Crouching virus, hidden dragon

You’ve got to hand it to India. On the day Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first woman Vice President of the US, the BJP government in Gujarat, in what could be an opportunist or nationalist move, decided to rechristen the Dragon Fruit as Kamalam. The Chief Minister of the State, Vijay Rupani, who seems to have taken Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Vocal for Local’ mantra literally had at a press conference, aimed at announcing the formation of the horticulture development mission, said that the name Dragon Fruit implies a Chinese connection. That is why the state government has applied for a patent to change its nomenclature, to make it a little more desi, so to speak. While denying that the renaming has any political agenda behind it, ironic when one considers the state BJP headquarters is also called Kamalam, Rupani said the fruit, a variant of which is grown in Kutch, Navsari, and Saurashtra, is known locally by farmers as Kamalam, owing to its resemblance to the lotus, which prompted the name change. Netizens spared no expense in lampooning the move as memes came tumbling out of the woodworks – from the reimagining of popular film titles such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Kamalam; Enter the Kamalam; and The Girl with the Kamalam Tattoo to even Game of Thrones references like Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Kamalams. Citizens of India, by now are used to renaming – whether it’s the names of clothing, food items, roads, cities, or even whole states by themselves. For instance, the high-collared waistcoats popularised by generations of politicians, for the longest time, have been known as Nehru jackets. Post-2014, they have undergone a rebranding, with shopkeepers referring to them as Modi jackets. Jackets were just the beginning as far as the Centre was concerned. A report from Nov 2018 reveals the Centre consented to renaming about 25 towns and villages across India over a one year period. The ruling party’s dedication towards ‘Indianising’ the names of states, cities, and public utilities has been long-standing focus area for its cadre. In 2017, the Centre gave its green signal to rename the historic Mughalsarai Railway Station to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Station in honour of the late Jan Sangh leader. Two years ago, the aforementioned Gujarat CM had said the state was mulling to rename Ahmedabad as Karnavati. This was also during the same time West Bengal had proposed to change its name to Bangla. The Home Ministry had then passed the proposal to the Ministry of External Affairs, over concerns the new name seemed similar to that of Bangladesh. The purpose served by such rebranding is debatable. For one, it’s a burden on India’s resources. To change the name of any place, the Home Ministry must consent, after consulting the Railways, the Dept of Posts and Survey of India. Renaming a state is even more hard work – it takes an amendment in the Constitution with a simple majority in the Parliament. And, an executive order is needed to rename a village or town. One can only take consolation in the fact that other states are not taking a cue from Gujarat and replicating such renaming exercises on the fly. Though Tamil Nadu did have a brief moment of weakness sometime last year when there was a proposal to change the names of over 1,000 places in the state to its phonetic equivalent. Sounds like a mouthful? Well, chew on this – Tondiarpet was to be written in English as Thandaiyaarpettai, while Mylapore got a revised spelling of Mayilaappoor, and good old Egmore station became Ezhumboor station. Luckily, it was a shortlived suggestion, and the government order was quickly withdrawn. What’s in a name, one may ask? Not much, but for a country still reeling from the aftershocks of a pandemic, the expectation from those in positions of authority would be to use their powers to bring positive change. The Dragon Fruit can wait. Deal with the virus first.