What is in a name?

 Shakespeare said a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Indian politicians of course have a different take on it.  Calcutta became Kolkata, Madras became Chennai, Bombay became Mumbai and so on so forth.  Occasionally, there will be a demand to change the names of cities with Muslim names.  Of course, it became a reality in UP where Allahabad was renamed Prayagraj.

Shiv Sena, the ruling party of Maharashtra, has recently decided to do away with localities that have caste names. 

Tamilnadu has been ahead in this.  In 1979, MGR, then Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, decided to remove caste surnames from road/street names.  They also decided to remove the honorifics bestowed by the Britishers.  So Sir CV Raman Road became CV Raman Road.  Dr. Rangachari Road became Ranga Road (I do not know why Dr was removed.).  Dr. Nair became Doctor road (Nair being the caste surname had to be removed).  Sir Desikachari and his wife Lady Desikachari each have a road named after them.  Lady Desikachari road became Lady Desika road and Sir Desikachari became Desika Road.  My brother mourns his loss of both Sir and Chari (caste name) in one go.

In Delhi, road names give you a glimpse of the rich history-global as well as Indian.  After the assassination of Olaf Palme, Swedish Prime Minister, one of the roads was named after him.  JNU, of course, stands on Nelson Mandela Marg (Marg = Road in Hindi).  There is Pritiviraj Road named after Prithiviraj Chauhan one of the early Kings of Delhi, Lodhi Road is a nod to the Lodhi kings who ruled, Akbar, Shahajahan, and Arungzeb Roads were named after the Mughal Emperors.  Unfortunately, Aurungzeb is currently persona non grata.  When APJ Abdul Kalam, the erstwhile President of India, died, Aurungzeb Road was renamed as APJ Abdul Kalam Road.  It makes no sense as this road straddles Akbar Road and ShahJahan Road.  There used to be Dupliex Road (nod to the French Governor General) but it got converted to Krishna Menon Marg.  Similarly, Curzon Road, named after Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, got converted to Kasturba Gandhi Marg.   And the biggest idocities of all was to rename Connaught Place and Connaught Circus (named after Duke of Connaught) after Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi by Shiela Dikshit, then Chief Minister of Delhi.  Fortunately, people are smarter.  We simply call it CP.  Then there are road names whose origins are lost in the mists of time.  We have no clue about the origin of Ch, Jhandu Singh Marg.

The best story of road name, however, comes from Kolkata.  At the height of Vietnam war, the Left Government of West Bengal decided to change the name of the road on which the US Consulate stood.  Overnight Harrington Road became Ho Chih Min Sarani (Sarani = Road in Bangla).  Needless to say, the Americans were not amused.