Allahabad will now be known as Prayagraj

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has instigated a programme of Mughal-era name changes in the state. The state cabinet announced yesterday that it had approved the renaming of Allahabad as Prayagraj, which harks back to the city’s ancient appellation, Prayag, before it was changed by Mughal-era rulers in the late 16th century.Prayag in Sanskrit means place for sacrifice, in reference to the Hindu belief that Brahma made his first offering at the area in the city where the Ganges and Yamuna rivers meet.Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh told reporters: “The city used to be known as Prayagraj since the beginning. To those who are opposing the decision, how would you feel if the name your parents gave you was to be changed?” The city, about 650km south-east of New Delhi, is the ancestral home of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which has produced three prime ministers, including the country’s first, Jawarharlal Nehru.It is also the site of one of India’s Kumbh melas – mass Hindu pilgrimages that are considered to be among the world’s largest religious festivals. The most recent was held in the city in 2013 and attended by an estimated 100mn people.Changing Allahabad’s name has been a longstanding demand of Hindu nationalist groups in India which regard the three centuries in which huge areas of the subcontinent were ruled by Mughal dynasties as a period of foreign occupation.The traditional view of Indian leaders has been that the Mughals integrated with the largely Hindu society around them, forging a unique blended culture over time.In the decades since independence in 1947, the country has gradually thrown off British imperial-era names such as Bombay (now Mumbai), Pondicherry (now Puducherry) and Madras (now Chennai).Last year, Mughalsarai Junction railway station in the state was renamed Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction railway station, after a Hindu nationalist thinker and politician.Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma said more names were likely to be changed. “It is the right of the government to rename any city,” he said. “If needed, we will rename more cities and roads. The mistakes done earlier will be rectified.” – Guardian News and Media