Our urban spaces need renewal, not new names

Source: The post is based on the article “Our urban spaces need renewal, not new names” published in the Livemint on 9^th September 2022.

Syllabus: GS 2 – Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Relevance: About renaming Rajpath as Kartavya Path.

News: As part of the Central Vista’s makeover, the Government of India has decided to rename the historic Rajpath and Central Vista lawns in the national capital as ‘Kartavya Path’.

What is the reason behind renaming Rajpath as Kartavya Path?

After Independence, Kingsway was named Rajpath and Queensway was renamed Janpath. Renaming is a reminder that public service is about “duties and not the right to rule”.

What are the reasons for renaming places after Independence?

1) Bombay to Mumbai, Calcutta to Kolkata and Bangalore to Bengaluru are just a few examples of name switches. Many of these were driven by a need to assert a linguistic identity, 2) More recently, the renaming of Allahabad and Aurangabad, among others were renamed to change the nomenclature from Medival India.

What are the concerns in renaming the Rajpath as Kartavya Path and other name changes?

1) The recent renaming of Rajpath underlines the citizen’s duty to the state, but not the state’s duty to uphold the rights of our people, 2) All the name change costs public money, from revisions in signage to official documents and assorted data sets, 3) It might end up dividing people also, 4) The cost-benefit ratio of such name changes is usually dismal, 5) The original names of places have long been enmeshed in our poetry, music and culture. Renaming them will hamper those experiences, 6) The persistence of people’s memory makes many of these changes irrelevant. For example, Delhi’s Connaught Place was sought to be called Rajiv Chowk but is referred to as such only officially.

What should be done?

The urban landscape at present needs substantive improvement to avoid frequent urban floods that disrupt urban life, other issues associated with civic systems and better urban planning. The government has to focus on these issues.