Where renaming is the name of the game – Hindustan Times

Mumbai: What’s in a name, you ask. In Mumbai at least, plenty. Over the years, this city’s roads and crossroads have been named and renamed in keeping with changing regimes and icons; sometimes on account of national and regional pride and sometimes for a fistful of cash. If there’s one thing that has remained constant in the nomenclature game, however, it’s that the renaming has not made a jot of difference to Mumbaikars who continue to use the British era names.

According to city historian Deepak Rao, the renaming of roads first started in the 1950s, a time when huge plots of land belonged to the Bombay Municipal Corporation (later renamed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation). The tradition of renaming roads started then, mainly to shake off the remnants of the colonial era.

“The system of renaming roads started mainly in South Bombay, where a councillor had to put up in one sentence why the name of the road should be changed, and the proposal was put up in the council and passed. This happened approximately post-1956,” said Rao. One of the first roads to be renamed was Queens Road, which became Maharishi Karve Marg on the death of eminent reformist Dhondo Keshav ‘Maharishi’ Karve.

Possibly the earliest road to be renamed according to Rao happened even before Independence. The stretch from Metro Cinema to Flora Fountain, he said, was Esplanade Road but it was named Mahatma Gandhi Road in 1946. The British had no objection.

“In suburbs like Dadar, where there were road numbers rather than names, these numbers gradually changed to somebody’s name,” said Rao. “The major change came in Colaba. Earlier the road was called ‘Colaba Road’ from the end of Colaba till Regal up to Hanuman Mandir and ‘Colaba Causeway’ from Cusrow Baug to Regal cinema. “One fine day, the BMC removed five names in one stroke and named the whole road going up to Fort Market Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg.”

So, didn’t this rechristening of roads over the decades result in them losing their historical value? “Well, old-timers still call it Colaba Causeway though the new generation calls it Colaba,” said Rao. “All the old names are fresh in the mind. Princess Street is still called Princess Street rather than Shamaldas Gandhi Marg. Or take Queens Road. Even cab drivers still know it by that name—if you say ‘Maharishi Karve Marg, they’ll give you a blank look. My postal address is still ‘99 Queens Road’ and the mail reaches me.”

Rao said there were reasons the old names persisted in memory. “Lamington Road isn’t called D B Marg, because the charm of the old name still remains,” he said. “Some of the obscure new names that have been thrust upon us don’t stick.”

The naming and renaming of roads is today bereft of good sense and responsibility. “There’s a road near Cathedral and John Connon school in Fort which has been named after a matka gambler,” said Rao, who was wary about stating the name since the last time he did that, a morcha was taken out by the aficionados of the gambler. “Again, there are some roads in this city named after people who had never seen Mumbai in their life.”

Other than roads, there are chowks or crossroads which can be purchased today, said Rao. “If I spend ₹5 lakh and request a corporator, I can get a chowk or even space between two buildings named after me,” he said. “Local chaps want their fathers’ and grandfathers’ names for chowks and buy them.

“A road by any other name will still be the same in terms of collective memory and functionality,” Rao concluded. “Simply changing the name is an exercise in futility. Falkland Road is still called that and not Patthe Bapurao Marg. Grant Road is still called Grant Road, as the name carries a feeling, a memory. As all old names do.”

Hindustan Times delves into the nomenclature history of some roads in Mumbai:

OLD NAME: Girgaum Road

NEW NAME: Jagannath Shankarseth Road

LOCATION: Thakurdwar, Kalbadevi

Jagannath Shankar Murkute (February 10, 1803 – July 31, 1865), the philanthropist who was one of the architects of Mumbai, is better known as Nana Shankarseth. Nana was born into a wealthy family of goldsmiths based in Murbad in Thane district. The family later moved to Girgaum on the street now named after him. Legend has it that the Murkute family was so respected and trusted that Arab and Afghan merchants would keep their treasures with them instead of the banks.

Although not as well-known as the Parsi philanthropists of yore, Nana’s contributions to the city have nevertheless shaped it, especially in the field of education. He founded several educational institutions, including the Native School of Bombay, as well as several other schools, including one for girls. He also co-founded the Bombay Association to represent traders and businessmen, and the Indian Railway Association which later evolved into Central Railways.

Apart from philanthropy, Nana was also active in the field of social work, and his efforts included playing an active role in the eradication of the Sati practice in Bombay. He along with Sir George Birdwood and Dr Bhau Daji Lad, also started work on planned buildings, streets and avenues.

OLD NAME: Harvey Road

NEW NAME: Pandita Ramabai Marg

LOCATION: Gamdevi

Pandita Ramabai (April 23, 1858 – April 5,1922) was a reformist who championed the cause of girls’ education and fought against child marriage. She also advocated admission of women to medical colleges and their appointment as school inspectors, something that created ripples within the British government.

Hoping to be a doctor herself, Ramabai travelled to Britain in 1883, another revolutionary step in those time. However, by this time, she had studied Christianity in depth and got herself as well as her daughter baptised before returning to India in 1888. Subsequently, she started the Sharada Sadan in Girgaum, which worked for the education of girls as well as the upliftment of widows.

Sharada Sadan and Mukti Sadan, another social organisation founded by her, became safe havens for hundreds of children, child widows, orphans and other destitute women affected by the famine of 1890 in Central India. Today, the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission strives to provide housing, education and vocational training for girls and women.

OLD NAME: Haines Road

NEW NAME: Dr E Moses Road

LOCATION: Worli

Dr Elijah Moses Rajpurkar (January 29, 1873 – June 1, 1957) had many firsts to his name. He was the first person from the Indian Jewish community to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree and the first to become a councillor in the Bombay Municipal Corporation in 1920. He was also the only Jewish mayor of Bombay in 1937.

Belonging to a family of eminent academics, Dr Rajpurkar was critical of the education policies of the British government at a time when opposing the ideas of the British was a rarity. For several years, he served as the chairman of the King George V infirmary and Lady Dhunbai Jehangir Home for the Destitute.

According to an account retold by his granddaughter Noreen Daniel in a newsletter of the Indian Jewish Congregation of USA, Dr Rajpurkar set up a tent on the outskirts of Ahmednagar in the early 1900s to attend to patients afflicted with plague. Taking lessons from the plague, he advocated proper burial of all dead bodies and was instrumental in ensuring that burial space was made available to all communities.

His mortal remains were buried in the Jewish cemetery located on the street named after him.

OLD NAME: Lohar Street

NEW NAME: N C Kelkar Road

LOCATION: Dadar West

Narsimha Chintaman ‘Tatyasaheb’ Kelkar (24 August 1872 – 14 October 1947), considered one of the greatest literary minds of his time, was given the title Sahitya Samrat (king of literature). Besides 15,000 writings published in the form of novels, short stories, plays, poems and essays, he also wrote six books on the life of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

After practising as a lawyer for several years in Satara, Kelkar moved to Pune where he became the editor of the newspaper ‘Mahratta’. Twice, when Lokmanya Tilak was in prison, he took over the editorial duties of ‘Kesari’ as well. He continued in this role after the death of Tilak in 1920.

In 1918, he became the president of the Pune municipal council. During his stint in Pune, he also started participating in public life as a politician, getting elected to the legislative assembly as a member of the Swarajya Party in 1923, a position he held on to until 1929. He also participated in the Second Round Table Conference.

Kelkar was a staunch proponent of the non-cooperation movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. He passed away a couple of months after the collective dream of Indian independence had been achieved.

OLD NAME: Hill Road

NEW NAME: Ramdas Nayak Marg

LOCATION: Bandra West

Ramdas Nayak, a popular social worker and BJP leader (1942 – 1994) was an alumnus of St Stanislaus school in Bandra. He was shot dead on by the Dawood Ibrahim gang at the age of 52. He contested the Vidhan Sabha elections three to four times with the BJP, and served as a member of the Maharashtra legislative assembly from Kherwadi constituency in the 1970s. He is best remembered for his 12-year-long private legal battle over the cement scandal, which forced A R Antulay to resign as Maharashtra’s chief minister.