as a politically polarising ploy to grab votes along linguistic, cultural and religious lines.
ALSO READ | BJP divide and fool may boomerang
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin excoriated the Centre for linguistic imperialism, which he vowed to oppose inside and outside the state. Coincidentally, it was his eminent father, K Karunanidhi, who changed the name of Madras city to Chennai. The Madras state was also changed to Tamil Nadu by the government led by his own party’s Chief Minister, C N Annadurai. Other TN cities have been rebranded during the five-decade rule of the Dravidian parties; the former French colony Pondicherry got a new Tamil name, Puducherry. Name change is generally a by-product of the death of old empires and the promise of a nation's rebirth: an allegorical renewal of bygone old empires. Soon after Independence, all the states changed their names and cities from English to local languages. Old states got new aliases: Orissa became Odisha, Mysore state became Karnataka.
Recently, urged by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state assembly passed a resolution to call West Bengal just Bengal. Her request is pending with the Centre since it involves the sensitivities of sovereign Bangladesh next door.
In South India, English names were replaced with local labels drawn from history. In the north and the west, English and Mughal names were junked to honour local cultural, historical, and political icons. For example, Cawnpore in Uttar Pradesh became Kanpur and Jubbulpore in Madya Pradesh became Jabalpur. From making changes to official English spellings of local names, proposals to realigning the official name with alternate local names are in vogue. According to official documents, the names of over 500 cities and a dozen states have been replaced with new handles since 1947, with South India in the lead. Every new regional leader or party which comes to power in any state follows the re-naming policy to earn name and fame. Ethnically and political sensitivities were behind redesignating Baroda to Vadodara, Bombay to Mumbai, Calcutta to Kolkata, Bangalore to Bengaluru, Mysore to Mysuru, Gurgaon to Gurugram, Allahabad to Prayagraj, Mughalsarai to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Nagar, Gauhati to Guwahati, Poona to Pune and Banaras to Varanasi.
Sadly, a vibrant India on its way to becoming a $5 trillion economy before the decade ends has taken a poisonous path to manipulate multiple identity conflicts that affect regional, linguistic, communal, caste and community vectors. Everything from a government job to the name of a residential or commercial complex is chosen by analysing its social impact on the relevant state or region. Innovative branding based on history or communal lineage enjoys a premium in the marketplace of malapropisms.
The British left India in 1947. But they left behind their well-tested policy of divide and rule for its future seneschals irrespective of ideology, creed, or community. Appeasement has been the rule than the exception. In its 77th year of Independence, India doesn't need new nameplates on a railway station or a new entry in official records to become a New India. It needs new cities instead of new names, while its old cities must become cleaner and livable. It needs rising numbers of healthier and more prosperous Indians to rise from the bottom to the top of the development pyramid. In the language of identity politics, heedless and needless change is causing Amrit Kaal an unintended collateral damage.
CLICK THIS LINK TO READ MORE COLUMNS BY PRABHU CHAWLA
prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com
(Follow him on Twitter @PrabhuChawla)