The Modi Government, in a rush to “change everything”, now plans to junk even Delhi’s historical name for no obvious pressing reason.
If the move goes through, New Delhi will be rechristened as the “Imperial City of Delhi”, and Old Delhi as the “Imperial City of Shahjehnabad”. And, it will have not one, but two names. One for Lutyens’ New Delhi (home to ministers, senior civil servants, diplomats, and fashionable hotels), and another for the 400-year-old Mughal-era walled city that generations of Delhiites grew up calling Old Delhi.
Of course, Delhi is not the first city facing the threat of an abrupt name-change. It will join a long list of major cities — Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune — which have been renamed for various reasons. But renaming the national Capital is in a different league altogether.
