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LUCKNOW: The government in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest and most populous states, is making attempts to eradicate Muslim identity by renaming the names of districts and localities with Muslim background.
According to India media, the state government, which is under the second term of radical Hindu monk Yogi Adityanath, is mulling to change the name of 12 such districts and cities. It reported that renaming of 12 districts is under consideration with the state government and soon a proposal might be tabled in the state assembly.
The state government might first consider renaming of Aligarh, Farrukhabad, Badaun, Sultanpur, Ferozabad and Shahjahanpur while the remaining would be looked into later on.
Among the cities that could be renamed is Deoband whose legislator Brijesh Kumar has suggested it to be changed as Deovrind. Deoband is a town in Saharanpur district where the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband, is located and where the Deoband movement began.
It may be mentioned that in its first tenure, the state government had changed the name of Faizabad to Ayodhya and Allahabad to Prayagraj. Besides, it had recommended the union government to rename the Mughalsarai junction as Deendayal Uppadhya, which was accepted.
According to officials in the state government, authorities in Aligarh has sent a proposal of renaming the district as Harigarh or Aryagarh. The demand to rename Aligarh as Harigarh was first raised by Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad in 2015.
A similar demand has been raised from Sultanpur district also to rename it as Kushbhawanpur. Former BJP legislator of Sultanpur, Deomani Diwedi was the first one to raise his voice for it.
The former legislator of Gazipur had demanding renaming of district as Gadhipuri while the CM Yogi himself had stated during the election campaign that Badaun district be known as Vedmau.
Also in the previous tenure of Yogi, the proposal to change the name of Ferozabad district to Chandranagar and Shahjahanpur to Shajipur was mooted. In August last year, local authorities Mainpuri district had asked the state govt to rename it as Mayanpuri. The demand to rename Agra as Agravan is decades old.
The officials in the state government said that to rename any district a proposal is to be tabled in the assembly after whose clearance it would be sent to the Centre. In the coming session of UP assembly, few such proposals might come.
