Mapping Place Names of India

247 Pages·2019·8.407 MB·English

by  Anu Kapur

MAPPING PLACE NAMES OF INDIA
This book is the first of its kind to chart the terrain of contemporary India’s many
place names. It explores different ‘place connections’, investigates how places are
named and renamed, and looks at the forces that are remaking the future place
name map of India.
Lucid and accessible, this book explores the bonds between names, places
and people through a unique amalgamation of toponomy, history, mythology
and political studies within a geographical expression. This volume addresses
questions on the status and value of place names, their interpretation and
classification. It brings to the fore the connections between place names and the
cultural, geographical and historical significations they are associated with.
This will be an essential read for scholars of geography, law, politics, history
and sociology, and will also be of interest to policy-makers, administrators and
the reader interested in India.
Anu Kapur is Professor of Geography at the Delhi School of Economics, University
of Delhi, India. She is Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla,
India, and Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi.
In 2012 she received the Amartya Sen Award for distinguished social scientists from
the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi.

MAPPING PLACE
NAMES OF INDIA
Anu Kapur
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Anu Kapur
The right of Anu Kapur to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Disclaimer: The international boundaries, coastlines, denominations,
and other information shown in any map in this work do not
necessarily imply any judgement concerning the legal status of any
territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such information.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kapur, Anu, author.
Title: Mapping place names of India/Anu Kapur.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018052824| ISBN 9781138350816
(hbk: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780367149185 (pbk: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780429057687 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: India–Historical geography. | Names,
Geographical–India.
Classification: LCC DS408.5 .K36 2019 | DDC 911/.54–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018052824
ISBN: 978-1-138-35081-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-14918-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-05768-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
CONTENTS
Lists of figures vi
Lists of tables vii
Foreword viii
1 Place names 1
2 Nation’s names 44
3 Names of the subnational units: States and union territories 51
4 Sanskritization of place names 78
5 Persianization of place names 88
6 Englishization and Anglicization of place names 98
7 Nationalism and place names 119
8 Democratization of place names: Parliament debates the
names of the states and union territories of India 148
9 Placenism and future place names 188
Bibliography 209
Index 221
FIGURES
1.1 I ndia: Spatial focus of place-name studies, 1980–2016 18
2.1 The Sapta-Sindhu 45
3.1 I ndia: Interpretation of names of subnational units
(states and union territories) 60
3.2 I ndia: Boosterism names of subnational units
(states and union territories), 2017 72
3.3 Durability of subnational names 75
4.1 I ndia: Group place names for sacred Hindu sites 83
6.1 Variations in spelling of names prior to the British
orthography of standardization 109
7.1 India: Districts with complete change of name, 1961–2011 123
8.1 I ndia: Chronology of formation of subnational units
(states and union territories), 1956–2017 149
8.2 I ndia: Alphabetics as group names for states, 1950 153
9.1 India: Names and locations of aspirant states 196
TABLES
3.A Maps sourced for the historical study of
administrative names 77
6.1 Procedure and format followed by Hunter to
‘standardize’ place names of India 114
6.2 Incorrect spellings of place names on the maps of
the northern districts of the Madras Presidency 117
7.A.1 Districts with change of name, 1961–2011 138
7.A.2 Districts with changed spellings of the name, 1961–2011 142
7.B New names added to the district map, 1941–1961 144
7.C Nature of name change of the districts, 1941–1961 145
7.D.1 Districts with change (of name and spelling)
thrice, 1961–2011 146
7.D.2 Districts with change (of name and spelling)
twice, 1961–2011 147
8.1 Alternative names suggested for Uttar Pradesh, 1947–1950 151
8.2 Lok Sabha debates over state names 183
8.A.1 Bills for states’ reorganization and new states 185
8.A.2 Bills for alternation of names of existing states 187
9.A Geographical spread of aspirant states 207
9.B Names of provinces/states eliminated between
successive censuses 208
FOREWORD
When Anu shared her resolve to do a book on place names in India, I could not
hide a bit of scepticism. My immediate response was that considerable research
is already available on the theme of place names, and there is limited space left
to manifest her characteristic creativity. I had in mind books like Place Names:
How They Define the World And More, by Richard Randall; Signposts to the Past:
Place Names and the History of England, by M. Gelling and Place and Placelessness,
by Edward Relph. I was also aware of some societies, journals and government
organizations specializing in place-name studies. I believed that my observation
was evidence-based and well-placed.
Anu was equally resolute. She affirmed that her proposed book will be a pio-
neer geographic exploration of the theme not undertaken so far. The effort will
be to unfold the spatial reality of India as it evolved over time by digging into the
mystery embedded in its place names. Place names are not to be deemed simply
as markers of locations; these carry within them the hidden strands of ecology,
culture and history. These have a chronology of their origin, continuity and
change, and even disappearance in some cases. These have a political dimension
too, which makes them subject to legislation in democratic dispensations. She
added that creativity lies not only in raising something new but also in giving
a fresh shape, interpretation and meaning to what is already known. This book
honours her assertion.
To expound on the ‘theory of place’ has ever been Anu’s great intent. This
she could demonstrate through her recent book, Made Only in India (2015). It is
a holistic study of goods carrying the official stamp of ‘geographical indications’.
Only those goods that are marked by a unique quality can claim this tag; these
are goods raised in certain specific registered locations in India. These products
are a quintessence of the ecology, skills resource, cultural heritage and estab-
lished reputation of the area concerned. Research on geographical indications,
Foreword ix
by some oddity, had for long escaped the attention of practitioners of the
discipline of geography. This book can be credited as having broken fresh ground
in that sense.
While ‘geographical indications’ goods are markers of the exclusiveness of
the production of a place, the name of a place embodies the very rationale of its
existence and proclaims its identity. Each name is inherited and remains a spatial
stamp on its natives. It may undergo a vagary of change under a new political
dispensation. With such foundational ideas, Anu set forth on a fresh journey to
explore the distinctiveness of place names in India as representing its geographic
diversity through time. The outcome is the present book, Mapping Place Names
of India (2019).
Place names are indeed the first alphabet of geography. Every description in
this discipline begins with a place name. The address function of a place name
is basic to the functioning of any spatial system. Ironically, a search into the ori-
gin, meaning and essence of place names is often bypassed. These are taken for
granted as a matter of daily use. Anu’s book fills that void and does much more.
Through an insightful processing of the flow of information on place names of
India, it weaves a fascinating scene of its regional tapestry. The conceptual frame-
work and methodological tool-kit have been fabricated with rare ingenuity.
Names separate place from space in the realm of philosophy of geography.
While space is an abstract, indefinite, undefined expanse of physical and cultural
landscape, place is a specific component of space. Since every place has a unique
presence, it cannot do without a name. This name imparts a sense of belong-
ing to its inhabitants. The political dimension of place names in terms of power
relations is also a reality. It is an arbiter of who is an insider and who is to be
excluded. Meanwhile, the place is not free from considerations of spatial scale.
For a cosmopolitan, the whole world is one place; for a nationalist, his or her
country is a place; for a regionalist, a province or state is a place and for a local
individual, a city or village of residence is the place.
Often research targets the nomenclature of individual settlements. Here,
again, this book marks a distinction. It focuses primarily on the diverse names
of India and of its various states and union territories but names of districts and
contextual places are not missed in compliance with the demands of the text.
How many of us can distinguish among India, Bharat and Hindustan? Why did
a choice fall in favour of ‘India that is Bharat’, symbolizing a blend of external
and internal nomenclature? Who were the people or institutions involved in
finalizing such a decision? Likewise, did various states inherit or acquire or were
ascribed their present names? What were the alternatives considered? In which
different ways can the names of various states be classified and interpreted? Why
do none of the states show a consistency in its name from ancient time to the
present? We are so used to these names that such questions do not occur to
our minds. In all likelihood, many of us do not have answers to the questions
raised. This book comes handily to our help. It offers stimulating, authentic and
impactful responses to all such points of curiosity. Not only this. The names of