DELHI: Irshadullah, 40, from Allahabad, or what is now known as Prayagraj, finds it difficult to accept the new name of his birthplace — he says that history cannot be changed.
“It’s not the issue of the change of name of a particular place, it’s the question of our existence and history in India,” said Irshadullah, a social worker and political activist from Allahabad, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP).
His anger and frustration are palpable.
“The only reason why the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government wants to change the name is that it has been given by the Mughal ruler. This I feel is not only an attempt to obliterate India’s Islamic history but also to create a wedge in the multicultural society in the name of religion,” Irshadullah said.
Last week, in a slew of decisions by the BJP government in UP led by the controversial monk and Hindu nationalist politician Yogi Adityanath, the names of the medieval city of Allahabad and Faizabad were renamed Prayagraj and Ayodhya respectively.
Allahabad was established by the 16th-century Mughal ruler Akbar, adjacent to the ancient city of Prayagraj, a revered place for Hindus. Similarly, Faizabad also cropped up next to the Hindu city of Ayodhaya.
Prayagraj is believed to be a place for a highly revered Hindu saint, and Ayodhya is allegedly the birthplace of the supreme Hindu deity, Ram.
However, Hindu right-wing politicians claim that Allahabad and Faizabad were built replacing Hindu names.
“The Mughal ruler Akbar built the city Allahabad without disturbing the area closer to the river, known as Prayagraj,” Irshadullah said.
“With a name you have history associated with it. When you change it, you tamper with its historicity. The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and the center, they don’t have anything substantial to demonstrate as their achievement — that’s why they are indulging in this political polarization,” Irshadullah said.
Faizabad-based historian, Prof. N.K. Tiwari of Dr. Rammanohar Lohia Avadh University, said the Mughals never changed the name of any Hindu place of worship.
“From the historical point of view, the change of names of medieval cities is wrong. But the political climate now is such that if you raise your voice you are termed anti-Hindu or anti-national. The whole episode has made me highly uncomfortable,” Tiwari told Arab News.
The opposition parties in UP have called the move “a desperate attempt to hoodwink people before the elections next year.”
“They failed as a government and now they are back on their agenda of divisive politics with vehemence. But people now understand the BJP’s politics,” said Sanjay Tiwari, a local leader of the Congress Party in Allahabad.
But the BJP said the “name change is a normal process.”
“India, which was subjugated twice — first by the Mughals and second by the British — must rediscover its soul. Name change is one way of remembering our past glory,” said Sudesh Verma, a national spokesperson for the BJP.
“Prayagraj or Ayodhya sounds more cultural than Allahabad or Faizabad respectively,” he said.
While talking to Arab News, he denied changing Muslim names. “India cannot be complete without Muslims and other minorities. But it is true that a nation cannot celebrate invaders, rapists and those who forcibly converted using swords and were religious bigots,” Verma said.
Earlier this year, the BJP government in UP renamed Mughalsarai, an iconic railway station in the eastern part of the state, after its founder, Deen Dayal Upadhaya.
Last year, the Yogi government deleted the Taj Mahal in Agra from the list of tourist sites, but after huge protests the regime revised the list.
Now the BJP legislator from Agra Jagan Prasad Garg wants to rename the historic city “Agrawal.” “Agra has originally been the place for the Hindu Agrawal community and the Mughal ruler changed its name to Agra. I demand the restoration of the old name,” Garg told Arab News.
The demand for the name change has come for the historic city of Ahmadabad in the western Indian state of Gujarat, the home state of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
“Changing the name itself is not an issue. Names have been changed in the past also. Bombay became Mumbai, Calcutta became Kolkata because they wanted to correct the pronunciation,” said the historian Prof. Aditya Mukherjee from Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
“These changes are being done to demonize the Muslims. The picture is being created that Muslims are foreigners, they invaded India, they did all kinds of crime and, therefore, their name should be changed,” he said.
“One of the essential features of fascism is that it creates the enemy from within. What the BJP is doing is that they are creating an enemy out of Muslims, Christians, Dalits and other minorities,” Mukherjee told Arab News.
“The consequences for this kind of politics would be dangerous for the country. We must fight it. Each one of us — intellectuals, teachers, writers, journalists — we need to fight it when there is time. There is no point in fighting when the damage has penetrated deep.”
Irshadullah refused to change the place of birth in his birth certificate. “It is not easy to adapt to the change, I have with Allahabad so many memories, they can change the name of my city, but I will still call it Allahabad, not Prayagraj.”
BJP drive to change names of Mughal-era cities in India opposed
BJP drive to change names of Mughal-era cities in India opposed
- Allahabad was established by the 16th-century Mughal ruler Akbar, adjacent to the ancient city of Prayagraj, a revered place for Hindus
- Prayagraj is believed to be a place for a highly revered Hindu saint, and Ayodhya is allegedly the birthplace of the supreme Hindu deity, Ram
Germany’s Scholz announces Ukraine military aid in visit to Kyiv
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made an unexpected visit to Kyiv on Monday
- His second second since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago
The visit, his second since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, signals Germany’s support at a time of uncertainty ahead of President-elect Donald Trump taking the reins at the White House and as Russian forces make territorial gains.
Scholz will hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is set to push NATO to invite Ukraine to join the military alliance at a meeting in Brussels this week.
The German chancellor’s visit also comes as he faces a tough battle for re-election at a snap vote in February after his coalition collapsed in November.
His own record on supporting Ukraine has been under scrutiny both from those who wanted him to do more to help Kyiv and, on the other side, those voters who want Germany to pull back from sending weapons and aid to Ukraine.
“Germany will remain Ukraine’s strongest supporter in Europe,” Scholz wrote on X.
At the meeting with Zelensky, he said he would “announce further military equipment worth €650 million, which is to be delivered in December.”
Bangladesh court acquits ex-PM Khaleda Zia’s son in 2004 deadly grenade attack
- Tarique Rahman, others were found guilty in 2018 of targeting a rally held by supporters of PM Sheikh Hasina, who led opposition at the time
- The ruling comes as the country suffers political tension after Hasina fled to India in August following a mass uprising that killed hundreds
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s High Court on Sunday acquitted former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s son, Tarique Rahman, and overturned a verdict against him over a deadly 2004 grenade attack on a political rally.
The ruling comes at a critical time as the South Asian country suffers political tension after long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country to India in August following a mass uprising that left hundreds dead. Rahman serves as the acting chairperson of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party while in self-exile in London, and he could become Bangladesh’s next leader if his party is voted into power.
Rahman and 48 others were found guilty in 2018 in the attack targeting a rally held by supporters of Sheikh Hasina, who led the opposition at the time, leaving two dozen people dead and wounding about 300 others. A court sentenced 19 of them to death while Rahman got life in prison, with Zia’s party accusing the ruling of being politically motivated.
A two-member judge panel scrapped Sunday the entire 2018 ruling for all 49 men, following an appeal lodged by the defendants. Shishir Monir, a defense lawyer, told reporters the court declared the trial and verdict “illegal”.
“As a result, all defendants have been acquitted,” he said.
Zia, who ruled the country as prime minister between 2001-2006, and Hasina are the country’s most powerful politicians and long-time rivals.
Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has been chosen as the country’s interim leader since Hasina’s escape, but authorities have been struggling to enforce order amid mob justice, chaos and claims of systematic targeting of minority groups, particularly Hindus, which Yunus said are “exaggerated.”
Hasina’s Awami League party blasted the court ruling in a Facebook post on Sunday, saying it wasn’t “Yunus’ Kangaroo court” and that the people of Bangladesh would be the ones trying those responsible for the attacks.
Zia’s party welcomed Sunday’s ruling.
The attorney general’s office can appeal the ruling in the country’s Supreme Court.
The Yunus-led government has not declared any timeframe for the next election, but Rahman and his party want the new election sometime soon. Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami party, which shared power with Zia’s party in 2001-2006 with important portfolios in the Cabinet, said it wants to allow the Yunus-led government to stay in power to bring in reforms in various sectors before a new election.
Hasina faces charges of crimes against humanity for deaths during the summer’s student-led uprising. The interim government has sought help from Interpol to arrest Hasina. It is not clear if India will respond to any request from Bangladesh for Hasina’s extradition under a mutual treaty.
Australian police arrest 13 people and seize a record 2.3 tonnes of cocaine from a fishing boat
- The drugs had a sale value of $494 million and equaled as many as 11.7 million street deals if they had reached the country of 28 million people
- The smugglers made two attempts to transport the drugs to Australia by sea from a mothership floating hundreds of kilometers offshore
WELLINGTON: Australian police seized a record 2.3 tonnes of cocaine and arrested 13 people in raids after the suspects’ boat broke down off the coast of Queensland, authorities said Monday.
The drugs had a sale value of 760 million Australian dollars ($494 million) and equaled as many as 11.7 million street deals if they had reached the country of 28 million people, federal police said in a statement.
Investigators told reporters in Brisbane that the drugs were transported from an unidentified South American country.
The arrests on Saturday and Sunday followed a monthlong investigation after a tipoff that the Comancheros motorcycle gang was planning a multi-ton smuggling operation, Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay said.
The smugglers made two attempts to transport the drugs to Australia by sea from a mothership floating hundreds of kilometers (miles) offshore, Jay said. Their first boat broke down, and the second vessel foundered on Saturday, leaving the suspects stranded at sea for several hours until police raided the fishing boat and seized the drugs, he said.
The mothership was in international waters and was not apprehended, Jay said.
Authorities have seized more than one ton of cocaine before, Jay said, but the weekend’s haul was the biggest ever recorded in Australia.
Those charged are accused of conspiring to import the drug into Australia by sea and were due to appear in various courts on Monday. The maximum penalty under the charge is life in prison.
Some were arrested on the boat while others were waiting on shore to collect the cocaine, police said. Two were under age 18 and all were Australian citizens, they said.
“Australia is a very attractive market for organized criminal groups to send drugs such as cocaine,” Jay said.
Over 40 people hospitalized in Georgia during protests over the suspension of EU talks
- Georgia’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that 27 protesters, 16 police and one media worker were hospitalized
- Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze warned that ‘any violation of the law will be met with the full rigor of the law’
TBILISI: A third night of protests in the Georgian capital against the government’s decision to suspend negotiations to join the European Union left 44 people hospitalized, officials said Sunday.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the parliament Saturday night, throwing stones and setting off fireworks, while police deployed water cannons and tear gas. An effigy of the founder of the governing Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili — a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — was burned in front of the legislature.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that 27 protesters, 16 police and one media worker were hospitalized.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze warned that “any violation of the law will be met with the full rigor of the law.”
“Neither will those politicians who hide in their offices and sacrifice members of their violent groups to severe punishment escape responsibility,” he said at a briefing Sunday.
He insisted it wasn’t true that Georgia’s European integration had been halted. “The only thing we have rejected is the shameful and offensive blackmail, which was, in fact, a significant obstacle to our country’s European integration.” The government’s announcement came hours after the European Parliament adopted a resolution criticizing last month’s general election in Georgia as neither free nor fair.
Kobakhidze also dismissed the US State Department’s statement Saturday that it was suspending its strategic partnership with Georgia. The statement condemned Georgia’s decision to halt its efforts toward EU accession.
“You can see that the outgoing administration is trying to leave the new administration with as difficult a legacy as possible. They are doing this regarding Ukraine, and now also concerning Georgia,” Kobakhidze said. “This will not have any fundamental significance. We will wait for the new administration and discuss everything with them.”
Kobakhidze also confirmed that Georgia’s ambassador to the US, David Zalkaliani, had become the latest of a number of diplomats to stand down since the protests started.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and enlargement commissioner Marta Kos released a joint statement Sunday on the Georgian government’s decision to suspend negotiations.
“We note that this announcement marks a shift from the policies of all previous Georgian governments and the European aspirations of the vast majority of the Georgian people, as enshrined in the Constitution of Georgia,” the statement said.
It reiterated the EU’s “serious concerns about the continuous democratic backsliding of the country” and urged Georgian authorities to “respect the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, and refrain from using force against peaceful protesters, politicians and media representatives.”
The ruling Georgian Dream party’s disputed victory in the Oct. 26 parliamentary election, which was widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s aspirations to join the EU, has sparked major demonstrations and led to an opposition boycott of parliament.
The opposition has said that the vote was rigged with the help of Russia, Georgia’s former imperial master, with Moscow hoping to keep Tbilisi in its orbit.
Speaking to The Associated Press on Saturday, Georgia’s pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili said that her country was becoming a “quasi-Russian” state and that Georgian Dream controlled the major institutions.
“We are not demanding a revolution. We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again,” Zourabichvili said.
The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that it meet the bloc’s recommendations, but put its accession on hold and cut financial support earlier this year after the passage of a “foreign influence” law widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.
Russia’s air units destroy 15 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russian agencies report
Russia’s air defense systems destroyed 15 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions overnight, RIA state news agency reported on Monday, citing Russia’s defense ministry.
