The politics of names

Just the other day, I read a letter to the editor in a newspaper in which the writer suggested that the historical names of places in Karachi should be restored.

As a starting point, he suggested changing the name of Liaquatabad back to its historical name, Lalukhet. If I had not expected that such a suggestion might trigger an ethnic riot in Karachi, I would have wholeheartedly supported it.

In my view, the historical names of places, roads and monuments should never be changed. If anyone wants to name something in honour of a person who, in his view, has done something good, he should build something new and name it after that person.

I am against changing Bunder Road to MA Jinnah Road, McLeod Road to I Chundrigar Road and Drigh Road to Shahrah-e-Faisal.

Whatever has happened in history has happened; one should not try to reverse or obliterate it. First of all, Bunder Road was such a natural and appropriate name for a road that led to the seaport.

You have built a new airport terminal and named it Jinnah Terminal; that is quite a suitable way of honouring the Father of the Nation. But changing the historical, and indeed ideal, name of a road is not appropriate. The result is that even today most people in Karachi know it as Bunder Road and not as MA Jinnah Road.

Now let us come to the changing of the names of roads and monuments from the British era, such as McLeod Road, Queens Road and Victoria Road.

Many people would say that the British were an occupying force, so we should remove names that honour their personalities. I would again repeat my earlier submission that whatever has happened in history has happened, and it is wrong to reverse it.

The British ruled this region for more than two hundred years, and their rule is part of the history of this region. Any attempt to conceal it would erase an important chapter of our past and create a vacuum that no one would be able to fill. History should remind us not only of our triumphs but also of the periods during which we were ruled by others. A mature nation does not become weaker by remembering its past honestly; it becomes wiser by learning from it.

Who was an occupier and who was a conqueror depends on the angle from which you view history.

We Pakistani Muslims view the Muslim rulers as just and tolerant. In our view, historical names pertaining to the Muslim era of this region should be retained.

But in the BJP's India, Muslim conquerors are treated as occupiers, and there is a desire to change the names of places and monuments to those that existed before the Muslim era.

So, while we are removing names from the British era, they are changing both British-era and Muslim-era names. They are trying to resurrect ancient Hindu India and restore the names that prevailed then.

Would any Muslim in this region support the changing of Allahabad's name to Prayagraj? No, surely not. But this is the problem with changing names. Once it starts, it never ends.

Therefore, the historical and established names of places, roads and monuments should be retained, and we should instead build new places, roads and monuments to honour our heroes.