The world-famous Aligarh University is located in the city of Aligarh, which the BJP-ruled Indian state of Uttar Pradesh plans to rename as part of its effort to eradicate Muslim influence from the country.
The Municipal Corporation, which is dominated by the BJP, has chosen to rename Aligarh as Harigarh.
According to The Hindu, the mayor of the city, Prashant Singhal, has disclosed that he intends to forward a proposal for formal approval to the state government.
With this action, Aligarh will join a number of other Uttar Pradesh locations whose Muslim names have been altered in recent years by the state administration led by the BJP.
Prayagraj is the new name for Allahabad, while Ayodhya district is the new name for Faizabad district.
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A motion to rename Aligarh as Harigarh was unanimously approved by the Aligarh Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Monday.
The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has now been tasked with giving it its ultimate approval. The civic corporation adopted the plan to rename Aligarh as Harigarh with unanimous consent.
A zila panchayat meeting in 2021 approved a proposal to rename Aligarh as well, but nothing happened after it was forwarded to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Now, the Aligarh civic body, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is bringing up the matter again.
According to the media article, the district councils of Mainpuri and Aligarh had also approved similar resolutions in 2022.
The district council of Mainpuri had proposed changing the name of Mainpuri to Mayan Nagar.
The district should be called Mayan Nagar because, in the words of the head of the Mainpuri District Council, the district was first established by the wise Mayans.
These two districts’ renaming will add to Uttar Pradesh’s lengthy list of name modifications.
At a cost of more than 300 crore, Allahabad was renamed Prayagraj in 2018, and the 156-year-old Mughalsarai intersection was renamed Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya junction.
The district of Ayodhya replaced the name Faizabad in 2021.
According to a different media story, Adityanath stated in 2019 that his administration would keep renaming locations around the state.
The renaming of these places has raised the need for renaming more cities. One member in Agra suggested renaming the city as Agravan or Agarwal, while another suggested renaming Muzaffarnagar as Laxmi Nagar, according to the publication.
Aligarh will always have a particular place in the hearts of the people, despite claims by Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders that the renaming was only an abuse of power intended to divert attention from the urgent issues.
There are several civic issues in Aligarh. SP corporator Musharraf Hussain, an Aligarh citizen, said, “I’m curious as to why the Aligarh Municipal Corporation is more focused on renaming the city than resolving civic issues.”
“Aligarh was my birthplace and upbringing. Tehzeeb and the rich Ganga-Jamuni culture were all around me when I was growing up. Originally from Aligarh, shopkeeper Sanjay Chauhan said, “Even if its name is changed to Harigarh or something else, it will always be in our hearts Aligarh.”
