India has been on the name changing spree. During last 5 years names of many places, roads and monuments have been changed on the basis of the present names being reminder of colonial era or names being derogatory and names of some places being after some Moghul king who was not positively inclined towards the original inhabitants. Another argument for changing names was to replace those alien names with our own local heroes. Here is a list of some changed names during last 5 years in chronological order.
November 2014
Bangalore became Bangaluru. In all, the names of 12 places in Karnataka changed to reflect original Kannada pronunciation. Mysore became Mysuru and Mangalore became Mangaluru.
August 2015
Aurangzeb road in Delhi became APJ Abdul Kalam road.
October 2015
Rajahmundry was renamed Rajamahendravaram in the honour of 11th century king
April 2016
Gurgaon became Gurugram after Guru Dronacharya of Kauravas of Mahabharata fame. Mewat renamed to Nuh.
May 2016
Bangalore city railway station renamed Krantivira Sangoli Rayanna, 19th century freedom fighter.
September 2016
Race Course road in Delhi renamed Lok Kalyan Marg, giving 7 RCR a new address.
January 2017
Ganda village in Fatehabad district of Haryana renamed Ajit Nagar after a petition to PM by teenager Harpreet Kaur Malkat. Kinnar village changed to Gaibi Nagar. Both previous names had derogatory shades.
July 2017
Odisha’s Wheeler island, home to a missile testing range was renamed APJ Abdul Kalam Island.
September 2017
Kandla port in Gujarat was renamed Deendayal Port to mark the centenary year of Jana Sangha co-founder.
February 2018
Chor Basai in Rajasthan lost Chor. Nachania in Bihar became Kashipur.
July 2018
Mumbai’s Elphinstone Road station named after British governor was renamed Prabhadevi.
August 2018
“Miyon Ka Bara” village in Barmer Rajasthan got new name Mahesh Nagar as residents alleged that due to Muslim sounding name it was hard to get marriage proposals.
August 2018
Mughalsarai junction founded in 1860 and one of the busiest junctions in country renamed as Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya junction.
July 2018
West Bengal assembly passed a resolution to change the state’s name to Bangla. Mamata Banerjee didi found that due to alphabetical pecking order, her bureaucrats were called last at central meetings. With changed name “Bangla” pecking order will be on top almost.
The process continues unabated. Next on the anvil are the names of trains based on the great personalities which belonged to the originating stations.
