Days after the Mughal Garden in New Delhi was renamed as Amrit Udyan, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in Supreme Court seeking directions to the Central government to constitute a ‘Renaming Commission’ to find out and restore the original names of ancient historical, cultural and religious places which were changed by foreign invaders.
The PIL was filed by Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, who asked the Supreme Court to issue an appropriate directive to the Home Ministry to form a “Renaming Commission” to determine the original names of “ancient historical cultural religious places” in order to protect the sovereignty and secure the “Right to Dignity, Right to Religion, and Right to Culture” guaranteed by Articles 21, 25, and 29 of the Indian Constitution.
According to the PIL, while the Mughal Garden in Rashtrapati Bhawan was recently renamed as Amrit Udyan, the government has not renamed a large number of roads named after invaders. It states several examples 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 petition points out that houses of Cabinet Ministers, Parliamentarians and the Hon’ble Judges are located on these roads.
“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,” the PIL states. It says that we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of independence but there are many ancient historical cultural religious places in the name of brutal foreign invaders, their servants, and family members.
The PIL also seeks that apart from directing the home ministry, the court can also direct the Archaeological Survey of India to research and publish the initial names of ancient historical cultural religious places.
‘Not one road named after Pandavas but many after foreign invaders’
Citing names of the prominent persons of the Mahabharat era, the PIL states that “injury to the citizens is extremely large” as Pandavas who converted a deserted land of Khandavprastha into Indraprastha do not have a single road, municipal ward, Assembly Constituency named after Lord Krishna, Balram, the five Pandavas, Draupadi, Kunti, and Abhimanyu. But many such places have been named after barbaric foreign invaders. The PIL contended that this infringes the rights to dignity, religion, and culture protected by Articles 21, 25, and 29 of the Indian Constitution in addition to being against Indian sovereignty.
Places that were renamed
The petitioner has also listed several names of places that were renamed by invaders such as “Ajatshatru Nagar was named after the barbaric “Begu” and called ‘Begusarai’. The ancient city ‘Nalanda Vihar’ was named after Conversion Missionary ‘Sharifuddin Ahmed’ and called ‘Bihar Sharif’. The cultural city ‘Dwar Banga’ was named after the cruel ‘Darbhang Khan’ and called ‘Darbhanga’. The religious city ‘Haripur’ was named after the vicious ‘Haji Shamsuddin Shah’ and called ‘Hajipur’. ‘Singhjani’ was named after conversion missionary ‘Jamal Baba’ and called ‘Jamalpur’. The Vedic city of ‘Videhpur’ was named after the barbarous Muzaffar Khan and called ‘Muzaffarpur’. Likewise, the historical city ‘Karnawati’ was named after Ahmad Shah and called ‘Ahmedabad.”
In addition to this, the petition also mentions the original and altered names of the five villages that Lord Krishna proposed the Kauravas to grant to Pandavas to avert the war. Indraprastha was renamed as Delhi, Swarnprastha as Sonipat, Panprastha as Panipat, Vyaghrprastha as Baghpat, and Tilprastha as Faridabad. The Hindu temples of Tilprastha were destroyed by Sheikh Farid and several Hindus were converted to Islam as mentioned in the Jahangir Nama, however, the government did not rename Faridabad as Tilprastha.
In order to secure the “Right to Know” guaranteed by Article 19 of the Constitution, the petitioner has urged the court to order the Archaeological Survey of India to research and publish the original names of ancient historical-cultural religious sites that were changed by barbaric foreign invaders.
Taking to Twitter Advocated Ashwini Upadhyay informed about the PIL he has filed and wrote, “PIL in Supreme Court to constitute a ‘Renaming Commission’ to find out original names of Ancient Historical Cultural Religious Places named after Barbaric Foreign Invaders in order to maintain ‘Sovereignty’ and to secure Right to Dignity, Right to Religion & Right to Culture.”