Hisar to become Agrodak? Former Haryana minister’s plan to change name of his hometown triggers row

The comment by Dr Kamal Gupta – who was Haryana’s Urban Local Bodies minister in former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s cabinet – at a public meeting last week triggered a controversy in his home constituency.

At the meeting, Gupta said he had sent a proposalto the state government to change the name of Hisar to Agrodak. This is the ancient name of Agroha, a town in Hisar district associated with the legend of Agrasen.

Addressing the people in Hisar, Gupta said Hisar was a part of Agroha, and not the other way round “The name Hisar was given to this place by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who named it Hisar-e-Firoza in 1354” he said on 11 March.

Gupta added that people were not bound by the name given to their city by Tughlaq.

“Hisar is an Arabic word meaning a fortor a castle. Hisar-e-Firoza means Tughlaq’s forte. Why shall we accept this name? Now, our country is independent. Now, our country is powerful. We have built the Ram Mandir; we have abrogated Article 370. We will take back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, we will take back CoK (China-occupied Kashmir), and when the fifth term of Modiji comes, we will take back Pakistan and Bangladesh and make an Akhand Bharat. Under such circumstances, why should we accept Hisar-e-Firoza as the name of our city?” he asked.

“We have sent a proposal to the government to keep this place’s name as Agrodak instead of Hisar because Agrodak was the capital of Maharaja Agrasen’s kingdom and Agroha is just a corrupted name of Agrodak,” Gupta, a surgeon by training, said in his speech.

However, according to senior Congress leader and six-time MLA Sampat Singh, Hisar is a historical town known globally by this name, hence, the name should not be changed.

“When I was a minister in Haryana, I contributed a lot towards the development of Agroha and the Maharaja Agrasen Medical College there. I think we should work to develop some more educational institutions named after the Maharaja, but we should not tinker with the name of Hisar because it’s a very old and historical city and is known globally by this name,” said Singh, who has been living in Hisar for over five decades.

Echoing Singh, Rajender Chutani, president of the New Rajguru Market Association and Bishnoi Market Association, also believed that the name should not be changed.

“Our association will not allow the government to change the name of Hisar at any cost,” he asserted, adding that the market associations will launch an agitation if any attempt is made to change the name.

“Dr Kamal Gupta should have spoken to the people of Hisar before sending any such proposal. He contested elections from Hisar in 1996 and 2000 and lost badly. Now, he has won the elections in 2014 and 2019 riding on the Modi wave, but by trying to change the name of Hisar, he is working against the very people who elected him,” Chutani told ThePrint.

According to Mukesh Sethi, former chairman of Hisar Improvement Trust – such trusts are statutory bodies set up for the improvement and expansion of towns that were later merged into municipal bodies by the state government in 2014 – a large majority of people in Hisar were against the move, and if Gupta continues with his plans, the move will face a major backlash.

“Hisar is a city where you have one of the best agricultural universities in Asia, which is known by Hisar. Two more state universities, an Army cantonment and a couple of central institutes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) are all known by Hisar. It would not be a wise step to change the name of the city now,” said Sethi.

Yashvir Malik, who lives in Hisar, is president of the Confederation of Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran Sector. (These are confederations of resident welfare associations (RWAs) of sectors developed by Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran, the state’s urban planning agency.) Malik told ThePrint that the RWAs of almost all sectors under his confederation wrote to the government against this move last week.

“Changing names of cities doesn’t help anyone’s cause. We are against this move as it will only create confusion,” Malik added.

ThePrint reached Gupta over the telephone but he did not respond. This report will be updated once a response is received.

Why Khattar government has decided to develop Haryana’s Agroha Dham as a tourist site

Several names changed in the past 8 years

In the past eight years, Haryana has seen a significant number of its towns and villages undergo name changes under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government.

The renaming has been driven by various factors, including local people’s demands to change names whose connotations they objected to, such as Ganda (dirty) in Fatehabad district, Kinnar (transgender) in Hisar, and Kutia Kheri (kutia is a slur referencing female dogs) in Hisar.

Additionally, many places have been renamed to move away from Urdu or Muslim-associated names.

A notable change occurred on April 12, 2016, when Gurgaon, also known as Millennium City, was officially renamed Gurugram. The government had then said that the change was to pay homage to Guru Dronacharya – the teacher of the Kauravas and the Pandavas in the epic Mahabharata.

Furthermore, Mewat district was rechristened Nuh district.

Other significant renamings include Mustafabad in Yamunanagar becoming Saraswati Nagar, andSanghar Sarishta in Sirsa being renamed to Baba Bhuman Shah, in honour of the Kamboj community’s spiritual leader.

A series of other changes in names across the state include – Ganda in Fatehabad to Ajit Nagar, Kinnar in Hisar to Gaibi Nagar, Cham Dhera in Mahendragarh to Dev Nagar, Garhi Sampla in Rohtak to Chaudhary Chhotu Ram Nagar and Pindari in Jind to Pandu Pindara.

The name of Todi Kheri in Jind was changed to Sarna Kheri, Khizrabad in Yamunanagar to Pratap Nagar, Lula Ahir in Rewari to Krishna Nagar, Balrangran in Karnal to Bal Rajputana, Kutia Kheri in Hisar to Veerpur, Landhora in Karnal to Jairampur, Amin in Kurukshetra to Abhimanyupur, Gainda Khera in Jind to Gurukul Khera and Mohammad Heri in Gurugram to Brahmpuri.