Digging Deeper | Name Change: The Name of the Game in Uttar Pradesh

“Ayodhya is a symbol of our aan, baan aur shaan,” said Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mr. Adityanath recently when he announced the decision to rename Faizabad to Ayodhya. You’ve got to start with the basics – whose aan baan and shaan, Yogiji? The nation wants to know.

Mughalsarai train station is now Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay station. Allahabad is Prayagraj. In 1998, he went on a renaming spree in his constituency of Gorakhpur. The former head of the Gorakhnath Temple took his naamkaran duties more diligently than the duties he was elected to perform – Ali Nagar became Arya Nagar, Humayun Nagar was made to take a leap of faith to Hanuman Nagar, Islampur was christened Ishwarpur, and Urdu Bazaar went from left to right as Hindi Bazar.

Recently, the branding maestro proclaimed that if required he would not hesitate to change Taj Mahal to Ram Mahal. (One is certain he meant Ram Mandir, but one is getting ahead of oneself.) Mr Adityanath has even gone where Ambedkar has been – a first for the man, we are certain – the Constitution of India! He has proposed that Article 1 of the Constitution be amended to replace the word India with ‘Hindustan’.

‘Thugs of Hindustan,’ out and about, wanting to guide you along and drop a pin on every map there is of the country. (We mean the film, naturally. Have you seen it yet?)

Raam Raam! (Which by the way is what Adityanath wants to call the airport in Ayodhya – smooth landings ahead for the Pushpak Vimaan. Naturally, Air Traffic Control will have to relax their No Birds rule – where will Garuda land?! Duh.)

Move over Vilas Shekharpur (that’s Yogi for William Shakespeare), there’s a lot in a name. And that’s we will get into on this edition of Digging Deeper. My name is Rakesh (Adityanath approves, I have a feeling), and you are listening to Moneycontrol.