The move was said to be the result of a slanted view of history, but in the times to follow, the exercise became a recurrent tool to assert power and supremacy.
In 2016, Race Course Road, known for housing the Prime Minister, was renamed to Lok Kalyan Marg in September 2016. New Delhi Municipal Corporation member and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Meenakshi Lekhi said the former name did not “match with Indian culture”.
An earlier suggestion was "Ekatma Marg," proposed by Lekhi.
Ekatma Manavvad or Integral Humanism is a philosophy associated with Deendayal Upadhyaya, chief of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh from 1953 to 1968, who rejected both communism and capitalism.
In February 2017, another name change followed. Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of British India in the mid-19th Century, lost a stretch of road in Central Delhi to Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.
The name of Dalhousie Road was changed to Dara Shikoh Road, making it the third Lutyens’ Delhi road to be renamed in about a year-and-a-half.
The move was said to honour Dara Shikoh for “bringing Hindus and Muslims together”.
In July 2018, Mumbai's Elphinstone Road Station, named after Lord Elphinstone who was the then Governor of Bombay from 1853 to 1860, was renamed to Prabhadevi.
Removing Islamic References
Changing names of cities, railway stations, colleges and roads has become the top precedence for the current government while burning issues like infrastructural development, education, healthcare and safety have taken a backseat.
Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government is topping the charts in changing names of historic cities. With 2019 Lok Sabha Elections around the corner, Yogi is the man on a mission. Clearly, the renaming binge in Uttar Pradesh is an attempt to remove the Islamic touch to names of cities. The Yogi government has already named Mughalsarai city and railway junction after the name of BJP ideologue Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. Allahabad has been renamed to Prayagraj and Faizabad is now Ayodhaya.
There’s a demand to change the name of Aligarh as Harigarh. BJP leaders in Aligarh have been seen riding on vehicles having Harigarh written on them.
Last year, Ardh Kumbh was renamed Kumbh and Kumbh as Maha Kumbh.
The change removes references to the city’s historical Mughal-era rule, with the area named Allahabad by the Muslim emperor, Akbar, in 1583.
And for critics wondering why even bother, the chief minister had quite the justification. “Some said what is there in the name,” he said while defending his Prayagraj re-labelling. “So, I said why didn’t their parents name them ‘Raavan’ and ‘Duryodhana’ in that case? In this country, the name holds a lot of significance.”