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The name game...

The Maharashtra government has modified the name of its Chhatrapati Shivaji airport and railway station, adding ‘Maharaj’ to the Maratha leader’s name, but other, especially new, stations find it hard to settle on a name, given cultural sensitivities, and geographical and political considerations

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Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus
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Old name, Oshiwara. New name, Ram Mandir; old name, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. New name, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. William Shakespeare might have famously asked ‘What’s in a name?’ but try telling that to officials from the home ministry to the railways to the survey offices dotting the country.

According to officials, in a nation with so many states, cultures, languages and historical personalities and interpretations, the request for renaming places, stations, roads and airports is an unending affair.

Of course, much angst has also been expressed nationally about the number of institutions, government programmes and public works that are named or renamed after members of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Speaking to DNA, Pankaj Mishra, Technical Secretary to the Surveyor-General of India said the department receives an average of 20-25 requests annually for renaming existing places. The numbers for naming new railway stations is much higher.

“There are several new lines being built by the Railways across the country, and all these lines obviously have new stations. So we do get a lot of requests for naming these stations,” he said.

The process itself is a protracted one. After all, a change of name can sometimes change just about everything. Explaining the process, Mishra said, “Names are contained in two lists, one called the Central Gazetteer (CG) maintained by the Union government and the other in the state Gazetteer maintained by the respective state governments. The thumb rule is that it is tougher to change names in the Central Gazetteer as the entity might be a very expansive one with a lot of historical value.”

Renaming any entity in the CG means that the final approval must come from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. “The MHA sends it to the Department of Science and Technology under which the Survey of India works. An extensive ground check is conducted wherein the name proposed is verified with old maps, general usage of the name among local populace, its historical significance, etc before a call is taken. Once the change is approved, the name’s ‘transliteration’ (conversion of a text from one script to another) is also suggested by us,” said Mishra.

For naming new railway stations, the Ministry of Railways sends requests directly to the Survey of India officewhich after due diligence forwards the request with its suggestions to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The state in which the railway station is placed has the dominant say in naming a new station. It was this right that was exercised by the state government when it came to renaming the yet-to-be-commissioned Oshiwara station to Ram Mandir station, said officials.

As far as the railway stations are concerned, a somewhat obscure department called the Indian Railway Conference Association (IRCA) also plays a role. Once the name is approved, the IRCA, an organisation in existence since 1903 and which functions out of the annexe office of the Divisional Railway Manager’s Office Complex, Northern Railway in New Delhi, give the station an alphabetical code.

However, as some officials put it, it is also a double-edged sword. “We really do not want a situation where just about all our railway stations and cities are named after political or historical figures with little or no connection to the geographical value of that place. For instance look at what has happened with Kadapa or Cuddapah in Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. A place famous for its blackish limestone- called Cuddapah stone worldwide, has now been submerged into a politically significant entity called the YSR district, named after former Andhra Chief Minister YS Rajashekhar Reddy,” explained a senior bureaucrat.

Speaking to DNA, Subodh Jain, former Member Engineering, Railway Board said it is best not to tinker with names. “The general rule is that the railway station’s name should be true to the geographical details of the area. It is mostly based on the nearest tehsil, or any important government office nearby, or the village through which it passes, or some place with overwhelming historical importance. For example, Abu Road station is a ways from Mount Abu but because the latter has such historical importance, it is only imperative that the station servicing it be called Abu Road. A rule which has been long-standing is that it should not be named after historical figures, though that too has been done post-Independence which is not the best sign,” said Jain.

Commuter Manish Chaturvedi hits the nail on the head on nomenclature. “How does it matter if the name of a station changes but the infrastructure at the station remains just as inadequate. Commuters want facilities, not names. Infact on the ground, people continue to call a station by its old and simpler name rather than the newer more fancy one,” said Chaturvedi.

If William Shakespeare had been  tuned into the political theatre of India, he would have possibly got the answer to his question ‘What’s in a name?’ The answer to that would most likely be: ‘Politics’.

HOW THE NAME CHANGE WORKS

  1. Local authorities or politicians propose a new name for a place or station.
     
  2. The proposal is sent to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
     
  3. The MHA forwards it to the Department of Science and Technology.
     
  4. The Department of Science and Technology sends it to the Survey of India (SoI) office.
     
  5. The Department of Science and Technology sends it to the Survey of India (SoI) office.
     
  6. Once approved by MHA, the state government and the union government make the changes in the respective gazettes with a notification.

A STATION CALLED SEX?

The IRCA gives railway stations an alphabetical code which is used in the official railway timetable.

For example Kolhapur might be now called Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Terminus, but its IRCA-provided alphabetical code remains the old KOP.

Similarly a small narrow gauge station called Seroni Road in North Central Railway’s Jhansi division in Madhya Pradesh has its alphabetical code as SEX.

WHAT’S A TOPONYM?

Geographical names, or toponyms, provide a widely recognised and easily understandable reference to a place or location. They serve a range of purposes, from identification of a location in official documents such as passports and birth certificates, to providing an authoritative reference system for online search tools, web-based interactive mapping, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. They describe our landscape, highlight our multicultural and multilingual heritage, and record the history that shapes our values.

NAME CHANGE OR ATTITUDE CHANGE?

A survey carried out early this year, commissioned by the Environment & Housekeeping Management Directorate of the Railway Board and conducted by Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation through TNS India Pvt. Ltd, showed that people want much more than just change in names.

The survey, covering 407 stations of which 332 were A Category stations and 75 were  A1 Category stations, gave out the 6 most impacting parameters in commuter satisfaction when it came to a railway station. As expected the name of the station didn’t figure anywhere.

a) Absence of stench in the station premises

b) Adequate availability of dustbins

c) Promptness in cleaning of extremes of dirtiness like night-soil /vomit

d) Cleanliness of platform areas

e) Availability & condition of toilets and availability of water in toilets

f) Condition of flooring surface at platforms

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