Tag: British Raj

While this goes on at the Centre, some BJP state governments and many in the larger Sangh parivar have gone on a seemingly unending name-changing spree. Uttar Pradesh has taken the lead, but there are also murmurs about Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and local demands to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad (Maharashtra), and the tempo is sure to pick up. The past is always in the repertoire of identity politics, and legends and leaders consigned to the past tend to find place in the contested terrain of statues and symbols. This is true not only of pre-democratic rulers; in democracies too, the bid to create enduring legacies and leave imprints on public memory form an essential part of the politics of culture. If anything, in the time of selfie-love, the narcissistic impulse to make themselves a part of history is greater for our current democratic rulers. Just as rulers of pre-Independence India, British or Mughals or homegrown, and of various religious persuasions ensured they live for posterity through memory, so do the rulers today want to create new memories. One level of this politics is to attempt to erase parts of our history: by changing Muslim-sounding names or names given by Muslim rulers, the current attempt is to obliterate the history of more than six centuries. The other level at which this politics plays out is the assertion that India is a Hindu’ nation (Hindu, used in the religious sense) and, therefore, the basis of not only history and memory, but also of identity, morality and, hence, politics must be Hindu religious ideas. Of course, the argument begins with the sense of injury that our’ leaders were not adequately memorialised whereas their’ leaders were everywhere. Suhas Palshikar edits the journal Studies in Indian Politics and is co-director of the Lokniti Programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)