Gurgaon will now be called Gurugram. The corporate hub, home to some 250 Fortune 500 companies, is being renamed for its perceived epic roots, turning on its head the very concept of a Millennium City of the future.
The name change was announced in Chandigarh by the Manohar Lal Khattar government, which said it was keeping its poll promise. A government spokesperson said Guru Dronacharya, the guru of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata, had his ashram here. Officials in the chief minister's office said the decision to rename Gurgaon was taken following representations from several forums.
The renaming, which is likely to take the sheen off Brand Gurgaon that became a symbol of pride for Corporate India over the past two decades, came in for sharp criticism on social media, with many questioning the rationale behind the move.
But a government spokesperson said, “Gurgaon was a great centre of learning, where the princes were educated. For long, the locals have been demanding that Gurgaon be renamed Gurugram.“
Changing Gurgaon's name to Gurugram, however, does not follow the earlier pattern of renaming cities. When Calcutta became Kolkata, or Bombay Mumbai, or Madras Chennai and Bangalore Bengaluru, all that happened was cities shed their anglicised names and went back to the prevalent vernacular version.
Bengalis, speaking Bangla, anyway called Calcutta Kolkata. Gurgaon, however, was a vernacular name, and the renaming by the BJP government in Haryana seems an attempt to shine the light on a mythical past. The government is ostensibly correcting the deterioration of `Gurugram' to Gurgaon over time. The name Gurgaon is of mythological provenance. It's believed to have been derived from `Guru gram' (village of the teacher) after Guru Dronacharya was gifted this village by his grateful students. Over time, the name got distorted to Gurgaon. The government has, ostensibly , chosen to correct this. Similarly , the name of the minority-dominated Mewat has been changed to Nuh. In 1992, Bhajan Lal, the Haryana chief minister then, had proposed this renaming. Explaining the rationale behind the move, an official said Mewat's renaming is to denote a geographical and cultural unit, not a town. The district headquarters of Mewat, which abuts Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, is also in Nuh town. He said people wanted it to be called Nuh.
Haryana Janhit Congress chief Kuldeep Bishnoi said, “I welcome the decision of the government. My father late Bhajan Lal had proposed this in 1992.“
Congress functionaries said renaming Gurgaon, synonymous with corporate India, won't serve any purpose.Congress spokesman and former Haryana minister Randeep Surjewala said renaming Gurgaon, which has an international branding, is an exercise in pure superficiality.“The BJP government should create essential infrastructure,'' he said.
The name change was announced in Chandigarh by the Manohar Lal Khattar government, which said it was keeping its poll promise. A government spokesperson said Guru Dronacharya, the guru of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata, had his ashram here. Officials in the chief minister's office said the decision to rename Gurgaon was taken following representations from several forums.
The renaming, which is likely to take the sheen off Brand Gurgaon that became a symbol of pride for Corporate India over the past two decades, came in for sharp criticism on social media, with many questioning the rationale behind the move.
But a government spokesperson said, “Gurgaon was a great centre of learning, where the princes were educated. For long, the locals have been demanding that Gurgaon be renamed Gurugram.“
Changing Gurgaon's name to Gurugram, however, does not follow the earlier pattern of renaming cities. When Calcutta became Kolkata, or Bombay Mumbai, or Madras Chennai and Bangalore Bengaluru, all that happened was cities shed their anglicised names and went back to the prevalent vernacular version.
Bengalis, speaking Bangla, anyway called Calcutta Kolkata. Gurgaon, however, was a vernacular name, and the renaming by the BJP government in Haryana seems an attempt to shine the light on a mythical past. The government is ostensibly correcting the deterioration of `Gurugram' to Gurgaon over time. The name Gurgaon is of mythological provenance. It's believed to have been derived from `Guru gram' (village of the teacher) after Guru Dronacharya was gifted this village by his grateful students. Over time, the name got distorted to Gurgaon. The government has, ostensibly , chosen to correct this. Similarly , the name of the minority-dominated Mewat has been changed to Nuh. In 1992, Bhajan Lal, the Haryana chief minister then, had proposed this renaming. Explaining the rationale behind the move, an official said Mewat's renaming is to denote a geographical and cultural unit, not a town. The district headquarters of Mewat, which abuts Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, is also in Nuh town. He said people wanted it to be called Nuh.
Haryana Janhit Congress chief Kuldeep Bishnoi said, “I welcome the decision of the government. My father late Bhajan Lal had proposed this in 1992.“
Congress functionaries said renaming Gurgaon, synonymous with corporate India, won't serve any purpose.Congress spokesman and former Haryana minister Randeep Surjewala said renaming Gurgaon, which has an international branding, is an exercise in pure superficiality.“The BJP government should create essential infrastructure,'' he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment