A committee formed by the new BJP government in Bengal is examining proposals to rename several roads, bridges and public places, including Kolkata’s Lenin Sarani, Karl Marx Sarani and Ho Chi Minh Sarani, with its first meeting expected after Durga Puja.
The 10-member panel is headed by Swami Pradiptananda, popularly known as Kartik Maharaj, of Bharat Sevashram. A Kolkata Municipal Corporation official said the names were under consideration but stressed that no final decision had been taken. Any changes will be based on the committee’s recommendations.
Kartik Maharaj said the panel would examine the relevance of the personalities associated with the names in the context of Indian and Bengali heritage and culture. He also told reporters that proposals had been received to change the names of other roads and that the committee’s recommendations would be sent to the state Assembly.
The committee includes former Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari’s advisor Subrata Gupta and KMC commissioner Smita Pandey. Roy has proposed renaming Lenin Sarani after Debaprasad Ghosh, a mathematician and former president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, according to the KMC official.
Roy suggested that Karl Marx Sarani in Kidderpore could be named after Bengali poets Michael Madhusudan Dutt or Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, citing their association with the area. For Ho Chi Minh Sarani, he proposed the name of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Roy also called for the removal of the Lenin statue at the crossing of Jawaharlal Nehru Road and Sidhho-Kanhu Dahar and suggested that an important city road be named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The proposals would affect not only signboards but also the civic references used in addresses, maps, public records and everyday navigation if they are eventually approved.
The existing names are linked to specific periods in Kolkata’s political history. Lenin Sarani was earlier known as Dharmatala Street and was renamed in 1970 during celebrations marking Lenin’s birth centenary. Circular Garden Reach Road was renamed Karl Marx Sarani the following year.
The panel is also considering changes to places named after Muslim figures. Roy proposed names including writer Qazi Abdul Wadud, educationist Begum Rokeya and author S Wajed Ali as alternatives for the Titumir-named bus stand in Barasat near Kolkata.
The proposed exercise has raised questions over whether changing long-established names could remove or alter parts of Kolkata’s political and cultural history. The committee’s first meeting after Durga Puja and the subsequent submission of its recommendations to the state Assembly are the next formal steps identified in the report.
