It is a relic of colonization that is worth leaving behind. This battle is completely worth fighting. If Ireland officially lists Dublin as Baile Atha Cliath for addresses, the airport, and for international English references, I will use that. This is not about two different languages, but of erasure.
It costs the ex-chequer a lot of money to fund such renames. In the midst of 600,000,000 people living below the income of $2 a day, funding renaming cities to rid of British heritage should be least of India's problems. Such vitriol has never done anyone any good and is a sign of society embroiled in misplaced priorities, imo.
Who made it official? On what authority? The name in English is the name people use in English. Maybe Bengaluru is now the name in Indian Official English?
Until today, if I read something about Bangaluru, I wouldn't even know it's Bangalore.
Should the name India be changed to Hindustan or Bharat as well?
Instead of wasting tax payer money on changing names maybe the govt should focus on actual issues.
So why use a European name, shouldn't it be an "Indian" name.
This is a complicated initiative, but it's clear that most people do not recognize the impact or meaning of a choice like this. It is considered equally hostile and rude to, for example:
- refer to a divorcee by their ex family name after an official name change
- refer to a transgender person by the name they had previously after an official name change
It's up to the individual what their name is, and making a name official is clearly indicating what they would like to be referred to. It really shouldn't be that much trouble for outside entities to respect that.
Many of these cities/towns indeed had pre-British names but for better or for worse, its the British that made them into the cities that they are, for example Calcutta, it was 3 not very notable villages prior to the British.
The argument for renaming will carry a lot more heft if these were notable names prior to the British. In some cases they were but not all.
No I dont agree, I still call Mumbai as Bombay most of the times because that was the city I grew up in.
I think its disrespectful to the people of Bombay/Bangalore that the govt wastes money changing names instead of fixing actual issues
