Will name-change ball roll for other cities?

Will name-change ball roll for other cities?
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The Times of India

Bangalore: If Bangalore becomes Bengaluru, can the tier-II cities be far behind? With the name-changing ball now set rolling by chief minister N Dharam Singh’s announcement on Sunday, the question being asked is: What is the fate of Mangalore, Mysore, Belgaum, Gulbarga and Tumkur.

The ‘father’ of Bangalore’s name change, Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy, feels that the tier-II cities should automatically change over. “It should happen in phases. But these cities are already being called by their Kannada names, so why should they not be officially called so? We don’t need to call them what the British did,’’ he told TOI.

Ananthamurthy pointed out that names and languages evolve scientifically, in response to local needs. “The Kannada numerals are an example. Roman alphabets in Kannada script look odd. But the written form of Kannada numbers are just parts of the alphabet. So a child that learns the alphabet learns the numbers with ease, instead of struggling with fresh forms,’’ he explained.

Litterateurs say this is the second phase of renaming in Karnataka. During the period of Kengal Hanumantaiah, British-named ‘Closepet’ was renamed Ramanagaram, while ‘French’ Rocks became Pandavapura.

Poet K S Nisar Ahmed said any change of name from Kannada to other languages is unnecessary. “We have such beautiful Kannada names even inside Bangalore city that have been changed by the city administration. Sarakki has become JP Nagar, Munireddypalya has become J C Nagar. There are several areas with no discernable names like HSR. Why can’t these be called by the names of our leaders? Why can we not retain Attiguppe, instead of calling it Pushpanjalinagar or Anepalya instead of Gajendranagar?’’

Ahmed felt that the country has to shrug off both Anglicising and Sanskritising of names. “The name of our state, Old Mysore, was changed to Karnataka. Are we not using it without any problems? Instead of an ‘e’ at the end of Bangalore or Mysore or Mangalore, all we need to do is put a ‘u.’ Even in the case of Belgaum, we should go back to our culturally rooted Belagavi, while Shimoga should be Shivamogga. There is nothing extremist about it.’’

PERSONALITIES SPEAK OUT

Changing name of Bangalore to Bengaluru should not be a gimmick. It is an emotional issue. English names of other cities like Tumkur, Belgaum and Hubli should be changed to Tumakuru, Belagavi and Hubballi. During Suvarna Karnataka year, there are many more important issues to tackle than just renaming a few cities. —Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar, director

Arose by any other name smells sweet. — Ramesh Aravind, |actor Idon’t think this will have any bearing on Brand Bangalore. We anyway colloquially refer to it as Bengaluru. To the businessman and the traveller, it will make no difference. Just like we Bangaloreans always refer to Bombay as Bombay, and not Mumbai. It’s not a radically different name, just an addition of a few vowels. — Prasad Bidapa, fashion guru

It is definitely a positive thing to do. I don’t think it will have any big impact on the Brand Bangalore. Infact, I think many of them will continue to say Bangalore. — Prakash Apte, director, IIMB