The Naming Game

The Centre's nod to renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv, respectively T has led to more demands in Maharashtra for cities and regions to be rechristened.

- Dhaval Kulkarni

In fact, some of these sites are also seeing more than one claim, which may lead to a fresh round of competitive identity politics and social tensions, especially with elections to the local bodies, Lok Sabha and state assembly all coming up one after the other in the next two years. There's also a small, vocal group protesting this bid to create a new history with this renaming spree. Their cause may be strengthened by the Supreme Court, which threw out a petition by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay who wanted the Centre to set up a 'renaming commission' to find the original names of places presently named after 'foreign invaders'.

The turn of events is partly ironical because renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad was one of the last decisions of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June 2022. Invoking Chhatrapati Shivaji's son and local goddess Dharasur Mardini, respectively, it was a last-ditch attempt to tap into the pro-Hindutva vote. The Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde)-BJP regime that took charge later simply ratified the decision and expanded the proposed name for Aurangabad to its present full form, 'Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar'. The Maratha king was captured and killed by Aurangzeb's forces in 1689.

The names Aurangabad and Osmanabad are derived from the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad. Both the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena and Shinde's group are claiming credit for the renaming now. Incidentally, it was the late Sena supremo Bal Thackeray who had first made the 'Sambhajinagar' demand at a public meeting in Aurangabad in May 1988.