What's in a (re)name? A Hindutva mission to 'update' Ghaziabad to Gajnagar or Harnandi Nagar

Amid growing demands by Hindutva outfits, Ghaziabad is now expected to join the list of places renamed in Uttar Pradesh. The options are: Gajnagar or Harnandi Nagar.

During a board meeting, the town's urban civic body put the renaming on its agenda for 9 January, per a report in the Times of India.

The proposal was tabled by BJP councillor Sanjay Singh on Monday, 8 January. There seems hardly any obstacle for the move as the ruling BJP is enjoying a comfortable majority in the civic body.

Mayor Sunita Dayal meanwhile informed NDTV that there had been requests for renaming Ghaziabad for some time. However, the matter will need to be discussed at the executive level, she said.

According to the NDTV report, in 2020, Yogi Adityanath had even proposed changing the Ghagra river's name to Saryu, which finds mention in ancient Hindu scriptures and is believed to have flowed through Ayodhya.

Calls for renaming various cities and localities have grown ever since Allahabad was renamed 'Prayagraj' in 2018.

Since then, Faizabad district has become Ayodhya, the iconic travellers' landmark Mughalsarai has been changed to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar, Firozabad has become Chandranagar, Mustafabad been renamed Rampur, and most recently, a proposal to revise the name of Aligarh to Harigarh has been passed.