The Haryana Government has renamed the cyber city Gurgaon as ‘Gurugram’. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s cabinet took the decision of changing the names of two districts, including Gurgaon and Mewat, with the latter being renamed as ‘Nuh’.
To justify the name change and the essence of new name, the government has given the reference of the Mahabharata. The new name Gurugram has been suggested by several Hindutva leaders, including Baba Ramdev, Yog Guru, for sometime.
Gurgaon, which is a prominent city of Haryana, is considered to be one of the most influential places of North India. It has become real estate hub and a centre for corporate houses that has been providing lucrative job offers over the past decade. A large population from tier-II and tier-III cities is moving towards Gurgaon due to the employment opportunities and other available facilities.
Although Chandigarh is the capital of Haryana, along with Punjab, but Gurgaon is considered to be the second capital of the state.
Over the years, the government has targeted Gurgaon as city for attracting global investors and domestic capitalists over Chandigarh. The prominence of Gurgaon has given a new image to the state of Haryana.
Prior to Gurgaon, more than 100 cities and towns have already been renamed. Following is the list of 20 prominent Indian cities which has been renamed in recent times:
- Bangalore has been renamed as Bengaluru
- Bombay is now known as Mumbai
- Trivandrum’s new name is Thiruvananthapuram
- Calcutta has been renamed as Kolkata
- Madras is now Chennai
- Cochin has been renamed as Kochi
- Pondicherry is now Puducherry
- Waltair has been renamed as Vishakhapatnam
- Gauhati is now Guwahati
- Benaras has been renamed as Varanasi
- Poona is now Pune
- Trichur has been renamed as Thrissur
- Baroda is now Vadodara
- Tumkur has been renamed as Tumakaru
- Hubali is now Hubbali
- Mysore has been renamed as Mysuru
- Mangalore is now Mangaluru
- Bellaryhas been renamed as Ballari
- Craganore is now Kodungallur
- Simla is now Shimla
