Juliet: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose;
By any other name will smell as sweet.
-Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet
The bills for correcting the spelling in the name of the state of Orissa and its language as Odisha and Odia (as these words are written and pronounced in the state), respectively, have been passed in the Rajya Sabha. These have already been passed earlier in the Lok Sabha. The corrections will be effected in the Constitution after the bills get the assent of the President of India.
These are only corrections and not changes as was the case when the names of Madras State and Mysore State were changed to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka respectively. Earlier, ‘Bombay’ State had been renamed as Maharashtra, after Gujarat was separated from it. The new names were only revivals of old names of these States. However, the leaders of Odisha, in their wisdom, opted only for correction in the spelling in English and Hindi, and not going back to the State's ancient names. They had the option of choosing either ‘Utkal’ or ‘Kalinga’. The historic war which saw Emperor Ashoka being transformed from Chandashoka (the violent Ashoka) into Dharmashoka (the spiritual Ashoka) is called Kalinga War. Before the British rulers made Calcutta (now Kolkata) their principal seat of governance, the Bay of Bengal was known as 'Kalinga Sagar. Ever since the State Unit of the Congress Party was formed during pre-independence days, the name of its State Committee has been Utkal Pradesh Congress Committee. In the National Anthem Jana Gana Mana also, the State is referred to as ‘Utkal’. Odisha was the first State (then ‘Province’) in India to be formed on the basis of language. It was separated from the Province of Bihar & Orissa on the 1st of April, 1936. Much before that, both Odisha and Bihar were parts of the Province of Bengal. 1st of April is celebrated in Odisha as ‘Utkal Diwas’. The oldest University of Odisha, set up in 1943, is called Utkal University. The Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya was established by the State Govt. to promote music. A Guest House, Utkal Bhawan, has been set up by Odisha Govt. in Kolkata. The late Biju Pattanaik, one of the builders of post-independence Odisha, established Kalinga Foundation and instituted the the annually awarded 'Kalinga Prize', administered by UNESCO, for popularisation of science. There is a privately-managed and very renowned university called Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) which also runs an Institute called Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) for the children of socially-disadvantaged families. Thus, ‘Utkal’ and ‘Kalinga’ are widely used in the State.
Many countries, especially those which were under British control earlier, have changed their names to revive their old names. Ceylon has become Sri Lanka; Burma has become Myanmar. The names of many cities of the world have been changed. The spelling of ‘Djakarta’ was changed to simple ‘Jakarta’. “Peking’ has become Beijing. Many places in India have shed their names given by the British. ‘Bombay’ has become 'Mumbai'; ‘Madras’ has become 'Chennai'; ‘Calcutta’ has become 'Kolkata'; ‘Panjim’ has become 'Panaji'; 'Trivandrum' has become 'Tiruvanthapuram'; and 'Bangalore' has become 'Bengaluru'. The spelling of ‘Cawnpore’ was changed to the more convenient ‘Kanpur’. ‘Pondicherry’ (a former French colony) has become 'Puducherry'.
When the British came to India, they could not pronounce the names of Indian places; so they called them as per their convenience. A place called ‘Brahmapur’ in Odisha was called ‘Berhampur’; a place with the same name in West Bengal, was called (and is still called) ‘Berhampore’ to avoid confusion. Sometimes, the British created funny names. Till recently, a place called ‘Ali’ in Odisha was spelt as “Aul’! The erstwhile capital of Odisha is still spelt as ‘Cuttack’ although it is pronounced as ‘Katak’. The capital of the State was shifted to Bhubaneswar on the 13th April, 1948.
When many States in India took the initiative in changing their names, West Bengal, while taking steps to change the name of its Capital to ‘Kolkata’, preferred not to shed ‘West’ from its name, even though after Partition and formation of East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh), there is no ‘East Bengal’. Perhaps it has something to do with the fond hope of Bengalis that someday in the distant future, ‘Opar Bangla’ (the Bengal on the other side) will be re-united with ‘Epar Bangla’ (the Bengal of this side) and they will have free access to Ilish machh (hilsa fish) from the river Padma on the other side! There are some people in India who still believe that a time will come when India and Pakistan will forget their mutual animosity and along with Bangladesh, will again become Akhand Bharat (undivided India). I read somewhere that some dreamers hope that one day there will be a United States of India, comprising all the three parts of pre-partition India.
Talking of changing names, one remembers that India is perhaps the only country in the world which has 2 names; 'India' in English and ‘Bharat’ in Hindi. Article 1 of the Constitution of India states, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.” The 269 members of the Constituent Assembly, which framed our Constitution, were learned people, all nationalists and were leaders of our Freedom Movement. In their collective wisdom, they decided to continue the name 'India' in English along with an alternative name in Hindi. Perhaps they wished to continue our association with the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation. It is believed that the name ‘India’ is derived from the name of river ‘Indus’, around which this Civilisation evolved. After partition, the river is now in Pakistan. Or was it that the Members of the Constituent Assembly who framed our Constitution, wished to emphasise that legally, India continued to be the same country and that it was not a new State like Pakistan?
Many people highlight the economic disparity between the rich India and the poor Bharat!
Happy Utkal Diwas to the people of Odisha!
TAIL PIECE
One of the ways of making employees happy without spending anything, is to give them high sounding designations. Salesmen are called 'Sales Executives'; front office staff are called 'Vice Managers'; receptionists at hotels are given the designation of 'First Impression Executives'. The other way is to dilute the high sounding designation of Top Executives to bring them closer to the other employees. In Sahara India, the CMD is called 'Chairman and Managing Worker'.
This has inspired interesting suggestions. Could the Prime Minister be persuaded to change the position into 'Prime People's Minister'? So could be changed the designation of Chief Ministers to more clearly demonstrate where their offices derive power . One can recall what the oxymoronic designation 'People's Princess' bestowed upon the late Princess Diana by a clever Tony Blair did for her image.
In the same way, Chief Secretaries of Govt. could be called 'Chief Public Servants' and the designations of other top Govt. Officers could similarly be realigned to bring them closer to whom they are contracted to 'serve'.
POST SCRIPT
A move is afoot to shed the prefix 'West' from 'West Bengal' and to make the name as simple 'Bengal' or 'Bongo' or 'Bangla' or 'Bongodesh'. In addition to the nonexistence of 'East Bengal', a reason put forward for the name-change is that as the present name begins with W, it comes last in the alphabetically arranged names of the States in India. At inter-State discussions and functions the State's representative gets to speak at the fag end by which time many of the members of the audience have left!
It is said that during British Rule in India, the Maharaja of Ulwar would get frustrated at having to wait for long before he could pay obeisance to the Viceroy and other royalty at durbar meetings in Delhi. His clever Minister suggested that the spelling of the princely State's name be changed to Alwar. When this was done, the alphabetical order of precedence catapulted the Maharaja to the top position!
During partition of India in 1947, Bengal was bifurcated into East and West Bengal and East Bengal became a part of Pakistan. It was re-christened as 'East Pakistan' in 1956. In 1971, it became the independent nation of Bangladesh.
During the current discussion on the choice of a new name for West Bengal a view has emerged that if you are changing the name of the State, you are denying history, Partition being an important part of the history of India and the name 'West Bengal' being associated with it.
However, it may also be remembered that during Partition, Punjab also was bifurcated into East and West Punjab. West Punjab went to Pakistan. When the Princely State of Patiala was merged with India, the area was was called 'Patiala and East Punjab States Union' (PEPSU). During the States Reorganisation in India in 1956, the State was named simple 'Punjab'. Perhaps, the nostalgia of Bengalis and the dream of East Bengal being re-united with its western sister one day, prevented the State being named simple 'Bengal'.
Post Script II
An all-party meeting in West Bengal has decided to change the name of the State to 'Pashimbanga' in all languages. At present the State is called 'West Bengal' in English and 'Paschim Banga' in Bengali and other Indian languages So, Bengalis do not wish to snap the emotional tie with 'Opar Bangla'.
However a question has started being raised: Why does the State persist with a historically outdated western prefix? More so, since the other side has cleverly dumped its classification as an eastern rump (East Bengal) and asserted a monopoly inherent in the name Bangladesh?
If West Bengal's Ministers were greeted with yawns of a dwindling and dozing audience at meetings in New Delhi, just 'Bengal' or, better still, 'Banga' (as mentioned in our National Anthem) would have been a better option. With 'Paschimbanga', they will have to hold their yawns and save their 40 winks till 'P' arrives!
By any other name will smell as sweet.
-Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet
The bills for correcting the spelling in the name of the state of Orissa and its language as Odisha and Odia (as these words are written and pronounced in the state), respectively, have been passed in the Rajya Sabha. These have already been passed earlier in the Lok Sabha. The corrections will be effected in the Constitution after the bills get the assent of the President of India.
These are only corrections and not changes as was the case when the names of Madras State and Mysore State were changed to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka respectively. Earlier, ‘Bombay’ State had been renamed as Maharashtra, after Gujarat was separated from it. The new names were only revivals of old names of these States. However, the leaders of Odisha, in their wisdom, opted only for correction in the spelling in English and Hindi, and not going back to the State's ancient names. They had the option of choosing either ‘Utkal’ or ‘Kalinga’. The historic war which saw Emperor Ashoka being transformed from Chandashoka (the violent Ashoka) into Dharmashoka (the spiritual Ashoka) is called Kalinga War. Before the British rulers made Calcutta (now Kolkata) their principal seat of governance, the Bay of Bengal was known as 'Kalinga Sagar. Ever since the State Unit of the Congress Party was formed during pre-independence days, the name of its State Committee has been Utkal Pradesh Congress Committee. In the National Anthem Jana Gana Mana also, the State is referred to as ‘Utkal’. Odisha was the first State (then ‘Province’) in India to be formed on the basis of language. It was separated from the Province of Bihar & Orissa on the 1st of April, 1936. Much before that, both Odisha and Bihar were parts of the Province of Bengal. 1st of April is celebrated in Odisha as ‘Utkal Diwas’. The oldest University of Odisha, set up in 1943, is called Utkal University. The Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya was established by the State Govt. to promote music. A Guest House, Utkal Bhawan, has been set up by Odisha Govt. in Kolkata. The late Biju Pattanaik, one of the builders of post-independence Odisha, established Kalinga Foundation and instituted the the annually awarded 'Kalinga Prize', administered by UNESCO, for popularisation of science. There is a privately-managed and very renowned university called Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) which also runs an Institute called Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) for the children of socially-disadvantaged families. Thus, ‘Utkal’ and ‘Kalinga’ are widely used in the State.
Many countries, especially those which were under British control earlier, have changed their names to revive their old names. Ceylon has become Sri Lanka; Burma has become Myanmar. The names of many cities of the world have been changed. The spelling of ‘Djakarta’ was changed to simple ‘Jakarta’. “Peking’ has become Beijing. Many places in India have shed their names given by the British. ‘Bombay’ has become 'Mumbai'; ‘Madras’ has become 'Chennai'; ‘Calcutta’ has become 'Kolkata'; ‘Panjim’ has become 'Panaji'; 'Trivandrum' has become 'Tiruvanthapuram'; and 'Bangalore' has become 'Bengaluru'. The spelling of ‘Cawnpore’ was changed to the more convenient ‘Kanpur’. ‘Pondicherry’ (a former French colony) has become 'Puducherry'.
When the British came to India, they could not pronounce the names of Indian places; so they called them as per their convenience. A place called ‘Brahmapur’ in Odisha was called ‘Berhampur’; a place with the same name in West Bengal, was called (and is still called) ‘Berhampore’ to avoid confusion. Sometimes, the British created funny names. Till recently, a place called ‘Ali’ in Odisha was spelt as “Aul’! The erstwhile capital of Odisha is still spelt as ‘Cuttack’ although it is pronounced as ‘Katak’. The capital of the State was shifted to Bhubaneswar on the 13th April, 1948.
When many States in India took the initiative in changing their names, West Bengal, while taking steps to change the name of its Capital to ‘Kolkata’, preferred not to shed ‘West’ from its name, even though after Partition and formation of East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh), there is no ‘East Bengal’. Perhaps it has something to do with the fond hope of Bengalis that someday in the distant future, ‘Opar Bangla’ (the Bengal on the other side) will be re-united with ‘Epar Bangla’ (the Bengal of this side) and they will have free access to Ilish machh (hilsa fish) from the river Padma on the other side! There are some people in India who still believe that a time will come when India and Pakistan will forget their mutual animosity and along with Bangladesh, will again become Akhand Bharat (undivided India). I read somewhere that some dreamers hope that one day there will be a United States of India, comprising all the three parts of pre-partition India.
Talking of changing names, one remembers that India is perhaps the only country in the world which has 2 names; 'India' in English and ‘Bharat’ in Hindi. Article 1 of the Constitution of India states, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.” The 269 members of the Constituent Assembly, which framed our Constitution, were learned people, all nationalists and were leaders of our Freedom Movement. In their collective wisdom, they decided to continue the name 'India' in English along with an alternative name in Hindi. Perhaps they wished to continue our association with the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation. It is believed that the name ‘India’ is derived from the name of river ‘Indus’, around which this Civilisation evolved. After partition, the river is now in Pakistan. Or was it that the Members of the Constituent Assembly who framed our Constitution, wished to emphasise that legally, India continued to be the same country and that it was not a new State like Pakistan?
Many people highlight the economic disparity between the rich India and the poor Bharat!
Happy Utkal Diwas to the people of Odisha!
TAIL PIECE
One of the ways of making employees happy without spending anything, is to give them high sounding designations. Salesmen are called 'Sales Executives'; front office staff are called 'Vice Managers'; receptionists at hotels are given the designation of 'First Impression Executives'. The other way is to dilute the high sounding designation of Top Executives to bring them closer to the other employees. In Sahara India, the CMD is called 'Chairman and Managing Worker'.
This has inspired interesting suggestions. Could the Prime Minister be persuaded to change the position into 'Prime People's Minister'? So could be changed the designation of Chief Ministers to more clearly demonstrate where their offices derive power . One can recall what the oxymoronic designation 'People's Princess' bestowed upon the late Princess Diana by a clever Tony Blair did for her image.
In the same way, Chief Secretaries of Govt. could be called 'Chief Public Servants' and the designations of other top Govt. Officers could similarly be realigned to bring them closer to whom they are contracted to 'serve'.
POST SCRIPT
A move is afoot to shed the prefix 'West' from 'West Bengal' and to make the name as simple 'Bengal' or 'Bongo' or 'Bangla' or 'Bongodesh'. In addition to the nonexistence of 'East Bengal', a reason put forward for the name-change is that as the present name begins with W, it comes last in the alphabetically arranged names of the States in India. At inter-State discussions and functions the State's representative gets to speak at the fag end by which time many of the members of the audience have left!
It is said that during British Rule in India, the Maharaja of Ulwar would get frustrated at having to wait for long before he could pay obeisance to the Viceroy and other royalty at durbar meetings in Delhi. His clever Minister suggested that the spelling of the princely State's name be changed to Alwar. When this was done, the alphabetical order of precedence catapulted the Maharaja to the top position!
During partition of India in 1947, Bengal was bifurcated into East and West Bengal and East Bengal became a part of Pakistan. It was re-christened as 'East Pakistan' in 1956. In 1971, it became the independent nation of Bangladesh.
During the current discussion on the choice of a new name for West Bengal a view has emerged that if you are changing the name of the State, you are denying history, Partition being an important part of the history of India and the name 'West Bengal' being associated with it.
However, it may also be remembered that during Partition, Punjab also was bifurcated into East and West Punjab. West Punjab went to Pakistan. When the Princely State of Patiala was merged with India, the area was was called 'Patiala and East Punjab States Union' (PEPSU). During the States Reorganisation in India in 1956, the State was named simple 'Punjab'. Perhaps, the nostalgia of Bengalis and the dream of East Bengal being re-united with its western sister one day, prevented the State being named simple 'Bengal'.
Post Script II
An all-party meeting in West Bengal has decided to change the name of the State to 'Pashimbanga' in all languages. At present the State is called 'West Bengal' in English and 'Paschim Banga' in Bengali and other Indian languages So, Bengalis do not wish to snap the emotional tie with 'Opar Bangla'.
However a question has started being raised: Why does the State persist with a historically outdated western prefix? More so, since the other side has cleverly dumped its classification as an eastern rump (East Bengal) and asserted a monopoly inherent in the name Bangladesh?
If West Bengal's Ministers were greeted with yawns of a dwindling and dozing audience at meetings in New Delhi, just 'Bengal' or, better still, 'Banga' (as mentioned in our National Anthem) would have been a better option. With 'Paschimbanga', they will have to hold their yawns and save their 40 winks till 'P' arrives!
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