Historian Irfan Habib slams BJP over renaming ‘Rajpath’ as ‘Kartavya Path’

New Delhi: Governance will not change by rechristening roads or buildings, noted historian S Irfan Habib said Friday. He accused the BJP government of playing politics over it.       The BJP government is ‘obsessed’ with leaving its mark on everything, Irfan Habib said a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi changed the name of Rajpath to Kartavya Path. He stressed that the previous name symbolising India’s ‘slavery’ has now been consigned to history.

This government has an ‘obsession’ to do something which will leave a mark that this was done by a certain individual who was a ‘great leader’, Habib said. “It is all political. Call it politics then, because you want to leave your own mark,” Irfan Habib added.

Habib said it makes no sense to use the context of erasing colonial history to rechristen something ‘since you don’t like a particular name’.

During colonial times, there were ‘Kingsway’ and ‘Queensway’. After Independence, one was named Rajpath and the other Janpath, he said.

“I feel it is being consciously misinterpreted because the government wants to show that it is trying to delink present India with colonial India, but actually it is not,” Habib asserted.

Habib said India has erased colonial history after it got Independence. ‘Raj’ means governance and not British Raj and ‘Jan’ means people and that is why the names of Rajpath and Janpath were given, the historian said.

Indians are already awakened. They want the government to be awakened about their ‘miseries’’ – economic, social conflict and all sorts of things happening in the country, Habib pointed out.

About changing the names of roads and buildings, Habib said, “It has no meaning. Governance hardly changes. Governance will not change by changing the name of a road or a building. It has never happened.”

Habib added: The point is you want to leave your own mark on everything. That can be your obsession, anybody’s obsession, today’s government’s obsession or any other government’s obsession,” noted the historian.

Habib opined that name change hardly fits into any historical debate. “It is all very political. Either this government does or the previous one did. I’m not saying what previous governments did was fine. They committed several blunders. Most political parties are obsessed with their vote banks. This government is obsessed with nationalism. They want to make everybody a great nationalist, as if we were not nationalist before,” Habib said.

The noted historian said one has to make a distinction between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism is imperative and everybody needs to be a patriot, but nationalism is something else, he said.

“Today we need to be patriots, loyal to the country. But now we are finding enemies within to be nationalists and are calling our own people different names like Naxals and ultra-Naxals,” Habib stated. “This is all politics. I don’t see any seriousness in this,” he added.

Habib alleged that different governments have indulged in this sort of narrative, but this dispensation has ‘gone beyond that’.

“About ‘Kartavya Path’, this is a very conscious attempt to erase something which need not be erased at all. It is being linked to colonial heritage, which it is not. This is because you don’t like it and you want your own stamp,” he said.

Habib said Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue in the colonial canopy at India Gate does not fit well. He also alleged that the narrative about Netaji being ignored is being pushed time and again.

“If you are so obsessed with Netaji, look at his ideas and look at the INA, not as a great army but its character and how it fought, what names were given to different brigades and how gender was used by Netaji,” informed Habib.

Modi said Thursday that Rajpath symbolised India’s ‘slavery’ and has now been consigned to history as he inaugurated the revamped stretch with a new name, ‘Kartavya Path’, and unveiled a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate.

In a swipe at previous Congress governments, Modi said had India followed the path shown by Bose, then it would have reached new heights. However, the iconic leader was sadly forgotten and his symbols and ideas were ignored. He added that imprints of his ideals and dreams are now visible in the BJP government’s works.