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

The Politics of Name Changes in IndiaEver since independence in 1947, many locations in India have deepend their names. Much of this resulted from the reorganization of the states on linguistic lines (as oppose to British colonial divisions). However, in the last six years, many study towns and cities have been renamed in ways that affect foreigners more. Among this flood of stirs, three groundwork out. These argon the former cities of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, which, together with Delhi, are considered the mega cities of India.1 They are the four approximately populous cities in India, and all but Madras are among the 15 some populous cities in the world.2 As a result, they are important commercial and transit hubs, and are well known outside India. Yet tight six years later, most non-Indians still have no melodic theme that they are now named Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. Given the difficulties involved in these changes, one expects compel justifications for the change s. 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 difference between the Hindu patriot Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the centrist Indian theme 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 political science 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 observer would weary 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/ fib.htm - a travel put with a history of Mumbai. (It connects Bal Thackeray, the leader of the Shiv Sena, to Adolf Hitler) * http//theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/history/people/language/ - a list of most languages in India verbalize by over a million people * http//www.contactsindia.com/tourism/ southwestern/tamil_nadu/madras.htm - a site with information about Chennai * www.aapkashahar.com - a tourist site with little or no graphics, demonstrating usage of both old and radical names for cities * www.soulkurry.com - a site about womens spirituality in India cite of Indian cities that have recently undergone (or may undergo) a name change. (Population figures are from www.citypopulation.de.)