What’s in a name? Just ask the netas

Vivek Shukla

At last, Race Course Road will give way to Lok Kalyan Marg. It is most unlikely that it would create an acrimonious debate as we had seen when Aurangzeb Road  became APJ Abdul Kalam Road last year. If we scan the pages of history books, we see that new names were given to roads of the capital right from 1948 onwards, even though a large number of roads to hospitals got new names in mid 1960s to 1970s.  Those were the years when it was ensured that relics of the Raj days should be removed. 

The first road to be renamed after India got freedom in 1947 was Albuquerque Road. On this road, Birla House was situated and Gandhi ji fell to the senseless bullets of Nathuram Godse on January 30, 1948. For obvious reasons, it was renamed as Tees January Marg. 

Jawaharlal Nehru as the Prime Minister in the interim government in 1946, used to live in a bungalow at 3, York Road. Mercifully, it was not named after him. It is a different matter that the then authorities settled for his father's name. It is now known as Motilal Nehru Marg. And the road that is bang opposite JP hospital is now known as Jawaharlal Nehru Road. It was previously known as Circular Road till 1972.

The busy Rajindra Prasad Road was named after the first President of India because he lived at a bungalow on 1, Queen Victoria Road when he was a part of Nehru's cabinet in the interim government. After the funeral procession of  Dr Zakir Hussain passed through the Wellesley Road on the way to the Jamia Millia Islamia burial ground, the name of the road was  changed to Dr Zakir Hussain Marg. The then Defence Minister Krishna Menon lived at  Hastings Road, it became  Krishna Menon Marg. After demitting the office of  Prime Minister in 2004, Atal Behari Vajpayee lives at Krishna Menon Marg. Maulana Azad lived at King Edward VII Road, which was later renamed after him, just as King George's Avenue became Rajaji Marg.

 But for a few, artists, painters, writers and others were almost ignored in this naming game. However, Delhi is fair to war heroes, so we have Brigadier Hoshiyar Singh Marg, Major Ashwini Kanva Marg, Lt. Anuj Nayar Marg and many more. 

There is  one road in the capital which has two names and both are recognised by the Postal Department. Yes, we are talking about Parliament Street. It is an old name, though later Sansad Marg was accepted.  A road which is at a shouting distance from Sansad Marg was Old Mills Road. Even though it never had any mill or mills, still it was known as Old Mills Road. Now, it is known as  as Rafi Marg. Rafi Ahmad Kidwai was a Minister in Nehru's cabinet.

 In the later years, Cornwallis Road was named (after the great Tamil poet) as Subramania Bharati Marg. 

Arguably, Janpath was and is among the most prestigious addresses of Delhi. It was known as Queen's Way. And can you think of Republic Day without Rajpath ? Not at all. It was once King's Way.

Many big-time corporate honchos have mansions on the road named after the painter as Amrita Sher-gil Marg. This was known as Ratendone Road and Sardar Patel Marg was known as Kitchener Road. 

Do you know the old names of Copernicus Marg or Pandit Pant Marg ? Well, they were known as Lytton Road and Queen Mary's Avenue, respectively. Dr Bishambar Das Marg was Allenby Road and Tolstoy Marg was Keeling Road and Curzon Road was Kasturba Gandhi Marg. Close to Tolstoy Marg is Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla Marg. It was known as Canning Lane till the early 1980s. Shukla was a much-respectedleader of Madhya Pradesh. Canning Road  is now Shrimant Madhav Rao Scindia Marg. This change took place only a couple of years back.  

Rajesh Pilot Marg is the new name of South End Road, which is just two-minutes walk from Aurangzeb Road, sorry APJ Abdul Kalam Road.  Once the Janata Party came to power in 1977, they renamed Irwin Hospital and Willingdon hospital as Jaiprakash Narayan Hospital and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, respectively. Both of them were towering Socialist leaders.  And in the Janata Party days, Rouse Avenue was renamed as Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg.

And where is Baird Road? Well, it is close to Gole Market. The new name of Baird Road is Bangla Sahib Marg. However, Baird Road is still commonly used for this road. An old Kali mandir is there. And then there is at least one name that is still holding the fort even though it was changed in late 1970s. While Baba Kharak Singh Road, which faces the Connaught Place Hanuman Mandir, was known as Irwin Road, yet if you buy petrol from the petrol pump on this road, you would get the bill in the name of Irwin Road Petrol Pump.

And do you have any idea about the old name of Bhadur Shah Zafar Marg ? Well, it was known as Delhi-Mathura Road till the mid 1960s. And Edward Park in Dilli-6 is still used by the locals, even though it was renamed as Subhash Park in early 1970s. Imagine, in Delhi,  you would not find anything named after the likes of Sir Sobha Singh, the builder of New Delhi, and Robert Russel Tor, who designed most of the  bungalows of Lutyens' Delhi and the iconic Connaught Place. What a pity. 

The writer is Delhi-based freelance journalist.