In the neighbouring
Andhra Pradesh and some other States - Streets are numbered, eg., 11-6-14 Suryaraopeta, …… Tamil Nadu has names for the Streets. Many
Streets are named after National leaders, local leaders who lived in that place
and more.. there are some names of
British vestige and names which nobody could now understand, why and more so ~ why they
continue to be so.
A few years back,
the then Mayor Mr M Subramaniam mulled a proposal to name 52 Chennai
roads after Tamil scholars. At that
time, it was told that roads and streets named after foreigners would be taken
up by the Corporation during its council meet and a resolution would be sent to
State Govt for renaming. It was a move
to shake the colonial attachment ~ change
British names with the names of Tamil scholars and union leaders. The road identified included : New Farrence
Road, Stephensons Road, Cooks Road, General Collins Road, Frazer Road, Flowers
Road, Millers Road, Pantheon Road,
Whannells Road, Montieth Road, Anderson Road, Moore's Road, Haddows Road,
Greams Road, Binny Road, Patullos Road, Whites Road, Woods Road, West Cott
Road, Murrays Gate Road, ………………….
In Chennai aka
Madras, many roads have been renamed – Mount Road became Anna Salai,
Nungambakkam High road became Uthamar Gandhi Road, Edwards Elliots – Dr
Radhakrishnan Salai, Beach Road – Kamarajar Salai; Pycrofts Road – Bharathiyar
Salai; Wall Tax Road renamed after
Kappal Ottiya Thamizhan (VO Chidambaram Pillai) …… now the decision of NDMC to
name a road after our hon’ble Dr APJ really made happy.
The
news in Indian Express [as also many other media reads] : From a Mughal emperor
to the “Missile Man”, Aurangzeb Road in Lutyens’ Delhi has been renamed as Dr A
P J Abdul Kalam Road in honour of the late President. The New Delhi Municipal
Council (NDMC) took the decision at a meeting Friday, just a month after East
Delhi BJP MP Maheish Girri proposed the move to “correct the mistakes made in
our history”.
On July 31, Girri
wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal,
requesting that the road be renamed. His demand met, Girri said: “Whenever we
remember Aurangzeb, we think about cruelty and torture. We do not want to be
reminded of that. A P J Abdul Kalam, on the other hand, is known for his love
for the nation, his loyalty to the country, his generosity and kindness. We
need to correct the mistakes made in our history.” The proposal was finalised
after a council discussion that lasted a little over 15 minutes with little
dissent. AAP MLA and NDMC member Surinder Singh was among the minority who
questioned the choice of road. Minutes after the NDMC decision, Kejriwal, who
is an NDMC member tweeted, “Congrats. NDMC just now decided to rename Aurangzeb
Road to A P J Abdul Kalam Road.”
On the
other view, happen to read an article in Thewire.in – which tries to mention
minor issues of those living on Aurangzeb Road having to get new letterheads, and postmen
will have to be taught where Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Road is ! . [the postman who
knew Aurangzeb – but not knowing Abdul Kalam- sounds incredulous !!!]
That post questions why Aurangzeb ; and adds that Delhi has a millennium of history, and many place
names go back a long way. New Delhi was designed by British architects and
engineers, and each street had bungalows of a standard design and size, was
lined by a particular species of tree, and as in Britain, was thought to need a
name. In the late 19th century, children
in Britain and in India learned history as political history. The monotony was
relieved by the adjectives—Ivan was ‘the Terrible’, Peter was ‘the Great’. So
in Indian history we had Ashoka and Akbar as ‘Great’. Informed debate should be the material of
history, neither hero stones nor erasure. History teachers may think street
names do not matter. Maybe they do not look at the sky or see the straws in the
wind, concludes the article.
Intellectualism
– it would sound. A search on the web
gives the following info : - Abul Muzaffar Muhi-ud-Din
Muhammad Aurangzeb, imperial title Alamgir ("world-seizer") was the sixth Mughal Emperor and ruled over India,
. His reign lasted for 49 years from 1658 until his death in 1707. Aurangzeb
was a notable expansionist and during his reign, the Mughal Empire temporarily
reached its greatest extent.
Aurangzeb's
policies partly abandoned the legacy of pluralism, which remains a very
controversial aspect of his reign. Rebellions and wars led to the exhaustion of
the imperial Mughal treasury and army. He was a strong-handed authoritarian
ruler, and following his death the expansionary period of the Mughal Empire
came to an end, and centralized control of the empire declined rapidly. He was the third son and sixth child of Shah
Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. His father was a governor of Gujarat at that time. The
four sons of Shah Jahan all held posts as governors during the lifetime of
their father. The emperor favoured the eldest, Dara Shikoh, and this had caused
resentment among the younger three. There were battles and Aurangzeb took control
of the nearby capital of Agra and placed his father under arrest. Aurangzeb
then broke his arrangement with Murad Baksh, which probably had been his
intention all along.
He was known for
executions – the first prominent one was that of his brother Prince Dara Shikoh;
then his allied brother Prince Murad Baksh held for murder, judged and then
executed. He executed Sarmad Kashani a
Sufi mystic of Jewish origins; then Sambhaji the leader of the Maratha
Confederacy. The Sikh leader Guru Tegh
Bahadur was arrested on orders by Aurangzeb, found guilty of blasphemy by a
Qadi's court and executed.
-
Now the road is named
after late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, whom the Nation loved.
Concluding
renaming is not new to Delhi too. The
place once known as Kingsway, is the now famous Rajpath. Likewise, the Motilal Nehru Marg, which
houses the likes of the Chief Minister of Delhi, was once called York Road when
Edwin Lutyens started building New Delhi in 1912. Teen Murti Marg, that houses
the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, was once known as Roberts Road and the
present day Rafi Marg was known during the British Raj as Old Mill Road. Canning Road is now called Madhavrao Scindia
Marg, after the Congress leader who died tragically in 2001, G B Road is known
as Swami Shradhananda Road. The Connaught Place and Connaught Circus have
changed to Rajeev Chowk and Indira Chowk.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
31st Aug
2015.
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