PLACE NAMES


PLACE NAMES

Since centuries, Districts have been named after the District town itself.
Examples … Nagpur  District  named  after Nagpur town
                      Allahabad  District  named  after Allahabad town
                      Muzaffarpur District named after Muzaffarpur town
                      Patiala  District  named  after Patiala  town
                      Salem  District  named  after Salem town
                     And so on…..

It was easy to place a district or town in our mental map of India. Every child has learned geography in school and she/ he can roughly pin the place geographically where it is in the state. Also you did not have to remember two sets of names, one for the district and one for its district HQ town.

But in the last few decades, politicians have created/ named districts after some bygone person suiting their political agenda. A new district is carved out of a bigger district to facilitate administrative ease and a town falling in the new district named as the HQ. But instead of naming the district as per earlier norms on the new HQ, an altogether new name is given to the district.

Example in U.P
Ambedkarnagar district with district town Akbarpur
GautamBudhNagar with district town  Noida
JyotibaPjuleNagar with district town  Amroha
Kausambhi wirh district town Manjhanpur
PanchsheelNagar with district town Hapur
SantKabirNagar with district town Khalilabad
Mahamayanagar with district town  Hathras
Shravasti with district town  Bhinga
Sonbhadra with district town  Robertsganj
SantRavidasNagar with district town Gyanpur
ChatrapatiSahujiMaharajnagar with district town Gauriganj

Even without creating a new district and having a chance to give it a fancy name, exsiting district names have been changed from earlier names ….
Ramabainagar for  district of Kanpur Dehat
Kansiramnagar for district of  Kasganj
Bhim Nagar for earlier district of Sambhal
Siddarthnagar for earlier district of Naugarh

The malaise is not limited to U.P. alone. Sample these from other states …
Punjab   ---  Sahibzade Ajit Singh Nagar for Mohali
                   Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar for Nawashahr
Andhra Pradesh – Sri PuttiSriramulu Nellore for Nellore
                             Prakasam for Ongole
Bihar -----     Kaimur for Bhabua
Vaishali for Hajipur
Telangana   ---  Yadadri Bhuvanagiri for Bhongiri

The lists above is not exhaustive, but you get the drift. Of course some district names have been different than district HQ for more than 100 years since British time and they are not included here. But creating a district and giving it an obscure name instead of the district HQ town is definitely a political ploy. And U.P. has borne the brunt of such maneuvers.

When district name and its HQ town is same it is easy for the public to remember it. But naming the district on a person definitely points that the government in power at the time has an agenda.

Subsequent government also does not interfere claiming that there is no public outcry against such a thing.
Public outcry definitely has an effect and the government is pushed into reforming it.

Do not confuse what I am saying above with renaming of cities according to what government thinks it was called earlier before the British rule.

Renaming Benaras to Varanasi, Baroda to Vadodara, Cochin to Kochi, Calcutta to Kolkata, Etc

This type of renaming is different from what has been discussed above. It can also be said to be a correction of phonetic spelling of names mis-spelt by the British.

But naming of towns or districts on a particular person (may be of historic or religious importance) is different.

The district if same as the name of the district town, is definitely convenient all around.

Comments

  1. bkpandey21 May 2019 at 19:27

    . . . And if things keep on going like this, it would be wrong to fault a visitor who is oblivious of the historical context, for occassionally confusing the name of the district with the name of the district magistrate. Lol. ;-)

    Good write-up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. phoeniximl28 May 2019 at 18:25

      Rightly said.
      Narrow-minded politicians in their arrogance heap such atrocities on the public

      Delete
  2. nml19 September 2020 at 08:14

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Manju20 September 2020 at 00:14

    Politicians definitely have agendas to show their power. Giving new names may make them feel powerful, but for common public, old names are ok.
    New names with its HQ are confusing, I don't think its easy to remember.🤔

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indra Mani Lal20 September 2020 at 23:04

      Rightly said. Politicians do it for party agenda. Public outrage is missing hence this contibues. Public should protest vehemently, only then politicians shall not do it.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

लपक लो

Image
  Let us consider a couple of scenarios, which all of us have encountered sometime. ========== Me : “ You see, the situation is like …” The Other person : “Wait, I shall tell you what it’s like. The thing is …”. And he goes on to explain the same thing as I had started to tell. The message immediately implies that what I was going to say was incomplete info, and what the “Other Person” has said is clearer. ========== I post some interesting thing in a social media group. The Other Person , a group member, immediately posts several links about it from Google, Wikipedia; plus copy paste from some news site or News article, which tells exactly the same thing as I said. Here also the message immediately implies that what I posted was incomplete info, and what they posted is making it clearer. Courtesy pexels.com ========== There can be several other examples, but you get the drift.           What is meant here by लपक लो is a hijacking of sorts, a hijacking of your th
Read more

INDIAN RESTAURANTS ABROAD

                 Indian cuisine is liked the world over and to cater to the hungry people,   restaurants with Indian sounding names have sprung up all over, even in remote corners where you least expect them. Foreign nationals unless they have been to India or dined at an Indian’s home, hardly know the correct taste of Indian dishes. They do not know any better. This is where the con takes place, with various non-Indians taking   advantage and dishing   out rubbish to unsuspecting foreigners; giving a bad name to Indian food in the bargain. The scam comes to light when   Indians travelling abroad or newly gone to reside there   become homesick for Indian food see a restaurant proclaiming itself as serving ‘Indian food’, visit these ‘Indian’ restaurants   in their outings,   to enjoy the dishes offered. In nearly every case, the food served there does not meet their expectations, and later on they find out that the owners are either Bangladeshi or Pakistani masquerading as ‘Indi
Read more

Towel on the Chair Back

TOWEL on the CHAIR BACK All of us, some time or the other, have had to meet a government officer in his office. One thing we would definitely have not missed noticing, whether the officer is present in the room or away. It could be the Finance, Police, PWD, Electricity, Secretariat or any other. It can be seen across all departments of the government, regardless of their intense rivalry with each other, or contrasting nature of work. What is it ?   It is a white towel spread neatly on the officer’s chair back. Why do they keep it that way ? Here are some answers from Social Media … The most common explanation is, its because of the sweat. Historically AC has not been common in Indian government offices despite the very hot and humid weather. Sitting on an office chair, your back will sweat and the sweat will get into the upholstery of the backrest, and gradually it will start smelling. Placing a towel soaks up the sweat to some extent and prevents this from happening
Read more