What's In A Name? Historians Decode The Politics Of Delhi Renaming Demand

What significance will remain of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's 'Dilli Chalo' slogan if we erase Dilli itself? This striking question from historian Swapna Liddle cuts to the heart of the debate over the recent proposal to rename the capital city to 'Indraprastha,' as she argues the move risks erasing the city's "long and shared past."

The historian's response comes in the wake of a proposal by Delhi BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal that the capital city be officially renamed Indraprastha. He has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, linking the city to the capital of the Pandavas from the epic Mahabharata.

Khandelwal has also proposed renaming key infrastructure—specifically, the Old Delhi Railway Station and the international airport—to Indraprastha and called for the installation of grand statues of the Pandavas to "revive India's history and cultural faith."

"Communal Agenda"

Noted historian S Irfan Habib also dismisses the demand to rename Delhi, calling the proposal "insincere and factually incorrect" and cautioning that it should not be taken seriously as it serves a "communal agenda."

Challenging the proponents of the name change to define their target, he asks them to specify, "Which Delhi are you talking about?"

He emphasizes the city's vast and layered history and points out its continuous expansion. He notes that even the historic district of Shahjahanabad has evolved far beyond its original limits. "There is so much—from Mehrauli to Kotla," he tells NDTV, highlighting the impossibility of reducing the modern megalopolis to a single ancient site.

The historian strongly critiques the proposal to install statues of the Pandavas, stating, "What statues will you set up for the Pandavas? Who has seen them?" He also cautions against the dangers of blurring the lines between "fact and folklore," warning that this attempt to turn a myth into history renders the past "frivolous."

"The past should remain sacrosanct—history and myth are distinct," he asserts. "History comes with facts, while myth is memory. Blurring this distinction undermines both."

Citing previous renaming attempts as evidence of the futility of such demands, he asks, "Connaught Place was renamed Rajiv Chowk, but who calls it that except at the metro station?"

Decoding the 'Dilli' Identity

Swapna Liddle's career-defining work is Chandni Chowk: The Mughal City of Old Delhi (2017), a seminal book that reconstructs the 17th-century Shahjahanabad through archival research, maps, and oral histories, establishing her as a leading authority on Delhi's Mughal heritage.

Speaking to NDTV, Liddle suggests that prioritizing the mythological name not only privileges one ancient era over all subsequent ones but also misrepresents the city's continuous, inclusive identity.

The name 'Dilli,' the historian points out, originates from the very first identifiable fortified city built by the Tomars in the area around the present-day Qutub Minar Complex. "In time, new capitals (like Lal Kot, Siri, and Shahjahanabad) were built, but actually each of them was, even in their own time, subsumed under the name 'Dilli,'" she explains.

A More Inclusive Name

Liddle argues that the current name is "literally more inclusive" than any of the historical city names, having expanded to include all the cities built in the area over centuries.

Marginalizing Multi-layered History

She refrains from framing the issue as Hindu versus non-Hindu heritage but stresses that changing the name would "erase our long and shared past." The city's history spans from Indraprastha, through the Tomars' Dhillika, the Sultanate, the Mughals (Shahjahanabad), and the colonial era, making the name Dilli a symbol of this multi-layered evolution.

Historical and Logistical Hurdles

Responding to the claim that modern Delhi is precisely the location of the Indraprastha from Mahabharata, Liddle introduces a note of historical caution. While medieval-era Sanskrit and later Persian texts refer to a place called Indraprastha or Indarpat in today's Central Vista area, "none of them identify it as the capital of the Pandavas of the Mahabharata," and no excavation by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has definitively identified any site with that legendary city. Archaeological findings, such as Painted Grey Ware (PGW) at the Purana Qila site, suggest an ancient settlement but do not conclusively prove it was the grand, sophisticated capital described in the epic.

Liddle also draws a strong distinction between the recent renaming of places like Ayodhya and Varanasi and the potential change for India's political capital. Such a change in Delhi, she warns, "would certainly have a much bigger impact," especially given the logistical confusion and the absolute risk of confusing the city's established global recognition as a major economic gateway.

Recent name changes in Delhi include Aurangzeb Road to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road (2015), Race Course Road to Lok Kalyan Marg (2016), Rajpath to Kartavya Path (2022), and Mughal Gardens to Amrit Udyan (2023).

Symbolism vs Substance in Cultural Revival

The MP's proposal also included installing statues of the Pandavas to educate the youth on history. The historian critically addresses this, stating, "'Education' should not be confused with shallow symbolism like statues." She contends that true education and cultural pride come from "the freedom to explore, question, understand, and debate the past of the city in the context of actual historical evidence."

Eventually, Liddle suggests the city's focus should be elsewhere, questioning the priority of the renaming exercise itself. At a time of pressing urban challenges, she asserts that true restoration of a legacy lies in addressing "issues of urban planning, pollution control, and equitable development" rather than a symbolic name change.

The culture most people in Delhi identify with, she concludes, is that of an evolved city—"an idea and an identity, which most people irrespective of ideological persuasion take pride and joy in."