Historians, city planners disappointed with renaming

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Race Course Road became Lok Kalyan Marg on Wednesday, but historians and urban planners are not happy.

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Race Course Road became Lok Kalyan Marg on Wednesday, but historians and urban planners are not happy.

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Urban planning expert AGK Menon called the renaming of Race Course Road ‘unnecessary’.

“Some names have a loaded cultural perspective, for example, the conversion of Aurangzeb Road to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road. People thought he was an evil ruler and we don’t want to be associated with a tyrant. Another aspect of the renaming of the road was to Hinduise the city,” Menon said.

The name, Race Course Road, however, does not carry any cultural baggage, he said. The road was named after Delhi’s only race course in the city.

“The only purpose that is served by this road renaming is a sense of accomplishment among politicians. The names of places contain layers of history and shouldn’t be erased,” Menon added.

Historian Sohail Hashmi said that if the government wants to work towards ‘lok kalyan’ (public welfare), then they should build new roads instead of renaming the existing ones.

“What ‘lok kalyan’ is the government doing by renaming a road which was not even built by them? The worst part is that there is no thought behind the renaming these roads,” Hashmi said.

Other roads in central Delhi that were renamed in the past include Curzon Road to Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Irwin Road to Baba Kharak Singh Marg, King Edward Road to Maulana Azad Road and Kingsway to Rajpath.

The changes in names of streets create confusion for post offices and the public, and deprive people of a sense of history.

Historian Swapna Liddle said, “Race Course is one of the landmarks of the city. Road names show us how a city was built and what its landmarks were.”