Goodbye, Bangalore

Good morning, Bengaluru
Govt Okays Ananthamurthy’s Suggestion To Rename Bangalore
The Times of India

Gulbarga/Bangalore: From November 1, 2006, we will not be from ‘Bang-Bang Bangalore!’ as a Kannada film song put it; we will be from Bengaluru.

The Karnataka government has decided to implement a suggestion from Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy that the IT City, along the lines of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, revert to its precolonial Kannada name, ‘Bengaluru’. Chief minister N Dharam Singh told reporters in Gulbarga on Sunday: “We will rename Bangalore as Bengaluru on November 1, 2006, to mark the launch of Karnataka’s Golden Jubilee year — Suvarna Karnataka — on that day. I have issued a directive to chief secretary B K Das in this regard.’’

The name, however, may undergo another change, for Ananthamurthy told The Times of India: “The name should be Bengal-oo-ru.’’ The CM spelt it out as Bengal-u-ru.

The name-change demand was placed by Ananthamurthy during an interaction between the CM and litterateurs on December 5 to chalk out plans for the celebration of Suvarna Karnataka. “The intention is that even a foreigner who visits the city will use a Kannada-sounding word by calling
the city Bengalooru. The ‘u’ vowel distinguishes our language, just like the ‘o’ in Kolkata is distinct to Bengali. By adding the ‘u,’ even words like chair-u and table-u become Kannada,’’ Ananthamurthy said. Singh maintained that he was convinced about the genuineness of the demand. “The name change will give it the feel of Kannada. Maharashtra changed the name of Bombay to Mumbai, West Bengal changed Calcutta to Kolkata, Tamil Nadu changed Madras to Chennai. We are doing the same thing,’’ he said.

On the other demand of Kannada litterateurs — classical-language status to Kannada — Singh said the state has lodged a complaint with the Centre against the new criterion. “For Tamil, the criterion was 1,000 years; now it has suddenly been increased to 1,500 years. We have taken it up with the Centre and are continuously putting pressure on them to declare Kannada a classical language,’’ he said.

Whither Brand Bangalore?
When the IT industry in the West means going to India, it talks of going to Bangalore. Perhaps no other Indian city has attained such a brand status. So much so that Brand Bangalore is more of a verb — ‘Bangalored’ — than just a name, like ‘Shanghaied’. All thanks to the outsourcing phenomenon. An anti-outsourcing website started marketing a T-shirt with the legend “Don’t Get Bangalored”. ‘If you are not in Bangalore, then you are not in business’ became a popular adage in the IT sector. Bangalore set the precedence for others in the field of IT. It is now adding a dash of culture by going in for a pre-colonial name. The good news, though, is that it is only sounding different, not something completely new. How Bean Town got its name

Bangalore is said to have got its name from Bendakalooru (the town of boiled beans) after King Ballala of the Hoysala dynasty, in the late 14th century, strayed into the area during a hunting trip. Legend has it that on seeing the lost and exhausted stranger, a poor old woman offered him the food she had cooked for herself — a humble meal of boiled beans. The grateful king named the place the ‘town of boiled beans’.

This has been disputed. As per the Gazetteer of India, Bangalore is just an anglicised version of ‘Bengalooru’. The Karnataka government’s official website — www.bangaloreit.in — also says historical evidence shows ‘Bengalooru’ was recorded much before King Ballala’s time in a ninth-century temple inscription in Begur village. ‘Bengalooru’ still exists within the city limits, in the Kodigehalli area, and is called ‘Halebengalooru’ (Old Bangalore). Local belief in the Ballala legend, however, is still strong. They say ‘Bengalooru’ is a shortened, colloquial version of ‘Bendakalooru’, still carrying the same meaning.

Voices from future Bengaluru

Shashi Deshpande, writer: Bombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai, and we have become comfortable with it, so why not Bengaluru? I have absolutely no problem with the city being called Bengaluru. As for Brand Bangalore, it doesn’t make a difference. I don’t care whether it’s called Bangalore or Bengaluru. For God’s sake, why don’t they DO something about the state of affairs in the city?

K S Nisar Ahmed, Kannada poet: It is not chauvinistic to want your city to be named in your language. What’s wrong with it? The Americans themselves call their cities by native Red Indian names. In a salute to their old culture, they have replicated all English names in the US. Here, Bangalore is an aberration created by the British, who could not pronounce Indian names. They even turned Siraj-ud-Daulah into Sir Roger Dollar, because they could not say his name. Why should we remain culturally enslaved to the colonial era? Let’s call our cities by their culturally rooted names.

Som Mittal, HP GlobalSoft MD: Bangalore is an international name. A change of name could create some confusion at this stage. You will have to go back and do the branding all over again. However, what’s in a name? If the name change will help Bangalore, so be it.

Kiran Karnik, Nasscom president: I don’t think it’s going to have a big impact because Bangalore has already made a big name for itself. Madras to Chennai, for instance, sounded completely different. That’s not the case here. Bengaluru is only phonetically different. Since it’s being done keeping in mind the sentiments of the people, one has to respect it. Initially, there may be some hitches for companies in their branding activities. But it’s definitely not a cause for worry.