On Friday, the Maharashtra legislature in its winter session at Nagpur unanimously approved a resolution to make a recommendation to the central government to change the name of Elphinstone Road railway station to Prabhadevi.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, as the Bard of Avon wrote in Romeo and Juliet. There is no way to understand how many among the lakhs of commuters using the clogged Western Railway know these oft-quoted lines penned by William Shakespeare, but the Elphinstone Road station, a busy stop on the route may soon be rechristened after Goddess Prabhadevi.
On Friday, the Maharashtra legislature in its winter session at Nagpur unanimously approved a resolution to make a recommendation to the central government to change the name of Elphinstone Road railway station to Prabhadevi.
The station, named after Lord John Elphinstone who was the governor of the then Bombay Presidency, has a huge catchment area of commuters from malls and business centres, which have come up on the lands of now defunct mill lands in Mumbai. Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shewale had asked for the name to be changed to that of the deity, whose 300-year old shrine is located close by.
It also approved resolutions to rename the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Railway Station as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus as a mark of respect for the warrior-king who is credited with creating a welfare state in the 17th Century.
The resolution was tabled in the state legislative assembly by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis amidst thumping of desks and slogans of "Bola Shree Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ki Jai." Fadnavis referred to senior Shiv Sena minister Diwakar Raote and pointed to how he had been following up on the issue for years.
Such demands for renaming, which are a manifestation of identity politics are not new to Maharashtra. In 1978, the then chief minister Sharad Pawar decided to rename the Marathwada University after Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar leading to massive social cleavages between Dalits, largely the Buddhist Dalits and upper castes which also led to riots. The university finally got its new name, albeit with a truncated jurisdiction in 1994.
In the 1980s, Barrister Abdul Rehman Antulay--the only Muslim chief minister of Maharashtra--approved the renaming of the 'Kulaba' district to 'Raigad,' after the fort- capital of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
The erstwhile Shiv Sena- BJP led state government which ruled Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999 renamed Bombay as Mumbai and the domestic and international airport terminals were also rechristened after the warrior-king. The iconic Victoria Terminus was also renamed as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.
The Maharashtra government has also renamed the University of Pune after social reformer Savitribai Phule and early this year, it rechristened the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Yojana (RGJAY) cashless medical insurance scheme after social reformer Mahatma Jotiba Phule. The Railway's decision to rename the new Oshiwara station after a Ram Temple in the vicinity had also caused a minor flutter.
However, this may not be the end of these demands for renaming in our political and social system where caste, iconography, and identity are closely linked.
Various Dalit groups and Republican Party of India (RPI) factions have demanded that the Dadar railway station is renamed as Chaityabhoomi--the memorial of Babasaheb Ambedkar located on the Dadar sea shore. Some other groups want the Mumbai Central station to renamed after Ambedkar. Similar demands have been made to change the name of Girgaum Chowpatty to Swaraj Bhoomi as a mark of respect to Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak who was cremated there.
On its part, the Shiv Sena, which portrays itself as the vanguard of Marathi and Hindu pride, refers to the city of Aurangabad as 'Sambhajinagar' and Osmanabad as 'Dharashiv' with the party faithful also calling the Shivaji Park grounds at Dadar, where it holds its rallies as 'Shiv Teerth.' Elements from the hardline Maratha outfit Sambhaji Brigade also want Pune city to be renamed as 'Jijaunagar' in respect of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's mother Rajmata Jijabai.
Rules and Policies
The policy regarding a change to place names was decided by the government of India in 1953. It mandated that it would be compulsory for states to obtain permission from Ministry of Home Affairs before changing the name of a place. The three aspects to keep in mind according to rules are:
a) unless there is a special reason, a name change is not desirable
b) names having historical connections should not be changed
c) change should not be made purely on the grounds of local patriotism
(Source: Survey of India office)
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 Dept of Science and Technology sends it to the Survey of India (SoI) office.
5- The regional office of the SoI investigates the veracity of the name, its geographical implications and then gives its decision.
6- Once approved by MHA, the state government, and the union government make the changes in the respective gazettes with a notification.
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