By Chris Devonshire-Ellis
Oct. 26 - In the latest politically correct movement of stupidity, the State of Orissa is now legally to be known as Odisha following a ruling by the Indian Union Cabinet. The regional language, previously known as Oriya, will now be called Odia.
The move follows prolonged lobbying by the BJP Party, long bent on correcting misnamed cities and states. The confusion arises partly due to the phonetic and dialect differences in pronouncing the English version and the local language version with the BJP determined to revert all names to the ones used locally. Hence Bombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai and Calcutta became Kolkata.
The BJP have a tendency only to look back to certain periods of history suiting their own views. Orissa, in the east of India, was adopted as state name when it entered the Indian Union in 1950. However, in the local language, the name was pronounced slightly differently, as “Udisa.” There are also some phonetic issues with certain clarity of English letters, and rather similar to Japanese pronunciations of the letters r and l with the use of English becoming awkward for some.
The BJP have based their name change on 15th century records which refers to the “land of the Oriya people as being named Udisa or Odisa.” However, in Tantric literature it is referred to as Udisantha, while the ancient poet Sarala Das mentions the land as being called “Odra Rastra.”
Gajapati Kapileswaradeva, who lived between 1435 and 1467, referred to it as “Odisa Rajya” in his carvings on the temple walls at Jagannath. The renaming of Orissa, or Udisa as “Odisha” itself is inaccurate – it still doesn’t adequately capture the actual pronunciation of the ancient name. It’s political meddling in etymology for the sake of it.
Much of the renaming of Indian cities has taken place to do away with names associated with the British Raj, with many names of streets, buildings or markets being reinvented as “pure Indian.” While one can see the sense in renaming the Prince of Wales Museum in Bombay to an ethnically acceptable Indian one, it is now officially known as the “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Sastu Sangrahalaya.”
While there’s a certain splendid length to the new title, it however totally unpronounceable to anyone not Indian, and bears no relation in any event to what it actually is. So although impressive signage outside displays the new name, it still is “formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum” written in large letters underneath for the benefit of everyone else. Indeed, most native Indians still refer to it as the Prince of Wales Museum.
The museum’s website address, which is currently under construction is named www.bombaymuseum.org despite the fact Bombay was renamed Mumbai in 1995.
The same is true of Calcutta and Madras. Most Indians still refer to them by these titles, and will often use both new and old names. There are other, recent silly changes. The well known city of Bangalore, the country’s IT capital, was renamed officially as Bengaluru two years ago, again to “politically correct” a mispronunciation. Yet everyone still refers to the city as Bangalore. What was the point?
Other changes in cities have included renaming Trivandrum as Thiruvananthapuram and the old French colonial outpost of Pondicherry as Puducherry. While the political and cultural reasons for doing so may be ethnically sound, the actual common sense aspect in renaming areas already well-known internationally in one form does not seem to be taken into account.
Neither Hindi or Devanagari are under threat as aspects of spoken or written Indian culture. As India moves more prominently onto an international stage, this meddling in domestic culture over names that are used and recognized globally ought to come to an end. It’s unnecessary, wasteful, increasingly politicized, and hinders potential regional development by creating global linguistic confusion.
Chris Devonshire-Ellis is the managing partner for Dezan Shira & Associates in Mumbai. He can be contacted at chris@dezshira.com.
I appreciate the article. But it could hurt the Odia people’s sentiment if they could read it like me.
In the local language, 90% of the people pronounce the state’s name as “Odisa” or ‘Odisha’ but never ‘Udisa’.
North Indian People pronounce it as ‘Udisha’,which really hurts to every Odia people. I think anybody can feel the same if his/her name will be pronounced differently than the actual one. So, the right time has come to correct it.
Every Odia people will be happy with this decision. I am not a supporter of any political party. But I can say it was absolutely necessary.
Kindly rephrase your item.
regards,
Surajit Mullick
Port Talbot
United Kingdom
i do feel the same thing as of surijit. regarding change of name i dont think it is unnecessary as most people of the state called it o-d-i-s-h-s-a rather then orissa. so reffering to own state or identifying its language in a state’s name is not uncessary, it is relevant ,,,,,,
thanks
Ruadra
Kolkata
This article is good but in my views
I thanks and respect the steps were taken to change of the name. As a result it is for those who cannot provenance the name of state while reading English. It is always better to recognize name after a glance clearly .
Thanks
Deepak.
I do agree with sujit. we have to change the symble of slevery. thanks to those people who fought for it.
Regards
Sudhansu
Bangalore
It was necessary. I am from Odisha and I felt bad whenever some one use to call my states name Orissa or whenever i use to read it in books/publications.
This was necessary, my state doesn’t need the name given by someone. We are Odia people and this change was necessary.
There are places in world that even I can’t spell correctly and that doesn’t mean I will call that lace in my way.
Regards,
Arunav
Bhubaneswar
The name of any person/state is to be pronounced the way it is been pronounced by himself/themself. So to claim that as tongue twister is to say that I am unable to pronounce it. The name change to “ODISHA” is to be taken more positively than its been done. It was a mistake done by a Britisher (the then lords of the state). For the reason that we are used to it, and to carry on with the same,is no logical. I really appreciate and proud to say that now I can legally call it as “ODISHA” - My State than to change it to some thing else, becasue some one is not able to cope up with that. Its my name and thats how I pronounce it, These words are been uttered by many great leaders/manager in the meetings, interviews when they have been asked for. Now we say its “ODISHA” thats how we pronounce it, Please make yourself corrected.
What do you (author) feel if i call you something cirrrrss Divonsirrre (not intend to). I am sure you will feel bad.
The author (Chris Devonshire-Ellis) should understand same emotion and logical approach of people. If an organisation/ party/ state demands for right name, what is wrong with it?
I am glad for the effort of countless individuals/ organisations (no matter which party, association, organisation, individuals) to rename the state ODISHA. I am proud to be a ODIA and for the state of ODISHA.
Dear author,
Your arctile on the subject does not take into account the emotinal aspects of the people of Odisha. I can tell that - Even in India, most of the north indian population spell the erstwhile ORISSA as UDISA and ORIYA as UDIA. Is it not humiliating and unpleasing to hear mis-spelled names of my state and my people that too from my own countrymen ?
The present name i.e. ODISHA gives a feeling of ownness and is associated with Odia Pride. The Govt. of Orissa and other Govt. and NGO really deserve all praise and people’s bestwishes for having done this most awaited name change i.e ODISHA.
I thank you for giving an opportunity to express my views. Thanks once again.
The name change is a welcome step and not unnecessary as though of !!
The Person who has written this article is a stupud. He does not know anything. The move is not by BJP, It is due to the pressure of the people of Odisha.They want to be called as per the real name.I advise him, 1st study the real scenerios and then write articles.
Although my view may be individualistic. I don’t have anything against changing state names. But I strongly believe governments should put this energy towards doing something more productive for the states and towards the states economical progress.
I am from Orissa and have lived for more than 20 years in Bhubaneswar which is my place of birth. I have also lived a substantial time in Bangalore. The changing of names should also take into consideration the other changes it would have to bring along like the changing of names in legal documents, hoarding boards, websites etc.
I do agree with Surajit and others that some people call it Udisha which is not correct.
Sathya,
Bhubaneswar, Bangalore, London
Unncessary Name change leads to confusion & frustration. I still refer to the city name as Madras but many people confuse me with the new name .
I wouldn’t like a name imposed by British who came only to rule us and exploit us.
Bharat(India) eternally embraced many races, religions, faiths and believes and assimilated it into its main stream without losing its own uniqueness.
We don’t fear being global nor our forefathers set forth us a jingoistic example of plundering other countries, or destroying other civilizations.
However we like the world to know what we are and how exactly we name ourselves and pronounce it.
I don’t care what the entire world thinks about us. but we people of Odisha would like to be know as Odia and the name of the state should be pronounced as Odisha.
Actually we should have switched back to our local names all over our country immediately after Independence. I don’t understand why we have to lobby, demand our own names to be changed.
Dear Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Any correction made can’t be termed as stupidity. The renaming should have happened much earlier. Better late than never.
Ya I am happy to now write my state how i pronounce rather the British did it. But sorry to say that it has not been knowned to all even some odiya people also.