Aligarh: Noted historian Professor Irfan Habib on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party should change the name of its president Amit Shah as his surname is of Persian origin. Professor Habib’s statement adds spice to the ongoing political controversy over the renaming spree kicked off by the BJP.
Speaking to ANI, Professor Habib said: “This penchant for changing names is a part of their Hindutva ideology, which clearly says that there will be no Islamic names for cities. Shah is a Persian word. And it is not derived from Sanskrit. They should first change his name before renaming cities.” Even some of the BJP allies have made similar suggestions. A minister from Uttar Pradesh has been spoken out against renaming, alleging that BJP is diverting attention from the needs of oppressed sections of society.
“They (the BJP) have a national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain, union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Uttar Pradesh minister Mohsin Raza. They should change their names first,” said minister Om Prakash Rajbhar – the chief of SBSP — whose boss, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has changed the names of Allahabad, Faizabad and Mughalsarai over the last weeks.
Talking about the history behind the names of Allahabad and Ahmedabad, the noted historian said, “The city of Ahmedabad was founded by Ahmed Shah of Gujarat. Before that, there was a nearby city called Karnavati. There is no connection between these two. Similarly, when Akbar constructed a fort, it was called ‘Illahabas’. In both Hindi and Urdu, it became ‘Illahabad’. When the Britishers came (to India), it was called Allahabad. Prayag is a different thing. It denotes the confluence of rivers, which is ‘Sangam’. Changing the name from Allahabad to Prayag is wrong.”
Continuing his tirade against the BJP, Prof Habib underlined that the name changing is an attempt to separate the culture of the minorities. “You cannot jump from ancient to modern (age) and that too contemporary,’’ says Heramb Chaturvedi, professor of medieval and modern history at the Allahabad University. “You can’t move from 8th Century to 21st Century directly. The interceding centuries have to be taken into account. You have to talk in terms of development of human society,” he added.