PIL in SC wants ‘renaming commission’ for places named after ‘foreign invaders’

PTI, Feb 11, 2023, 5:54 PM IST

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to constitute a ‘renaming commission’ to restore the “original” names of ancient historical, cultural and religious places which were “renamed” by foreign invaders.

While Mughal Garden was recently renamed Amrit Udyan, the government did nothing to rename the roads named after invaders, the PIL said and contended that the continuation of these names is against the sovereignty and other civil rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

The PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay said that alternatively the court may direct the Archaeological Survey of India to research and publish the initial names of ancient historical and cultural religious places, which were renamed by barbaric foreign invaders to secure the Right to Information under the Constitution.

The PIL said, “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”.

Upadhyay in his petition said that the invaders not only renamed the general places but also deliberately 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 religions and right to culture guaranteed under Article 21, 25 and 29.

He said that successive governments have not taken steps to correct the barbaric act of invaders and injury is continuing.

The PIL urges that the Union home ministry be directed to constitute a renaming commission to find out the original names of such places, named after the barbaric foreign invaders.

“The cause of action accrued on January 29, 2023, when Mughal Garden was renamed Amrit Udyan, but the government did nothing to rename the roads named after invaders 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 PIL said.

It said that the injury to the citizens “is extremely large because ‘Pandavas’ with the blessings of Lord Krishna and ‘Balram’, converted ‘Khandavaprastha’ (deserted land) into Indraprastha (Delhi) but there is not even one Road, Municipal Ward, Village or Assembly Constituency in the name of Lord Krishna, Balram, Yudhishthira, Bheema, Arjun, Nakul, Sehdev, Kunti, Draupadi and Abhimanyu”.

“On the other hand, there are roads, municipal wards, village and assembly constituency in the name of barbaric foreign invaders, which is not only against the sovereignty but also violates the right to dignity, right to religion and right to culture guaranteed under Articles 21, 25, 29 of the Constitution”, the PIL said.

Upadhyay made the Centre, all states and Union territories, and the Archaeological Survey of India parties to his petition.

It also sought direction to the Centre and the States to update their websites and records and mention the original names of ancient, historical, cultural and religious places, which have been named after the foreign invaders.