Renaming Allahabad as Prayagraj isn’t really about restoring its lost glory

Here we go again. Although no survey shows the renaming of roads, cities, airports, institutions etc as a priority among the citizenry, politicians are quite addicted to this exercise. The latest is that Uttar Pradesh CM Adityanath wants to rename Allahabad as Prayagraj.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has promptly criticized the renaming as an Adityanath government substitute for actually working. Congress has opposed it as the dilution of the city’s associations with the independence movement. Both parties are right to see in the renaming, also being presented as the removal of ‘Akbari ki nishani’, BJP calculations to milk Hindutva mileage ahead of Lok Sabha elections. What weakens their attack, however, is the extravagance with which they too have practised the vain art of naming and renaming when in power.

Supporters claim that the city has been mentioned as Prayag in ‘ancient sacred texts’ and has been known as such for ‘ages’. For all those who instead focus on Allahabad’s history over recent centuries and decades, what is more, germane is how its glory has waned. Restoring this needs the cleaning of the mighty Ganga-Jamuna that have their ‘sangam’ here, conservation of its landmark monuments, creation of jobs, upgradation of its courts, refurbishing of the venerable Allahabad University…. Renaming the city is a red herring.