What's In A Name!

Till yesterday, William Shakespeare’s impregnable impact was felt in the rich literature books but now it hasn’t spared the geography books either. The phrase, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” from Romeo and Juliet which enjoys cult status has been taken a little too seriously by the administrative bodies of our country. Everything in India seems to have a remarkable history, be it rich or controversial. There has been a lot of talk about the changed names of places in India and let us make it clear that all of that talk hasn’t been a healthy one. Be it a Bombay turned Mumbai or a Bangalore turned Bengaluru, none of the older names were tongue twisters to be honest. So what thinking goes into changing the names? As one would expect, the reasons are bountiful. Let’s take a closer look at them.

A few thought that it would be a good idea to shrug off the British legacy in terms of names too. By the time the British left the nation, they had defined a lot of places and their names in the country. According to a survey, a decent group of people in the country wanted a name which was more Indian than anything else. That leaves you startled. A name that has been carried forward for ages becomes a thorn in the eye suddenly. Strange!

Another set felt that it would be a good idea to stick to the Lingua franca, the common language of the common people. Many advocated in favour of the Desi feeling attached to the names but that could only be justified if the name reflected the cultural identity and the aspirations of the inhabitants of the place.  There’s  a  rich  cultural heritage  attached to  almost every  place,  hence  people  believed  that sticking to a particular historical thing of that particular place would bring out a native name. But as we all know, there’s certainly no survey done amongst the people of a particular place to zero down upon a new name. So, how would a changed name really speak the mind and heart of an inhabitant? Strange!

And there is another group which feels the importance of being well positioned in terms of the alphabetical order. Recently, a few assembly members and government officials of states like Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal  put  forth  their stance  on the disadvantages of  being alphabetically challenged. In every government meeting, the delegates of the states get to speak according to the initials of the names of their states. So, quite understandably when a person from West Bengal speaks at the last, many other delegates are done with their speech already and might just have lost interest or apparently walked out of the place as well, leaving the last speaker feeling unimportant. Many would believe that this is an exalted version but that is how the government officials feel. Strange!

Whether the reasons have been looked after or not while changing the names is the most pertinent query. In almost all the cases, it’s been proved to be a thankless job, i.e. it is impossible to please everyone with the change in name. Let us take a look at a few famous changes here.

• Bombay turned into Mumbai: By far the most popular  and glamorous city of the country, Mumbai was not called the name until in 1996 when the government decided to revamp its name after one of the popular deities, Mumbadevi. It took the efforts of the Associated Press to make the name of Mumbai, official and popular when they decided to use the new name in 2006. However, given a consensus is done, Bombay would still give a close fight to Mumbai as many still refer to the city by its old name.

• Madras turned into Chennai: One of the rarest cases among all in the discussion, the new name Chennai is not only nationally accepted but also globally accepted. There is a lot of rumor and hence no certainty on the history of the name but it is believed that Chennai comes from the town Chennappatnam, which in turn was named after the father of one of the early rulers. Madras got its new name the very same year in which Bombay was renamed as Mumbai.

• Calcutta turned into Kolkata: A clear case of removing the Anglicized version, Kolkata was named so in the year 2001. But much prior to this change, the local people always referred to Calcutta as Kolkata in the regional language and hence it wasn’t too tough for the change to be accepted. Although, foreigners who regard Calcutta as one of the finest and largest cities of the world, believe that the older name was the better name and continue to call it so.

• Bangalore turned into Bengaluru: Perhaps the city which faced the maximum flak for the name change, Bengaluru is finding it hard with the youngsters not ready to accept the change. The elder generation believes that it was always Bengaluru and Bangalore was only a cosmetic name while the youngsters feel that the extremely regional feel to the name has damaged the brand image.

The latest change on the block has caused a furore in the country. Yes, we are talking about Paschim Banga. Without an iota of doubt, this change has sparked off maximum speculations since the reasons it showed and the solution it came up with were never in sync with each other. The government officials complained about the alphabetical order and how West Bengal came last in the government meetings. Unfortunately enough, Paschim Banga was never the solution as it only pushed the state up the order by seven positions whereas Bengal or Bangla would have made it fourth on the list.

The argument didn’t end there since many historians didn’t find a clue to why the administrative body had to retain Paschim anyway. A valid argument to this point is if Punjab could exist on either side of the border without adding an “East” or “West” to it, then why would Bengal need a West/Paschim, especially when the other part of the erstwhile Bengal is Bangladesh now. Eventually, neither did it solve their prime concern nor did it help them in any other way.

However, the biggest concern amidst all this is the fact that the name changes are decided over an all-party meeting in a closed room without reaching a consensus with the Aam Janta. Does this really do justice to the billions who are going to accept the change? One wonders!

International changes:                                                                                                        

Kampuchea is now Cambodia
Ceylon is now Sri Lanka
Holland is now The Netherlands
Rhodesia is now Zimbabwe
Peking is now Beijing

Changes in India:
Orissa is now Odisha
Benares is now Varanasi
Baroda is now Vadodara
Pondicherry is now Puducherry
Calicut is now Kozhikode
Panjim is now Panaji

All that the change brings about is a fresh speculation and argument. More useless work for umpteen clerks who bang their heads while updating all the administrative processes. Right from changing the maps to creating new domains, to changing all existing files to tossing out all the present textbooks. On a personal level, all of us who have grown up saying Bombay and West Bengal all these years are seen fumbling and slipping up at times, eventually saying it by force of habit. How did the change help us then?

With name changes being the latest trend.. Ab Dilli (Delhi) dur nahin!

This article was written hours after West Bengal got itself renamed to Paschim Banga.

The Unknown Anna

Both are Gandhians. Both are selfless doers. Both are fighting for causes of colossal magnitude. Both resorted to fasting. Both are ordinary humans. Both are social activists. But one went on to become a National Hero and the other still remains to be just another social activist. Compare them on a couple of pans, put a 12 day fast on one and on the other, an eleven year fast. Of course, the latter is heavier.

Meet Sharmila Chanu, better known as Irom Sharmila Chanu. Born on 14th  March, 1972, none would have imagined it in their wildest of dreams that this lady from the North Eastern belt of India would go on to hold the record for being the World’s longest hunger striker. Her reasons to hold the hunger strike are no meager reasons. It is more than a decade now that she is demanding the Indian Government to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. She blames this Act for creating the amount of insurgence it has in the areas of Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland. This Act was also imposed in Jammu and Kashmir later. This Act entitles the Armed forces with the ultimate authority to use force or fire upon any person, arrest without a warrant and search any premise without any notice during times of emergency in the disturbed areas.

Hell broke loose in Malom, a small town in the Imphal valley on the 2nd  of November back in the year 2000 when ten commoners were shot down at a bus stop by the Assam Rifles (a part of the Indian Paramilitary Forces). Deeply affected by the ruthless incident which otherwise is known as the Malom Massacre, Chanu began her journey of unimaginable struggle, inexplicable pain and intensive torture. Right from the outset, the killing of people based on mere suspicion sounds farcical and that is what Chanu is fighting against. Her fasting has become an epic struggle now and while the law makers and executors should pay heed to it, they instead have pushed her deep into further trouble. Her act of fasting has been looked upon as an attempt to suicide which is unlawful under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. The law has found her guilty on the above grounds and she serves an imprisonment up to one year (with or without fine) every year. Chanu keeps getting released and re-arrested every year which goes to show the indifference of the government towards her. While Chanu hasn’t taken a morsel of food or even a drop of water for more than a decade now, she has been put on nasogastric intubation which force feeds her twice a day with a handful of vitamins and nutrients. There are two sides to this discussion. You may look at it as a method to keep her alive or you may think of it as a cruel way to kill her again and again, every passing moment. But amidst all this, she might just weigh 37 kilos, her body organs might have gone defunct but the fact that she is still fighting on a hospital bed is painfully inspiring enough to create a wave of awakening.

Has her life created a wave of awakening? The answer is a painful NO. When Chanu started off with her fast, she might have never thought that it would take so long. And even after a decade’s fight, her demand longs for fulfillment. Her courage has been awarded with various Global, Bravery and Peace Awards but does that serve her purpose? The answer again is a painful NO. Her struggle got a fresh leash of life in the year 2006 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to amend the Act to ensure it was humane. And that promise is yet to be fulfilled.

Chanu’s life and struggle have been plots of innumerable documentaries, books, debate and a few audacious ones consider it to be a feat to be registered in the books of World Records. Did Chanu ever ask for all this? All that she still wants is justice. All that she still yearns for is respect for the human life which is violated by the AFSPA Act. Simple things are best answered with simplicity but our complex constitution doesn’t seem to believe in it. While the Ramlila Maidan where Anna sat down fasting was enveloped by special security personnel, Chanu on the other hand, is left seeking support. Anna found support from all across the country, including the media, celebrities, top businessmen, high rank officials etc. While the entire nation woke up to the chants of Anna and demanded justice, one wonders why such a step-motherly treatment has been dished out to Chanu. Does this mean that Chanu’s reasons don’t qualify for a hearing? If that is the story, then our country and its law makers really need to draw a line. And here we are not talking about the much hyped Below Poverty Line. The country now needs to draw a line for what deserves justice, which method is legal enough and who is qualified enough to do it?

In a nation where a kid falling into a pit makes news, celebrity break-ups and patch ups make news, Chanu’s story deserves better treatment. Irom Sharmila Chanu is rightly called the Iron Lady of Manipur, for more reasons than one. Her as-strong-as-iron determination and guts is a lesson to be learnt. But more importantly, the biggest question that we need to find an answer to is:

“Who defends the defender?”

This article was written during Anna Hazare's longest hunger strike to move the government to frame the Jan Lokpal Bill.