Mutilating history
My town, along with many others, got renamed. Belgaum is now officially Belagaavi1. Excuse me, but I need to puke before I can continue.
The government and the people2, in favor of this, are justifying this by saying that this is how it has always been known in the local language, this is how it is written in our local language, so this is how it should be known as. And that it is being rightfully reversed to its pre-colonial Kannada name.
Whatever happened to our history? Should we now be denying that we ever had a colonial history? In fact, if it weren’t for the British, these places could have easily withered out of existence. It could easily have been Surat3 instead of Mumbai as today’s business capital, Pondicherry4 instead of Chennai, and perhaps, Vishakhapatnam instead of Calcutta.
The British gave these places importance. They acquired metropolitan status because they raised them to that stature, by making it their own strategic key locations in business, trade and in defense.
Digression: I had such a problem remembering Constantinople’s other name Istanbul renamed by Turks, in my history books, while reading about the European trade routes to the ancient India. I continue to have trouble remembering new street names, for example, even if they have been recently changed within the last 20 years or so.
Reversing to pre-colonial names is stripping history, denying that it happened. If they were really interested in restoring historic names, they should have restored it all the way back to one name: Venugram, the bamboo village, as it was originally known as.
This half-cooked attempt in making it sound more local interprets idiocy. People and the government fail to realize the gash they’re leaving in the timeline of a place’s history. This will only lead to confusion and an eventual loss of its rich heritage through the sands of time.
Anyone can misuse power when given, as the government of Karnataka is doing5, for the sake of vote banks, trying to make us believe that the government is really doing something that we will be proud of. On the contrary, they are, in fact, doing it with such a force that it will render pagerank6 of this place to null.
As everyone else has been saying, we could do well with better infrastructure, better and decent livelihood for its people, instead of wrecking a mindless havoc such as this, and losing its very identity in the process.
History is not erased, but the route back is made a little harder to read, learn, appreciate and go forward, with these unnecessary twists and turns.
- There is just one problem though. The name Belagaavi has never been used except in Kannada script. At worst, it has been called Belgaon or Belagaon, in spoken language. No local Kannadiga calls it Belagaavi. [←]
- It is as much sad and surprising to note that people favoring this can be so indifferent, or worse, in favor of this change. The only conclusion is that they don’t realize the repercussions they’re giving in to. [←]
- Surat was the most favored and flourishing trade port at the time. The very fact that it was chosen for multiple attacks by the great maratha king to fill his ailing coffers tells this clearly. Because it was prone to Maratha attacks, the British moved their business to Bombay. [←]
- Pondy could have easily replaced Madras if it were not primarily a French strong colony. [←]
- Thanks the precedence set by state Governments in letting Bombay be renamed as Mumbai, Madras as Chennai and Calcutta as Kolkata. [←]
- Using the web analogy for a place as in a page on the web. [←]