Shahnama: ‘Will the BJP now rename it’s chief Amit Shah and Muslim members?’

With over 50,000 couplets, celebrated Persian poet Abu Al-Qasim Firdausi wrote Shahnama, which means Book of Kings, an epic poem in 1010. A new Shahnama rather in prose format is being written in democratic India in 2018 on Twitter.

Padma Bhushan historian Irfan Habib has triggered a fresh debate over the ongoing name-change drive wherein Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is changing the Muslim names of historic cities, roads and significant public places to those with Hindu associations. On Sunday, Habib suggested that before renaming cities, the BJP should change the name of its president, Amit Shah, because his surname is of Persian origin.

“Shah is a Farsi word, not Sanskrit. If they have to change names, they should change their own names first, and then change the names of cities,” Habib, a professor emeritus with Aligarh Muslim University, said reacting to the BJP’s name changing spree.

Surnames like Munshi and Majumdar too have Islamic origins and were used by the Afghan Muslims, the 87 year old historian claimed and added that “even the term Gujarat itself has Persian roots. It was called Gurjaratra earlier. They should also change it.”

“The Shah Muslims had arrived in India with migrants from north Afghanistan a few centuries after the arrival of the Kushans,” Habib told The Telegraph, adding that: “Shah was also used as a surname by the Iranians at the time. All I am trying to say is that there was no trace of the Shah surname in India before the arrival of Muslims here.”

“We all know that it (the renaming drive) is an election gimmick by the BJP. My only insertion is that Shah is a Muslim surname and a Persian word.”

Endorsing his views, many Twitter users have been calling the bluff on BJP and slamming the party for playing communal politics for electoral gains. Some users reminded BJP that even words like Hindi, Hindu and Hindostan too have Persian or Farsi connection, wondering if the party was going to change these words as well. Here’s a collection of some tweets:

On the other side, many rightwingers have been lampooning Habib for his remarks. Some users have even claimed that “Shah is derived from a Sanskrit word which means sadhu”. However, Sanskrit scholars have outrightly rejected the analogy, maintaining that surname Shah had nothing to do with Sanskrit.

Notably, the BJP is on a name changing spree since it came to power in 2014. Aurangzeb Road was named after former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in 2015. The same year, Union Minister VK Singh wrote to the government, suggesting that Akbar Road or any other road in Lutyen's Delhi be named after Maharana Pratap, the iconic Rajput king.

Earlier in August this year, Amit Shah had inaugurated Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Railway Station, which was formerly known as Mughalsarai junction, in the presence of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

In the same month, Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan rechristened some villages with Muslim-sounding names to Hindu-sounding names ahead of the state assembly polls.

Similarly, the name of Faizabad was changed to Ayodhya last week. Allahabad has been renamed Prayagraj and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has indicated that the name of Ahmedabad will also be changed to Karnavati before the 2019 elections.

BJP MLA from Sardhana Assembly constituency in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh—who is one of the accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots cases— Sangeet Singh Som on Friday had declared that the state government would soon change the names of many cities. He proclaimed that Muzaffarnagar will be soon renamed as Lakshmi Nagar.

“All I want to say is that Mughals have worked to destroy our culture, especially destroy Hindutva. We are just trying to save the culture. BJP would move forward in this direction,” he was quoted as saying.

Also, there are calls to change the name of Agra—city of Taj Mahal and the country best-known tourist destination—to Agravan or Agrawal.

Ironically, on Saturday, one of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s ministers and allies, Om Prakash Rajbhar, had dared BJP to first change the names of its frontline Muslim members like Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain.