The Supreme Court by declining to entertain the PIL on February 27, filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, for examining a question for renaming places of historical and religious importance has missed a golden opportunity to set at right the history of servility and subjugation of its citizens.
By referring to the principle of secularism, the top court's division bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna has sought to turn a blind eye to the core issue.
The court has said the present and future of a country cannot remain a prisoner of the past. The governance of Bharat must conform to "Rule of law, secularism, constitutionalism of which Article 14 stands out as the guarantee of both equality and fairness in the States action".
The moot question, however, remains if these lofty ideals put in our Constitution can really be fructified, if we continue to let the mass majority of people suffer with relics of the bloody past.
Though the court orally agreed to the fact that India has repeatedly been invaded by foreigners, is it not about the time to let scars of the past be healed or rather removed by erasing those memories? Why should country continue to carry on with the names of the looters and plunderers? Is our Constitution meant to pamper a particular section of the society at the cost of a silent mass majority.
Our Constitution is meant to protect and promote Indian religion, language, culture, custom, tradition, history and religious places; not the sign of slavery, created by barbaric foreign invaders.
Even though the Supreme Court has sought to keep itself away by rejecting the prayer made in the PIL, the government can still go ahead the idea of constituting a Renaming Commission to find out original names of ancient historical cultural and religious places, named after barbaric foreign invaders, instead of undertaking the exercise in a piecemeal way.
This is sure to secure Sovereignty, Right to Dignity, Right to Identity, Right to Religion, Right to Culture and Right to Tradition guaranteed under Articles 19, 21, 25 and 29 of the Constitution of India.
This is all the more important as the country is celebrating the 75th anniversary of independence.
Invaders not only renamed the general places but also changed the names of ancient historical cultural religious places.
Examples cited by the petitioner are just tip of the iceberg.
In the national capital Delhi, there are still roads 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.
It is to be noted that 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.
Historical 'Ajatshatru Nagar' was named after the barbaric "Begu and called 'Begusarai'.
Ancient city 'Nalanda Vihar' was named after Conversion Missionary 'Sharifuddin Ahmed' and called 'Bihar Sharif'.
Cultural city 'Dwar Banga' was named after the cruel 'Darbhang Khan' and called 'Darbhanga'.
Religious city 'Haripur' was named after the vicious 'Haji Shamsuddin Shah' and called 'Hajipur'.
'Singhjani' was named after conversion missionary 'Jamal Baba' and called 'Jamalpur'. Vedic city 'Videhpur' was named after the barbarous Muzaffar Khan and called 'Muzaffarpur'. Likewise the historical city 'Karnawati' was named after Ahmad Shah and called 'Ahmedabad'.
For the sake of peace and to avert a disastrous war, Lord Krishna proposed that if Kauravas gives only 5 villages viz Indraprastha (Delhi), Swarnprastha (Sonipat), Panprastha (Panipat), Vyaghrprastha (Baghpat) and Tilprastha (Faridabad); the Pandavas wont demand more.
The 'Tilprastha' was named after the brutal invader 'Sheikh Farid' and now called Faridabad.
Jahangir in his autobiography 'Jahangir Nama' had described about how the brutal Sheikh Farid destroyed temples and converted thousands of Hindus, but the government did nothing to change the name of Faridabad.
The historical city 'Bhragnapur' was named after the barbarous Sheikh Burhan-ud-din and called 'Burhanpur'. Religious city 'Narmada Puram' was named after the brutal Hoshang Shah and called 'Hoshangabad'. Cruel Hoshang Shah attacked the city with hundreds of horsemen, elephant riders and a massive army and after the battle, thousands of Hindu women gave their lives to avoid rapes.
Shajapur is named after the barbaric Shahjahan.
Ahmednagar takes its name from the barbaric Ahmad Nizam Shah, who changed Ambikapur after winning the battle against Bahamani forces.
Devgiri came under the control of Sultan Muhammad Bin Tughluq in 1327 and he renamed it Daulatabad. Brutal Tughluq believed "that the Hindus will never be submissive and obedient to the Islam unless reduced to abject poverty" and the trauma of his rule is remembered till date as his generals destroyed hundreds of Hindu temples.
Ancient religious city Dharashiv was named after the barbaric Ohman Ali Khan and called Osmanabad. It is necessary to state that fearing an uprising, the Nizam sanctioned the creation of Razakars (paramilitary wing) and directed them to suppress Hindu uprisings by whatever means possible and then Razakars started ethnic genocide of Hindus.
Razakars went village-to-village to kill rape and kidnap Hindus. They stripped girls clothes and paraded them naked and forced them to dance as a sign of surrender to Islam. Thousands of Hindu women were raped mercilessly after the men shot dead and several villagers jumped into open wells present in agricultural fields to escape the terror and thus Hyderabad (Bhagyanagar) became a Muslim majority province.
The Ancient city Mokalhar was named after Conversion Missionary Baba Farid and called Faridkot. Vedic City 'Virat' was named after cruel Hoshiar Khan and called Hoshiarpur. It is necessary to state that the reference of 'Virat' is found in Mahabharata.
Karimnagar was named after merciless Syed Karimuddin. Mahbubnagar was named after Mir Mahbub Ali Khan. Nizamabad was named after Nizam of Hyderabad. Originally it was Indur and founded by king Indradatta.
Alipore is named after Syed Mir Jafar Ali Khan, the traitor who sold out to Robert Clive and played a crucial role in the British victory at Plassey. Such is the contempt for him in Bengal that even today, the phrase Mir Jafar is synonymous with treachery and betrayal.
Shaktipeeth Kiriteswari was named after the barbaric Murshid Quli Khan who imposed harsher punishments on Hindus and the city is called Murshidabad.
Holy city Harigarh became Aligarh after Najaf Khan won the battle. Ambikanagar became Amroha and Aryamgargh became Azamgarh. Jasnaul is called Bara Banki.
The vedic city Panchal was named after the Farrukhsiyar and called Farrukhabad. Bhitaura became Fatehpur after Ibrahim Shah won the battle. Gajprastha became Ghaziabad after Ghazi-ud-Din won the battle. Ghazipur is named after Sayyad Masood Ghazi, the cruel conqueror who symbolises brutality of idol-hating. Jamadagni Puram was named after Jauna Khan and called Jaunpur. Vindhyachal is Mirzapur and Ramganga Nagar becomes Moradabad.
Lakshmi nagar was named after the barbaric Muzaffar Khan and called Muzaffarnagar. Gomati Nagar was named after Shahjahan and became Shahjahanpur.
There are many municipal wards like Aminabad, Alambagh, Hussainabad, Khurramnagar, Moulviganj, Akbari Gate in Lucknow; Nayabganj, Fazalganj in Kanpur; Shahganj, Sikandra, Tajganj, Fatehabad in Agra; Sadiqpur, Sahibabad, Sehani Khurd in Ghaziabad; Ahmad Road, Muzaffar Nassim Road, Nawab Yusuf Road, Noorullah Road in Prayag Raj; Abdullapur, Ajampur, Alampur, Ahmedpur, Barkapur in Bareilly; Naurangabad, Wajidpur, Masud Nagar, Salempur in Aligarh; Alamgirpur, Alipur, Mustafabad, Nasrullapur, Saidpur Khurd, Salajuddi in Muzaffarnagar; Hussainpura, Itahad Nagar, Mustafabad in Amritsar; Ferozepur Road, Pakhowal road in Ludhiana: Ambabari, Mirza Ismail Road, Khema-Ka-Kuwa, Jinnah Road in Rajasthan; Habib Ganj, Hamidia Road, Hoshangabad Road, Jahangirabad Sultana Road in Madhya Pradesh.
The total number of such villages, wards, towns and cities are around one thousand.
