Ahmedabad: Renaming may put Heritage City tag at stake

The Gujarat government's proposal to rename Ahmedabad as Karnavati and the CM's announcement to do the same before Lok Sabha polls, could put Ahmedabad's Heritage City tag at stake. The state government is therefore moving in the direction very seriously and cautiously.

A senior official in the government, on condition of anonymity said, "The city has got Heritage City identity as Ahmedabad and renaming the city as Karnavati may be a big challenging task because of this status. The city has been popular among the global community as the city which has ancient architectural combination of Islamic and Hindu culture. Renaming the city can make Ahmedabad lose the tag of Heritage city too." Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had said earlier that his government would explore the legal aspects for renaming. However, he did mention that there was no legal impediment ahead of the procedure.

Talking to media persons in Gandhinagar on Monday, the CM said, "There is a popular sentiment in Gujarat that Ahmedabad should be renamed as Karnavati and we are going by that. There is no legal obstruction ahead of that, and our government will start the procedure soon."

The city was given the Heritage City tag on July 8, 2017 by UNESCO. Experts firmly believe that the state government will have to consult UNESCO and convince them for renaming the city, if they wish to retain the Heritage City tag.

Debasish Nayak, member of Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation said, "The state government will have to consider a lot of issues before renaming the city. The tag is a rare one so they will have to be very careful before doing so. The state government has to decide what they really want."

"There is no precedent for renaming the city except for procedural part, but they will have to consult UNESCO for sure before taking the decision. In the UNESCO's dossier, the city is named as Ahmedabad and has been mentioned as the place where many communities live in peace and harmony," Nayak added.

The chairman of the HCC, PK Ghosh, though sees no implication on Ahme-dabad's Heritage City tag. He said, "Karnavati is the same area which is referred as Ahmedabad city. It is not the name of city or the geographical area that got the tag but the creative synthesis in architecture and public settlement units (houses) within the city. The only concern is that renaming should not destroy the significance of this architecture. UNESCO will ask them reason for renaming and the government has to decide how they will deploy it."

The city should bear a name of the person who contributed the most to its development, who gave it a distinct identity, who invested money. The person should be given due credit. There are certain attributes that are related to only Ahmedabadis. The name should reflect all this. 
Pavan Bakeri, realtor

Earlier attempts of the state government to rename the city as Karnavati were rejected by the then union home minister LK Advani. The government should reveal why it was rejected. There has to be an open discussion on whether the city’s name needs to be changed or not. 
Anand Yagnik, advocate, Gujarat High Court

For the last 22 years, there have been talks of changing the name. But, it did not happen. The issue crops up in the run-up to the elections. People should understand that whether changing the name will bring benefits. They should change the way they think, which will benefit masses. 
Hardik Patel, PAAS leader

Any process to change the name of a city should involve citizens. It is difficult to understand what kind of democratic processes are in place for such a massive identity change. Ahmedabad’s history has evolved around Parsis, Jains, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus. 
Preeti Shroff, dean, MICA

We should not change the name as Ahmedabad is now a World Heritage City. It means we have to preserve our heritage or else we will lose our basic characteristics. Just like other cities, Ahmedabad also has peculiarities attached to it. Changing the name will delink to such stories. 
Manjula Pooja Shroff, educationist

Name of a city should not be changed because the controversy is being raked up with 2019 polls. When Modi was the CM in 2008, he wrote to the Centre. Modi has been the PM for over 4 years, how come the BJP never worked on the name change until the 2019 elections got closer. 
Mahesh Pandya, environmentalist

The name should not be changed. At the most, we can insist on a middle path and call it Amdavad. Ahmedabad is known for Teen Darwaja, Siddi Syed ni Jali, Jahangir Palace, Sardar Patel Museum, etc. By changing a label, the content doesn’t change. 
Abhay Mangaldas, heritage entrepreneur

Karnavati finds mention in classic Gujarati novels ‘Patanni Prabhuta’ and ‘Gujaratno Nath’ by KM Munshi. King Karnadev (father of Siddhraj Jaisinh) founded the city of Karnavati. But what is the point now changing the name? Any big city starts with a small foundation. 
Yogendra Vyas, educationist