Bengaluru is an inevitability Bangalore could not have escaped. The city civic council’s resolution for the change of name, now awaiting a formal nod from the government, is part of a beaten track that has been followed in other cities as well. In the case of Bangalore, as it has been for Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, the principle behind resurrecting the locally-known names has been the so-called dissociation from a shameful colonial past. This has been thought to be a prerequisite for regaining lost national pride. In more practical terms, this has meant — for the speakers of the local language, marginalized culturally and economically by residents from other communities — a way to lay claims to the city’s progress. The need for this linguistic reclamation, used in remarkably ingenious ways by political parties and figures, has changed signs on roads, streets, bridges, parks and maps. The case of Bangalore is no different. The present government, surviving on the support of the Janata Dal(S) that has come back from political oblivion by exploiting Kannadiga chauvinism, cannot but play by the set rules. Which is why there is reason to suspect that Bengaluru might be just the beginning of similar changes for cities like Mysore, Mangalore and Gulbarga.

The question is, will such changes of name be enough for the demands of the parochial politics that has come into play? If the escalating tension in the city and the state is anything to go by, there is little chance of that happening. There have already been demands voiced for job reservations for ‘sons of the soil’ and for restrictions to be placed on the screening of films that are not in Kannada. Little wonder then that non-Kannadigas — a sizeable section in the city, employed mostly in the expanding services sector that has given the metropolis much of its gloss — feel besieged. The crumbling infrastructure of the city and the rising crime graph do nothing to assuage their fears. For the civic administration, however, changing the name of the city appears to be far more important than improving the employment scenario, promoting welfare or reducing poverty. In the end, Bengaluru, much like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, will have achieved nothing other than inflating the egos of politicians and endlessly complicating administrative procedures.