After Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath restored the original name of Faizabad district that is Ayodhya, the Gujarat government said that it is contemplating to restore the original name of Ahmedabad that is Karnavati.
Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani said, “We are contemplating changing the name of Ahmedabad to Karnavati, the talks of which have been going on since a long time. Concrete steps will be taken after looking at it from legal and all other angles. We will think about it in the time to come”.
We are contemplating changing the name of Ahmedabad to Karnavati, the talks of which have been going on since a long time. Concrete steps will be taken after looking at it from legal and all other angles. We will think about it in the time to come: Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani pic.twitter.com/9bVJiHo4ED
— ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2018
Gujarat Deputy CM Nitin Patel said, “Since a long time, there has been a demand to change the name of Ahmedabad and name it to Karnavati. If we get to support people to support the legal process we are ready to change the name of the city. People of Ahmedabad like the name Karnavati. Whenever the time is appropriate we will change the name.”
The Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel congratulated and welcomed UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s step to restore the original name of Faizabad that is Ayodhya. He said, “Seeing Uttar Pradesh people’s sentiments. Uttar Pradesh government and Yogi Adityanath changed the name of Faizabad to Ayodhya. We congratulate citizens and the state government.”
Ahmedabad was previously known as Karnavati named after Karna, the Chaulukya ruler of Gujarat. The city was first established in 11th century by the name of Ashaval when Karna successfully defeated the Bhil King of Ahaval in war and named the city on the banks of Sabarmati as Karnavati. It continued with this name for 4 centuries before finally coming under the control of Sultan Ahmed Shah of Muzaffarid Dynasty in 1411 who named it Ahmedabad in praise of 4 Ahmads-Kazi Ahmad, Malik Ahmad, his Islamic teacher Shaikh Ahmad Khattu and himself. He is ‘credited’ with the destruction of Rudra Mahalaya Temple in Sidhpur and converting it into a new Mosque known as Jami Mosque.
It would be really great if Ahmedabad gets its original name. Name is our identity, the colonized name of the city reminds us of the dark ages. Restoring original name of the cities is very important. Invaders and colonizers used to change the name of the place in order to remove the identity of that place. A name is not just a name, it is much more than that. When a place loses its name, along with that it also loses its history, culture, identity and pride. If someone breaks our identity then we don’t know who we are and it becomes easier for anyone to colonize our minds. Result of this can be seen, there are very few Indians who talk about historical roots of Indian culture. Our entire history revolves around Muslim dynasties and British rule. There are millions of Indians who feel ashamed to talk about our ancient culture. Restoring the names of the cities is a step towards de-colonizing the young minds. Restoring original name of the city would also be a great first step towards rebuilding our true and real history. As said by Howard Zinn , “History is important. If you don’t know history it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way of checking up on it”. This tells us how important history is for nation building. The original name of the city would effectively remind us of glorious history of the city, the values it created, the cultural and traditional relationship attached to it.