Peter Hitchens on renaming of Bombay.
Last week Peter Hitchens from the Daily Mail, London had written to me in connection to a story he was doing on BBC’s decision to rename Bombay to Mumbai and the renaming of the cities worldwide . He asked me whether Bombay was still called Bombay or is it Mumbai. We exchanged a few mails on the confusion.
The final result – His article in The Mail on Sunday column on Sunday.
The Daily mail is a paid site so here’s Peter’s Article
IRRITATED by the way most of the media have taken to referring to Bombay as
‘Mumbai’ during the recent Test match, I did some research.
Supporters of this move are mostly making fools of themselves. The politically correct might like to know that many people in Bombay refuse to
use the new name. The local High Court and stock exchange still bear the name ‘Bombay’.
And the move to get rid of the 400-year-old (Portuguese) name came from Hindu nationalists, whom the BBC would certainly describe as ‘Rightwing’ if it knew anything about them, which I suspect it doesn’t.
We could avoid all this if we just called famous cities and countries by the names we have used for years. Since I don’t call Prague ‘Praha’, Warsaw Warszawa’ or Paris ‘Paree’, I don’t see why I should have to call Peking ‘Beijing’.
In a way it’s a compliment to them that we have an English name for them. I don’t object if Italians call London ‘Londra’. The BBC doesn’t call Burma ‘Myanmar’, or Rangoon ‘Yangon’. Nor does it call Dublin ‘Baile Atha Cliath’, its official name since 1922.
By the way, if ‘Bombay’ is ‘Mumbai’ then oughtn’t they to call India ‘Bharata’? And did you know that Croatia is really Hrvatska?
Small Correction : Peter works for Mail on Sunday.
Satish
Thanks for the pointer.
Could you correct the first URL in the article to read more coherently.
Thanks
If “many people in Bombay refuse to use new name” why is he irritated by “most of media calling the city Mumbai”? For the kind information of Mr. Peter , “name change” move did not come from Hindu activists. The maharashtian people have been calling this city “Mumbai” from ages. If you go in other parts of Maharashtra, city is always called Mumbai. Even though the “official” renaming was done by hindu activists, the “Mumbai” name has been there in hearts and in usage for millions already. After official “renaming” (we should call it name restoration) several non-maharashtrian as well as foreigners have started using Mumbai name, I don’t understand why Peter should be irritated by this fact. (Afterall this site is named Mumbai Metroblogging and not after Bombay, doesn’t it display the acceptance of Mumbai name?)
dear Vineet, You have a valid point….But I dont think people have accepted, it was thrust upon the people by Shiv Sena taking clue from the madness of renaming that began in the Southern States of Kerala & Tamil Nadu.
I personally think that Bombay,Bambai & Mumbai should be used just as we use India, Bharat & Hindustan without any issues.
When one speaks Marathi or Gujarati its Mumbai that comes to ones lips, Bambai in Hindi and Bombay in English.
The really sad pure poltics of renaming started with Kerala renaming 7 cities, then Tamil Nadu then Maharashtra with Mumbai, Chatrapati series, then Kolkata etc etc…
Arzan : the link is paid site, thats why I havent hyperlinked.
Hi gang. Love this blog.
I have had an “irritation” of my own about names of countries or cities. Here in the US I think we should learn the names of all foriegn names as the locals of that area refer to them. So instead of learning that the boot shaped area of Europe is Italy, we should have learned it as Italia. Instead of Rome, we whould have learned it as “Roma”.
There are some problems with this such as is in the case of Europe. What do Europeans call Europe? Well each language is different so I don’t know….and what about Mumbai/Bombay? Here is a case where even the locals are are not sure. So there are problems with my idea but I still would rather have learned them all by their own names as the locals would have pronounced them.
I am just bothered that I say Mewnick (Munich) or Florence for Firenze. It would have been better to learn them phonetically the ways the locals pronounce them…or at least a very close approxomate.
take care,
Darren