PIL in Supreme Court wants 'renaming commission' for places named by 'foreign invaders'

The PIL urges that the MHA be directed to constitute a renaming commission to find out the original names of historical places that may have been renamed

Days after renaming of Mughal Garden as 'Amrit Udyan', a PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court to direct the Union Home Ministry to set up a “Renaming Commission” to find out original names of ancient historical cultural religious places, called after "foreign invaders".

The plea filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay contended that this was necessary in order to maintain sovereignty and to secure ‘right to dignity, right to religion and right to culture’ guaranteed under Articles 21, 25 and 29 of the Constitution.

The petitioner, giving examples of names of hundreds of such cities, and places, also sought a direction to the Archaeological Survey of India to research and publish the initial names of ancient historical cultural religious places, for securing ‘right to know’ to the citizens under Article 19 of the Constitution.

"Invaders not only renamed the general places but also changed the names of ancient historical cultural religious places, and their continuation after 75 years of Independence is against sovereignty, right to dignity, right to religion and right to culture guaranteed under Articles 21, 25 and 29 of the Constitution. But governments have not taken steps to correct the barbaric act of invaders and injury is continuing," the plea said.

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The petitioner also raised questions of law whether continuing the names of ancient historical cultural religious places, in the names of invaders is against sovereignty and whether the Centre and States are obligated to change the names of ancient historical cultural religious places in their original names.

On January 29, 2023, the Mughal Garden at Rashtrapati Bhawan was renamed as 'Amrit Udyan', "but government did nothing to rename the roads named after invaders like Babur Road, Humayun Road, Akbar Road, Jahangir Road, Shahjahan Road, Bahadur Shah Road, Sher Shah Road, Aurangzeb Road, Tughlak Road, Safdarjung Road, Najaf Khan Road, Jauhar Road, Lodhi Road, Chelmsford Road and Hailey Road etc, the plea said.

"It is necessary to state that the Cabinet Ministers, Parliamentarians and the Judges, who are custodian of the Constitution of India and protector of fundamental rights have the bungalow on these roads," the plea said.

For examples, the petitioner submitted:

*historical 'Ajatshatru Nagar' was named after "Begu and called 'Begusarai'

*Ancient city 'Nalanda Vihar' was named after 'Sharifuddin Ahmed' and called 'Bihar Sharif'.

*Cultural city 'Dwar Banga' was named after 'Darbhang Khan' and called 'Darbhanga'.

*Religious city 'Haripur' was named after 'Haji Shamsuddin Shah' and called 'Hajipur'.

*'Singhjani' was named after 'Jamal Baba' and called 'Jamalpur'.

*Vedic city 'Videhpur' was named after Muzaffar Khan and called 'Muzaffarpur'.

*Historical city 'Karnawati' was named after Ahmad Shah and called 'Ahmedabad'.

*Historical city 'Bhragnapur' was named after Sheikh Burhan-ud-din and called 'Burhanpur'.

*Religious city 'Narmada Puram' was named after Hoshang Shah and called 'Hoshangabad'.

*Shajapur is named after Shahjahan.

*Ahmednagar takes its name from barbaric Ahmad Nizam Shah, who changed Ambikapur after winning the battle against Bahamani forces.

*Devgiri came under the control of Sultan Muhammad Bin Tughluq in 1327 and he renamed it Daulatabad.

*Ancient religious city Dharashiv was named after Ohman Ali Khan and called Osmanabad.

*Ancient city “Mokalhar” was named after Baba Farid and called Faridkot.