The BJP's renaming politics reached Bengal on Sunday as chief minister Suvendu Adhikari announced that Kolkata's Suhrawardy Avenue would be renamed Gopal Mukherjee Road, but historians argued the government has targeted the wrong member of the Suhrawardy family.

The announcement was framed as a historical correction, with the chief minister linking the old name to the controversial legacy of the “Butcher of Bengal” and the Great Calcutta Killings in 1946.

“For decades, a major artery of our City bore the name of someone who wilfully misused state power as a weapon, orchestrating the massacre of innocent citizens for sheer political gain,” Adhikari wrote on X. “By renaming it after Gopal Mukherjee, the fearless soul who stepped up as a protector-in-chief to defend and save thousands of innocent lives, finally restoration of historical justice will be achieved by honouring a true guardian and savior,” he said.

But the avenue was named in 1933 after Hassan Suhrawardy, a surgeon and former vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta, not Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the political leader often associated with Partition-era Bengal violence.

Hassan Suhrawardy was the uncle of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.

The premise is based on “patchy, half-history” said former Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar told The Telegraph Online. “The BJP and many Bengalis have a valid reason to hate Huseyn, the Premier of Bengal in 1946, but unfortunately they picked on the wrong Suhrawardy,” he said.

Why would any government name a street after a contentious figure largely associated with mass-killings right after Independence,” asked historian Kingshuk Chatterjee.

The narrative came because Huseyn (who had a contentious role in the Great Calcutta Killings) overshadowed his uncle Hassan in historical popularity.

“Very few people know the names of past Vice-Chancellors of universities. The repute of Calcutta University was vast in 1933. Overall very few people would know of the prominence of the university back then,” Chatterjee told The Telegraph Online, who teaches at the University of Calcutta.

Suhrawardy Avenue, located in central Kolkata, has been a hot topic for the right-wing for at least a decade.

A 2017 article titled “It's a Crying Shame That 'The Butcher of Bengal' Has a Road Named After Him in Kolkata” indicates that the misconception has circulated in right-wing circles for years.

Gopal Mukherjee is regarded by some as having organised Hindu resistance during the Great Calcutta Killings of 1946.

Pointing to the contentious reputation of Gopal Mukherjee who was also involved in street-level retaliatory violence, one academic, who refused to be identified, said: “The BJP’s intention seems to be to replace the name of a Muslim rioter with a Hindu rioter. They could have replaced it with a neutral character. The regime’s message is, violence is not inherently wrong, it’s the side you fight on that matters.”

“Gopal Mukherjee was a Hindu stormtrooper,” said Sircar, pointing to the idea that the revised name choice is less of a “true guardian and saviour.”

Name changes are endemic to regime changes, and historians agree that it is a natural, organic part of urban history.

The Left Front renamed Harrington Street to Ho Chi Minh Sarani as a provocation to the US Consulate. “But it is unfortunate when a change is based on a mistaken assumption,” said the academic.

Suhrawardy Avenue is located in Ward 64, a Muslim-majority area. “The politics of nomenclature is always targeted in areas which provoke the maximum impact,” historian Jayanta Sengupta told The Telegraph Online.

The move comes right after Bengal observed a Foundation Day or Paschim Banga/Bangla Dibas in the state.

“Welcome to Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukhopadhyay's West Bengal, Narendra Modi Ji,” wrote Suvendu Adhikari on X. The Prime Minister was visiting the state on the occasion of June 21, International Yoga Day.

“20th June is of immense significance in West Bengal’s history. This was the day which ensured that West Bengal remains an integral part of India. The role of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee was invaluable in the same. This year, 2026, we are also marking the 125th Jayanti of Dr. Mookerjee,” PM Modi wrote on X earlier on Saturday.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the BJP's ideological predecessor, also served as vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta.

Sircar argued that the Bengal government’s move shows a desperate need to “look for heroes.”

“The RSS and Hindu Mahasabha abandoned the freedom struggle. The right wing has no galaxy of patrons to harp on.”

He argued that the street renaming reflects a “litmus test” to see how they are being received in Bengal. “The BJP is testing the waters to see if they were voted in on a disgust-vote against Mamata Banerjee, or if they can ideologically strike roots with the state," Sircar told The Telegraph Online.