Agencies
Bangalore, Nov 9: The retired founder of software giant Infosys Tuesday took a swipe at officials of India's southern Karnataka state over their bid to rename Bangalore as Bengaluru, or "the town of boiled beans."
"For me, changing the name is not important," Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy told reporters. Murthy retired from day-to-day operations of the firm earlier year, but remains a powerful voice for India's technology industry.
"All this energy, enthusiasm and debate, instead, must be focused on how to improve city infrastructure, road safety, health care and education," he said.
"I would say those are the issues that should be debated rather than Bangalore or Bengaluru," he added, asserting that merely changing the name was not something that required "any hard work."
Officials in the India's high-tech capital said last week they will officially use the local Kannada language name Bengaluru, meaning "the town of boiled beans," rather than its English version of Bangalore.
The change, first announced last December, will take a couple of months to implement as it has to be approved by the federal government.
Bangalore is home to more than six million people and some 1,500 domestic and foreign firms -- including Infosys Technologies, a pioneer of off-shore software outsourcing -- and its rapid development has badly strained local infrastructure.
Bangalore, according to state historians, got its name from Bendakalooru (the town of boiled beans) after a king strayed into the area during a hunting trip in the late 14th century.
A woman offered him a meal of boiled beans which the king enjoyed so much that he named the town after the dish.
Several cities in India have been renamed since independence from British colonial rule in 1947 to reflect local languages and nationalist sentiments.
In 1995 financial hub Bombay became Mumbai to reflect the Maratha language of Maharashtra state. The Tamil Nadu state capital of Madras was rechristened Chennai in 1996 and West Bengal's Calcutta became Kolkata in 2001.
Bangalore is beautiful by any name
Courtesy: Pratibha Umashankar / The New Nation
SO Bangalore has become Bengaluru. That was what it has always been to its natives. That's how the name is written in Kannada, and will remain so. It has just been re-endorsed by the powers that be.
Why Bengaluru and why now? Yes, of course, Karnataka was marking 50 years of its formation, and something momentous had to be done. As the politicians pander to the die-hard Kannadiga rabble-rousers, as Bangaloreans (or should it be Bengalurians?) feel a sense of pride and as captains of the IT industry wring their hands, Bengaluru has come to stay.
The British may have anglicised Indian names willy nilly to make life easier for themselves, but Bengaluru is not going to be easy to pronounce for many Indians either. Bangalore is no longer a dreamy pensioner's paradise. It is a teeming metropolis that is home to people from all over India and beyond. How will the non-natives deal with the 'lu' sound that is a retroflex of sorts? Bengaluru will still be mispronounced.
Yes, retrieving the old name with romantic lore attached to it makes it more vernacular and native. Bengaluru, as legend has it, comes from Benda-kalu-uru (Bendakaluru) - a city of boiled beans. Many theories about its origin abound.
It is said that the Hoysala King Vira Ballala lost his way during one of his hunting expeditions near Yelahanka area. Weary and hungry, he reached a humble hut, where an old woman offered him some cooked beans, which the king gratefully ate. To honour the woman's hospitality he named the place Benda Kaal uru - the town of boiled beans.
Quaint and credible as the legend may seem, scholars argue that the name Bengaluru was in use much earlier. The earliest reference to it is seen in the Ganga inscription on a hero-stone (viragal) dating back to the 9th century AD, found in Begur village, South West of Bangalore, rather Bengaluru.
But strangely, this Bengaluru does not relate to the fortified city that Kempegowda I built in 1537. He probably named the city after a tiny hamlet called Hale Bengaluru - Old Bengaluru. It is believed that his mother and wife hailed from this hamlet.
According to another theory, there was a stretch of forest in the area, and Kempegowda burnt it to make way for the town. As it was built on Benda Kadu - a burnt forest - it became Benda kaduru, 'uru' being a town, and over the years changed to Bengaluru as the earlier name was a tongue-twister.
No matter what its origin, Bangalore is beautiful by any name. Visitors invariably exclaim, "What a city!" It was once meant as a compliment to its leafy lanes and salubrious climate, but today, it might well be a cry of frustration about pot-holed roads and traffic snarls. Complaint or compliment, there is something magnetic about Bengaluru. People who come here hate to leave. That is why it is bursting at the seams.
What purpose does this or other name changes serve? Does it matter to anyone? Was it done to humour a bunch of slogan-shouting fanatics who have kept up a low-grade protest campaign alive for years? Will it not affect the name the city has made for itself as the silicon Valley of India? Why waste money that could have been used to build urgently needed infrastructure?
These are a few questions that could be raised. Not all of the questions are rhetoric. And the answers to these or the larger issue of re-christening all that is anglicized are neither single nor simple. If de-anglicising names serves the purpose of restoring national and local pride, if it is an act of celebrating ethnicity and culture, fine. But if it is a cosmetic change, where the old-world charm of Bengaluru has been pawned for a few trappings of a large metropolis, then it is a futile exercise.
If millions of rupees that will undoubtedly be spent, not to mention siphoned off, in the name of the name change can be put to better use, Bengaluru will be a better city. Maybe once that is done, celebrating the change in name then would make more sense.
We may nostalgically revert to calling this beautiful city Bengaluru, that has, of late, shed its many charms, thanks to systematic exploitation, studied neglect and indiscriminate growth.
As a native of Bengaluru, I wonder if this will bring back a time when life here was a gracious affair, a time when it smelt of the many-scented flowers sold in heaps at street corners? Will it bring back the basic honesty of tradesmen with whom even a child could do business without being cheated?
I know, nostalgia is a dangerous addiction, but benglurians will lose Bengaluru as they knew it if they don't hold on to all that is good about the city.
Now, the question remains - how will people in the Silicon Valley pronounce Bengaluru? The word Bangalored, meaning losing one's job to outsourcing, be changed to Benagalured? Bangalore may have lost its 'bang' and 'galore', but it still lures.
Keep the change ! - from Daijiworld's Archives