India’s Supreme Court has dismissed a Hindu nationalist chief’s petition to rename all cities and historic locations of the nation, which he mentioned had been named after these he known as “barbaric foreign invaders” a number of centuries in the past.

In his petition, Ashwini Upadhyay, a lawyer and the chief of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), sought permission from the court docket to nominate a “renaming commission” to organize an inventory of “ancient (Hindu) historical-cultural religious places” named after the Muslim rulers throughout their rule and supply Hindu names.

In dismissing Upadhyay’s petition, the two-judge bench mentioned the proposal went towards the precept of secularism enshrined within the Constitution.

“We are secular and supposed to protect the Constitution. You are concerned about the past and dig it up to place its burden on the present generation. Each thing you do in this manner will create more disharmony,” the bench mentioned.

Beginning within the twelfth century, a succession of Muslim empires — most notably the Delhi sultanate and the Mughal empire — dominated the Indian subcontinent for nearly seven centuries. During Muslim rule, the expansion of commerce and commerce was accompanied by the brisk development of cities and cities throughout the nation.

The Muslim rulers established many cities, naming them after themselves or their ancestors.

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Historian Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, a professor of medieval historical past at India’s Aligarh Muslim University, agrees.

“This way, we find names of places linked to (named after) Muslim as well as Hindu builders or their progenitors. Religion was certainly not the basis for naming places [in] those days,” Rezavi instructed VOA.

Some locations already renamed

In the previous few years, a number of locations with Muslim-sounding names have been renamed by BJP governments. In 2018, the north Indian metropolis of Allahabad, based by Mughal emperor Akbar, was modified to Prayagraj. Mughalsarai, a close-by historic railway junction, was renamed Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction. Pandit Upadhyaya was a twentieth century Hindu nationalist chief.

Every week in the past, Aurangabad — a metropolis named by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in western India — was renamed Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. Chhatrapati Sambhaji was the son of Hindu warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji.

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With the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Hindutva — nationalist teams — have elevated calls for for renaming many Muslim-sounding places.

In his petition, BJP chief Upadhyay claimed that historic places present in historic Hindu spiritual texts are recognized by the names of so-called “foreign looters.”

“Successive governments have not taken steps to correct the barbaric act of invaders and the injury is continuing,” Upadhyay’s petition said.

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Justice Okay.M. Joseph remarked that Upadhyay’s petition was wanting on the previous selectively, concentrating on Muslims — India’s largest spiritual minority — particularly.

“India is today a secular country. Your fingers being pointed at a particular community, termed barbaric. Do you want to keep the country on the boil?” he requested.

Alok Vats, a senior BJP chief, defended Upadhyay’s petition.

Vats instructed VOA, “The tyrannical Muslim rulers who demolished Hindu temples and forcibly converted Hindus to Islam are in no way to be revered and remembered hence the name change is justified. The same applies to the colonial rulers. Now, under the present BJP leadership, the Hindu sentiment is at its peak. The Sanatanis (Hindus) are out to undo all the nefarious and anti-Hindu doings of the past.”

Muslim-sounding names in danger

Muslim leaders and activists in India, although relieved by the Supreme Court’s rejection of Upadhyay’s petition, are fearful in regards to the rise of Hindutva evident within the nation since BJP got here into energy.

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Zafarul-Islam Khan, former chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission, instructed VOA that the Supreme Court’s refusal to just accept a petition to order the organising of a renaming fee is reassuring.

“At least it clearly defines that it is wrong to change [the] names of historical places, but I do not think that the present dispensation will be deterred,” he mentioned.

Khan mentioned, ultimately, Hindutva forces would attempt to obliterate all Muslim-sounding names of cities, cities, villages and roads, in a bid to make Islam and Muslims in India invisible.

“This goes hand in hand with deleting passages and chapters from Indian textbooks and fabricating a new history. Future generations will think that Muslims did nothing while ruling India for [seven] centuries,” Khan added.

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Historian Rezavi mentioned, in contrast to at present, faith was not a criterion for naming locations based within the medieval interval by the elite — for both Muslims or Hindus.

“Even old ‘Hindu’ names were continued (by Muslim rulers) without giving a thought that [they] were not Muslim. (In the 16th century,) Mughal emperor Akbar established a city and named it Ilahbās, meaning ‘Abode of Hindu goddess Ila.’ Akbar was Muslim. But he named the city after a Hindu goddess,” Rezavi mentioned. The British rulers transformed the identify of town from Ilahbās to Allahabad, which means ‘metropolis of Allah.'”

Audrey Truschke, historian and affiliate professor of South Asian historical past at Rutgers University in New Jersey, instructed VOA that the renaming of historic locations with Hindu-sounding names is a component of a bigger “genocidal project.”

“The BJP seems to be accelerating their loathsome calls for a Muslim-free India, in both the past and the present. … They scream of barbarians in the past that are so far removed from historical figures that they are better described as figments of the Hindu nationalist imagination. Such demonization bodes ill for Indian religious minorities,” she mentioned.

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