Nothing yet everything
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: March 06, 2024 -

When 'the Bard of Avon', William Shakespeare, who is regarded as the greatest writer in English language, wrote, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet," in his famous play "Romeo and Juliet," about two teenage star-crossed lovers, to convey that the naming of things is irrelevant; he could not have possibly imagined a situation when naming or renaming of public spaces could attract jail term.

Shakespeare attributed the line to Juliet, the only daughter of the patriarch of the House of Capulet, who falls in love with Romeo, a member of the House of Montague, with which the Capulets have a long-running blood feud, in declaring her love for "the person and not the name he bears."

However, it is not as simple as the rationalisation given conveniently by a young teenage girl in love, who could see nothing beyond her besottedness.

Today, some people are employing naming or re-naming of public places as a powerful tool to promote a particular brand of identity politics, so much so that random changing of names of places, institutions, buildings, roads, etc., have created problems, not to speak of the threat posed to erasing the associated history.

In fact, taking serious note of this issue, the Supreme Court of India had on February 27, 2023 dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by one lawyer, named, Ashwini Upadhyay, seeking constituting of a 'renaming commission' to restore "original" names of ancient, cultural and religious places "renamed" by invaders.

While dismissing the PIL, a bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna had questioned the motive of filing the PIL and criticised the petitioner for going by the playbook of those who "invoke history selectively to create "schisms in society."

The bench had said, "This is a fact that our country was invaded and ruled by a foreign power. We cannot wish out selected part of our history".

In the light of this Supreme Court judgement, one can look at "The Manipur Name of Places Bill, 2024," which was passed by the State assembly on Tuesday.

Perhaps, a first of its kind in the country, this legislation will make changing of names of places in Manipur without the approval of a competent authority punishable with a prison sentence of three years and a fine amount of up to Rs 2 lakh.

Coming in the backdrop of the ongoing ethnic conflict that broke out on May 3 last year after Kuki-Chin people clashed with the Meitei/Meetei over the latter's demand for recognition as Scheduled Tribe (ST), it is interesting to know that the Bill, which was tabled during the ongoing 5th session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly on Friday last, has taken serious note of "the instances of use of unauthorised names for places by certain individuals, groups of people or organisations with possible mala fide intent, which has potential to cause confusion in administration and disturb social harmony."

The Bill said that these changes of names create "certain administrative challenges for government officials at the time of discharging their duties."

So, to prevent changing of names of already existing places and naming of new viIlages/places independently without approval of the authority, a seven-member committee would be appointed by the state government and only it will be authorised to suggest renaming or altering of names of places to the government for final approval.

Although the Bill has maintained political correctness in shying away from mentioning any particular community, attempt of'Kukinisation' of original names of districts, places and institutions in the current conflict and the resultant problem it caused even among the Kuki-Chin people when the post office could not deliver letters and parcels to their given "altered" addresses is something well known to all.

So, what's in a name? Nothing or everything. Or, nothing but everything?