How Mumbai's streets are being named for unknowns

Ask a Mumbai municipal councillor what’s in a name, he would possibly say, “Everything”. For this tribe has just about named almost every place in the city after someone or the other who may never have done a thing for the city. Sometimes, the only thing that can be linked to the name given to a spot is a relative, a friend, or even a ‘provider’ whose relatives want to commemorate a dead person. This has been an enduring endemic in the political class that rules Mumbai. So common and so mutually supportive are the corporators that each and every such proposal has hitherto been approved with a voice vote in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai’s general body. Those who say ‘Aye!” may not even know a thing about a name proposed except that it emanated from a fellow corporator. With almost every street, boulevard, cross road, chowk, intersection, and even an alley named after someone or the other, there are hardly any places that provide an opportunity to be christened. Therefore, a new proposal has been propped up: name health centres run by the civic body. [caption id=“attachment_419509” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] The civic administration, which has to bring the proposals from the corporators to the general body, is however now baulking and saying a loud and clear ‘Nay!” much to the anguish of the politicians. At this point, it appears, the civic administrator is holding out against pressure to name health centres after virtual nobodies. One proposal now is to name a health centre in Asalfa in Ghatkopar after former corporator Kamalakar Jamsandekar. His contribution perhaps is that his clout ensured that his wife, Komal Jamsandekar, is now the corporator from that ward. Another is to name a dispensary in Kurla-Nehrunagar after Indumati Naik, wife of former corporator Shantaram Naik. You guessed it: the suggestion emanated from their son, Kamalakar Naik, now a corporator. The opposition stems from the logic, well-placed indeed, that names could be tagged to such facilities only if the person whose name was proposed had something to do with the setting up that facility. Gifted the land on which it stands, for instance, or donated the cost. None of the proposals brought to the Commissioner, it is said, meets this criterion. So why make it a place to tag just anyone’s name? Mumbai has a history of trying to rewrite history by renaming even secular streets like the Esplanade after Mahatma Gandhi, and the Queen’s Necklace after Shubash Bose. In the new nationalist spirit, the greats of the contemporary times then needed their memories perpetuated. But even then, Mumbai prefers to go by odd names which were neither given nor changed – the Kala Ghoda, for instance. Who knows where the Shankar – Jaikishan square in the Churchgate precinct is? Please refer to the spot as ‘near KC College’ or ‘Satkar’, a restaurant. The logic for naming the location thus, was that the duo, who left behind melodies for posterity, shared an afternoon often sipping tea at Gaylords. Nevermind that Gaylords is a 10 minute walk away, including a right-angled turn to the left! These have not become as popular as the Kala Ghoda, and one needs a plaque somewhere around to tell us what identity it bears. Much like each of the streets, squares, intersections would need one each to explain that the name it sports is of the one who had nothing to do with the city except be related to a corporator. Chances are even these corporators may not even be remembered for being a city father for he or she may have spent their time doing things more unto themselves than to the city to improve it. If they can’t be remembered, then why waste effort and try to immortalise their names? Things were utterly different in the past. There have been greats who contributed to the city immensely and despite their own contribution have not had things named after them. The Lady Avabai Jeejeebhoy Causeway which links the island city to the suburbs continues to be called Mahim Causeway and her gift of cash to build it has been forgotten. She paid Rs 1,57,000 sometime in the 1850s to build the causeway, not to buy a nametag. Does anyone remember Juggunath Shunkershet who contributed immensely in cash, ideas and structures and land to get an evolving modern city get going? His purse was always open, and when he helped found the Great Indian Peninsular Railway that linked Mumbai and Thane in the mid-1850s, he gave the organisation his own bungalow to use as a booking office. What does he have to show for it as gratitude from the city? A bust in the Town Hall, and a street which bears his name is commonly referred to by a disinterested citizenry as, plainly, the Girgaum Road. And the city could not find enough land to build a memorial to him. But the corporators are busy devising ways to run their racket – be a kith, kin or provider to him, and you get a place to hang your name to or on. It is not the present lot alone; those in the past three decades have done much the same thing.