Dalhousie targeted for a rename too.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
After the Haryana government’s decision to rename Gurgaon as Gurugram, the Himachal Pradesh unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has asked the state government to consider renaming its capital Shimla as Shyamla.
According to a report in the Times of India, VHP organizing secretary Manoj Kumar has asked the Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Devvrat on Friday to rename the historical places in the state and discuss the same with the state and central governments.
On Thursday, the organization had demanded renaming of Dalhousie after Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Shimla’s Peterhoff building as Valmiki Sadan.
VHP is citing different theories for backing their demand. One among them is that the name Shimla means ‘blue house’ and to substantiate this they point out that there was a blue slate house built by a ‘faqir’ on Jakhu peak of Shimla.
Another theory states that the name Shimla is derived from ‘Shyamla,’ which means a blue female and it is also a name of Hindu goddess Kali. There is also a Kali temple in Shimla. The district website of Shimla also endorse these arguments
Changing the names of cities that were earlier renamed by the Europeans during the colonial era has been very common in India. This includes Mumbai which was earlier called Bombay, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station (Victoria Terminus).
The state capital Shimla has a close connection with the British who discovered the place in 1817. They turned Shimla into the summer capital of the colonial government. Shimla was also used as a resort to the British army officers.
Dalhousie was named after the then-governor general Lord Dalhousie and Peterhoff building was used by viceroys and governors general of India during the British era.
The demand of the VHP is, however, opposed by the Congress. Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu asked why the VHP didn’t raise their demand when the BJP was ruling the state.