Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday announced that 17 places in four districts have been renamed “in accordance with public sentiment and Indian culture and heritage”.

The name of Aurangzebpur in Haridwar district was changed to Shivaji Nagar, Ghaziwali to Arya Nagar, Khanpur to Shri Krishnapur and Khanpur Kursali to Ambedkar Nagar.

The district’s Chandpur will be known as Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Mohammadpur Jat as Mohanpur Jat, Idrispur as Nandpur, Akbarpur/Fazilpur as Vijaynagar, Asaf Nagar as Devnarayan Nagar and Salempur Rajputan as Shursen Nagar.

This comes amid communal tensions in Maharashtra over demands by Hindutva groups for the removal of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb in the state’s Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar was previously known as Aurangabad.

While announcing the renaming, Dhami said: “The names are being changed so that people can take inspiration from the great men who contributed to Indian culture.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said that in Dehradun district, Miyanwala has been renamed as Ramjiwala, Pirwala as Kesari Nagar, Chandpur Khurd as Prithviraj Nagar and Abdullapur as Daksh Nagar.

Nainital’s Nawabi Road will be known as Atal Marg whereas the Panchakki-ITI Road as Guru Golwalkar Marg.

Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar was the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh between 1940 and early 1970s. The RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling BJP.

Sultanpur Patti in Udham Singh Nagar district has been renamed to Kaushalyapuri, announced Dhami.

In the past, several BJP-ruled states have changed “Islamic-sounding names” of places after Hindutva ideologues and Hindi words.

In January, the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh renamed 11 villages “in view of public sentiments”.

Soon after winning the Assembly election in Delhi in February, BJP MLAs proposed to change the names of the Najafgarh constituency to Nahargarh, Mustafabad to Shiv Vihar and the capital’s Mohammadpur village to Madhavpuram.

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