Bombay became Mumbai, Calcutta became Kolkata, but the initial announcement about changing the name of Bangalore to "Bengaluru" has sparked so many debates that a final decision is yet to have been made.
The original plan was to adopt the new name for India's third largest city on Nov. 1, as part of Karnataka's celebrations of its 50 years as an Indian state. But debates over the name change for the state's capital have apparently led to misgivings on the part of the Karnataka government.
The Government of the State of Karnataka announced on Oct. 7 an initial decision to accept a proposal made on Dec. 11, 2005 by noted Indian writer U. R. Ananthamurthy to change Bangalore to its pre-colonial name: Bengaluru, a phonetic variation of Benda Kaal Ooru, as the city is known in the local Kannada language.
Over 20 Indian cities have been renamed since India gained independence from Britain in 1947.
But Indian online communities have criticized the proposed name change as a governmental cover-up of its inability to deal with the city's problems.
With a population over 6 million and known as India's Silicon Valley, Bangalore is one of the nation's fastest growing metropolises. Moreover, its history can be traced back to the early 16th century. Yet in recent years, rapid developments have brought Bangalore severe air pollution, erratic traffic, and high crime rates.
Laxman Devnani, a businessman in Bangalore, says the name change is "absolutely unnecessary." He says it will increase government spending. "A lot of money is being spent because the stationary and other documents used in day-to-day affairs have to be renamed [as a result of the change]."
"There is not much difference in pronunciation," said homemaker H. Lalita Bai. "Changing the name plates and signs throughout the city will cost heavily to the government and the public." She added that the name change may help "politicians become popular and to erase from the people's minds the blunders that they have committed."
Little Difference
In fact, "Bengaluru" is not much of a change from "Bangalore," unlike Bombay to Mumbai and Madras to Chennai.
Disputes over Bangalore's name were not just a result of recent government resolutions—historians have long argued over the earliest origins of Bangalore's name. The historical part of the city is traditionally known to locals as "Bengaluru," whereas the cosmopolitan portion is called by the anglicized "Bangalore."
The Kannada language media has always written and pronounced "Bangalore" as "Bengaluru." Therefore, if the name change will really materialize, a Kannada language article might say something to the effect that, "There is a proposal to change the name of Bengaluru from Bangalore to Bengaluru," but will actually sound like: "There is a proposal to change the name of Bengaluru from Bangaluru to Bengaluru."
"Bangalore is a lovely name," Rajinder Pai of Travel Agents Association of India told The Associated Press. "Why confuse tourists?"
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