New Delhi: Deendayal Upadhyaya seems the name of choice for the railways, which now have two stations named after the Jana Sangh co-founder.
Farah Town Station, near Upadhyaya's birthplace Nagla Chandrabhan in Mathura district, was renamed Deen Dayal Dham Station last year before Mughalsarai Junction became Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction on Sunday.
The railways also launched Deen Dayalu coaches for unreserved travellers in 2016, and overnight unreserved trains named Antyodaya Express last year.
The Sangh parivar attributes the concept of antyodaya (uplift of the last person) to Upadhyaya but some scholars believe it was Mahatma Gandhi who had derived the idea of " sarvodaya (uplift of all) through antyodaya" from John Ruskin's book Unto This Last.
Gujarat's Kandla Port was also renamed Deendayal Port last year. It all reflected a trend under BJP governments to rename places and buildings --- often those carrying Mughal associations --- after favoured "nationalist" personalities.
In 2016, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal resisted a proposal from BJP parliamentarian Meenakshi Lekhi to rename Race Course Road, where the Prime Minister lives, to Ekatma Marg after Upadhyaya's political theory of "integral humanism" or "Ekatma Manavvad". Eventually, the road was renamed Lok Kalyan Marg.
Among places that underwent a name change after 2014 was Delhi's Aurangzeb Road, purged of its reference to a Mughal emperor and re-christened after former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, a BJP favourite. The Centre-administered Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast, too became Abdul Kalam Island.
As for the states sending renaming proposals for the Centre's approval, the government told Parliament in March that the highest number of requests had come from BJP-ruled Rajasthan and Haryana. Gurgaon became Gurugram in 2016, apparently in homage to Guru Dronacharya of Mahabharat fame.
The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh hasn't lagged behind. Panki Railway Station in Kanpur was renamed Panki Dham railway station last year --- the additional word, which means "abode" and connotes religion, quickly bringing in focus the town's Hanuman temple.
In Mumbai, Elphinstone Railway Station was renamed Prabhadevi Railway Station after a local deity last month.
Historian and JNU professor Sucheta Mahajan said: "Renaming Mughalsarai is petty, as the Mughals were great rulers who contributed greatly to our architecture and way of life. They settled in India and didn't take anything from here. In this current climate where Muslims are being vilified, it is unfortunate that Mughalsarai's name was changed."
She emphasised that names carry a certain symbolism and are "ways through which the past is remembered".
Former Railway Board member Subodh Jain played down the historical significance of Mughalsarai Station, saying the building had undergone "several changes over the years". The place got its name from the Mughal caravans that stopped at the sarai (inn) there for the night.
Jain highlighted how India had broken with the British legacy of never naming railway stations after people but after "the village that has lost the most land for the station, or after a place of historical or religious importance nearby".
He cited how the station below Mount Abu was named Abu Road Station and eventually the place, Kharadi, too took the name Abu Road.
"However, Parliament represents the collective will of the people and the government of the day can change norms. This departure from our legacy of nomenclature was begun by Mamata Banerjee when she was railway minister (2009-11) and renamed several Metro stations in Calcutta, without the approval of Parliament or the Bengal Assembly, after renowned and lesser-known Bengali personalities," Jain said.
"This government is keen that we take pride in our heritage - not as the world sees (our) heritage but as the government sees it. The Mughals may be important to the world but for the government they are a symbol of slavery."
Upadhyaya was found dead on February 11, 1968, on the tracks near the 156-year-old Mughalsarai Junction. The cause of his death has not been revealed yet.
Jana Sangh leader Balraj Madhok, who preceded Upadhyaya as party president, accused his colleagues in the RSS-Jana Sangh of conspiring to kill Upadhyaya and published this in the third part of his autobiography.
Karnataka too switched to calling most of its districts by their Kannada names in 2014. Andhra Pradesh, ruled by then BJP ally Telugu Desam, renamed Rajahmundry as Rajahmahendravaram in 2015, reverting from the British-era moniker to the localised version of the supposedly Sanskrit Rajamahendrapuram.
