I was born in Muttra and while my grandparents were bringing me up, Mummy was studying in Benares before she moved to Allahabad to join my two Mamas. After Rajasthan High Court was formed, we moved to Jeypore where I did my major schooling. Deciding to join the NDA, I went to Bangalore for an interview and got selected. NDA was in a town near Poona and on successful completion of training, I joined the Navy in Bombay. On to Cochin near Trivandrum and Alleppey. Before retirement, Navy would take me to Vizagapatam, Madras, Ootacamund, Calcutta, etc.
If you wish to see these places on the map, please do so. Or no, don't. They don't exist! Instead, look for Mathura, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Udagamandalam and Kolkata.
One of the first English records Vinnie Mama brought home back in the '50s after joining the Navy was "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by The Four Lads. Its lyrics say it all-
"Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople.....
Every gal in Constantinople lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
So if you've a date in Constantinople, she'll be waiting in Istanbul.....
Why did Constantinople get the works,
That's nobody's business but the Turks."
I loved the songs and its humorous lyrics used to delight me as I wondered along the lines, "Why did Constantinople get the works?"
And now it's happened in India and is no laughing matter!
It started with changing spellings. That was quite appropriate as the haw-haw British spelt names based on their Oxford accent. So it was nice when 'Muttra' was changed to 'Mathura', 'Jeypore' became simply 'Jaipur', 'Cawnpore' was spelt as 'Kanpur' and 'Jubbalpore' as 'Jabalpur'.
Then followed change of names to align with traditional ethnic pronunciation. So 'Orissa' was changed to 'Odisha', 'Pondicherry' to 'Puducherry' and 'Benares' to 'Varanasi'.
The same logic was applied in changing 'Bangalore' and 'Mysore' to 'Bengaluru' and 'Mysuru', 'Alleppey' and 'Calicut' to 'Alappuzha' and 'Kozikhode', 'Trivandrum' to 'Thiruvananthapuram', 'Ootacamund' to 'Udagamandalam' and 'Vizagapatam' to 'Vishakhapatnam' though people still refer to the last two as 'Ooty' and 'Vizag'. And 'Bombay' was changed to 'Mumbai', 'Poona' to 'Pune', Cochin' to 'Kochi', 'Calcutta' to 'Kolkata' and 'Baroda' to 'Vadodara'.
The net was widened further with the stated object of shedding colonial and Moghul legacy and assert our own linguistic and cultural identity by giving the name an historical, religious or political significance. So the names changed to completely new ones; Allahabad became Prayagraj, Faizabad is now Ayodhya, Ahmednagar is Ahilyanagar, Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhal Nagar, Osmanabad to Dharashiv and Madras to Chennai.
Some changes are not that simple to explain. Why was it necessary to change Uttaranchal to Uttarakhand or Gurgaon to Gurugram? Poona which had already been changed to Pune is now being reconsidered for a change to Jijapur. And there is a long list of proposals for other changes particularly from Uttar Pradesh, eg, Aligarh to Harigarh.
Surprisingly, Lucknow remains unchanged so far despite being a clear candidate for correction as the present name is quite obviously a British mispronunciation of the city believed to be named after Laxman, Lord Ram's brother.
Lately, there is a clamour to rename Delhi as Indraprastha. If that happens, names of all the Indian cities I have spent my life in would have changed and make me wonder if I have lived in a fictional Cuckooland which does not exist!
Oh yes, a city I have lived in that hasn't changed its name is Singapore. Singaporeans are quite comfortable with their country and city state's name no matter if it has a Sanskrit origin and named by the British. They are equally at ease with the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of contemporary Singapore, prominently located at the historic landing site on the north bank of Singapore River. And right in the centre of the city's business district is the famous Raffles Place.
Singapore ranks at best as the 176th largest country or 20th smallest in the world. It does not appear to be worried in the least about its past history and legacy causing a colonial or slavery mindset. Ask any Singaporean Indian or Chinese of his origins and he will proudly tell you that he is only a Singaporean. Among Singapore's popular patriotic songs sung during National Day celebrations are "Count on me, Singapore", "Stand Up for Singapore" and "We Are Singapore", all sung in English.
India is the largest country in the world by population, fourth by economy and seventh by area. After nearly eighty years of independence, should we really harbour any sense of insecurity about colonial or slavery mindset?
