City named after Dronacharya.
Sreekanth A. Nair
Haryana government has renamed the Gurgaon district as Gurugram on Tuesday. The government headed by Manohar Lal Khattar said that the people from the district have been demanding the name change for a long time.
“Haryana is a historic land of the Bhagwat Gita and Gurgaon had been a centre of learning,” a government spokesperson said.
The district website says that the city was named after Guru Dronacharya of the Mahabharata. According to the myth, the disciples of Dronacharya gifted him the village and it was called Gurugram (village of guru).
“It had been known as Gurgaon since the times of Guru Dronacharya. Gurgaon was a great center of education where the princes used to be provided education. Therefore, since long the people of the area had been demanding that Gurgaon be renamed as Gurugram,” he added.
The district, located just 35 kilometers away from New Delhi, is considered as a prominent city adjacent to the national capital.
“In the past too, Bombay has been renamed to Mumbai. Calcutta changed to Kolkata and Bangalore was renamed to Bengaluru. People of Haryana demanded us to do the same. This decision reflects the wish of people,” Haryana’s cabinet minister Anil Vij was quoted as saying by India.com.
The cabinet has also decided to rename Mewat district to Nuh.