What’s in A Name? How Modi Government Is Renaming Places

Harshita Bajaj January 30, 2023

395 2 minutes read

Modi Government is renaming places- What is the strategy?

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1 Modi Government is renaming places- What is the strategy?

1.1 So, which are some of the renamed places?

Modi Government is renaming places. But why? The latest in series, Mughal Garden will now be called
the ‘Amrit Udyan.’

The past few years have probably seen more name changes in India than one can count. The trend of changing the name of places has been around for a while. It was an exercise that had begun post-1947 in independent India when we were trying to get over the colonial hangover and the past.

#WATCH | All the names & symbols of Mughals should be uprooted & thrown away just not in Mughal Garden but in villages & towns in country. They destroyed our heritage. When BJP will come to power in Bengal, we’ll throw away names of Mughals & British: WB BJP leader S Adhikari pic.twitter.com/EnaMoOwCnY
— ANI (@ANI) January 28, 2023

So, which are some of the renamed places?

1. Race Course Road was renamed Lok Kalyan Marg in September 2016.

2. In 2017, Dalhousie Road was renamed as Dara Sikoh Road, to pay tribute to Dara Sikoh, son of Shah Jahan. The renaming had occurred to bring Hindus and Muslims together, said Meenakshi Lekhi, a BJP member.

3. The most iconic change was the renaming of Allahabad district to Prayagraj.

4. The district Faizabad was renamed Ayodhya in 2018. 5. In 2018, the Mughalsarai station was renamed Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction.

6. In 2019, the Feroz Shah Kotla Cricket Stadium was renamed Arun Jaitley Stadium to honor the former Finance Minister of India.

7. The three islands – Ross Island, Neil Island, and Havelock Island were renamed to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Dweep Island, Shaheed Dweep, and Swaraj Dweep, respectively.

8. Rajpath was renamed ‘Kartavyapath.’ Referred as ‘Kingsway’ during the British rule, Rajpath denotes the boulevard that runs from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, National War Memorial, and National Stadium, Delhi. The renaming took place in 2022, ahead of the inauguration of the Central Vistas project.

9. The iconic Mughal Garden will now be called ‘Amrit Udyan.’ Amrit Udyan means the Garden of Nectar.

Since 2014, the Modi led BJP government has been on a mission to change names to represent the new India. The trend of changing names is not restricted to places only, but also subtle changes that reflect a bigger ideology.

Example- the famous Nehru jacket is no longer known as that, now it is known as the Modi jacket. Changes in the names of policies such as Swachh Bharat (from Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan), Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (from Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana) have also been criticized by many as a means of the Modi Government to make everything about themselves only.

But, the question remains- What’s in a name?

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