The Politics of Name Changes in India Essay -- Town City

The Politics of Name Changes in IndiaEver since independence in 1947, some locations in India have changed their urinates. Much of this resulted from the reorganization of the states on lingual lines (as opposed to British colonial divisions). However, in the last six years, many study towns and cities have been re figured in ways that affect foreigners more. Among this flood of changes, trio stand out. These are the former cities of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, which, together with Delhi, are considered the mega cities of India.1 They are the intravenous feeding most populous cities in India, and all but Madras are among the 15 most populous cities in the world.2 As a result, they are cardinal commercial and transit hubs, and are well known outside India. except nearly six years later, most non-Indians still have no idea that they are now named Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. Given the difficulties involved in these changes, angiotensin-converting enzyme expects compelling j ustifications for the changes. In each case, these changes have officially been justified on anti-colonialist grounds. However, I will argue that these changes are instead tools for channeling regionalist sentiment in the conflict between the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the centrist Indian National Congress (INC), and various regional parties. Opponents of the INC proposed all these names, but those proposed by the BJP and its nationalist allies have been more divisive.The case of Mumbai was the first major change to happen, and is thus the best known. In 1995, the ruling party in the government of the state of Maharashtra (of which Bombay was capital) announced that Bombays name would be changed to its Marathi name, Mumbai.3 The casual beh middle-ageder would assume that the name B... ...ttp//www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/52a/076.html - a BBC article about the Kolkata name change * http//www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/indian_subcontinent/mumbai/history.h tm - a travel site with a history of Mumbai. (It connects Bal Thackeray, the draw of the Shiv Sena, to Adolf Hitler) * http//theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/history/people/language/ - a list of most languages in India spoken by over a million people * http//www.contactsindia.com/tourism/south/tamil_nadu/madras.htm - a site with information about Chennai * www.aapkashahar.com - a touring car site with little or no graphics, demonstrating usage of both old and new names for cities * www.soulkurry.com - a site about womens spirituality in India List of Indian cities that have recently undergone (or may undergo) a name change. (Population figures are from www.citypopulation.de.)