There’s still time for Gurgaon to become Gurugram -Governance Now

There’s still time for Gurgaon to become Gurugram

Till centre makes the final call, Gurgaon will have to wait for a new name

GN Bureau | April 13, 2016

#manohar lal khattar #gurugram #gurgaon

Gurgaon, known as the corporate and entertainment hub of NCR, may soon be called as Gurugram. Though the Haryana government approved the long pending demand of the municipal corporation on April 12, an approval from the centre is awaited. Till then, its name will remain the same.

Gurgaon is not the only city whose name has been in question in the past. Many cities such as Bangalore (which is now Bengaluru), Bombay (now Mumbai), Pondicherry (Puducherry) among others, have undergone name change due to various reasons. But there are some who have been escaping this trend all the while.

In 2006, the Assam government had decided to change the state’s name to Asom, after noted writer and former president of Assam Sahitya Sabha, Chandra Prasad Saikia, urged the government to change Assam’s name to its original form – Asom, which was changed to Assam by the British during their rule in India, as they apparently could not pronounce it correctly. The change, however, never saw the light of the day.

Similarly, in 2011, the West Bengal government decided to change the state’s name to PaschimBanga. Wanting to forget Bengal’s tragic history of partition which led to the name of West Bengal, opposing the use of English language and the use of West Bengal as a name only for administrative purposes were some of the reasons the state gave for proposing the name change. But this, too, hung fire.

Meanwhile, the reason for Gurgaon’s name change is this: Apparently, Guru Dronacharya, who was mentioned in the Mahabharata, was given the village as guru dakshina by his students – the Pandavas, and hence it came to be known as Gurugram, but eventually got distorted to Gurgaon in the course of time. The district administration feels that such a move would bring people closer to the place’s rich heritage.

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