The names of neighborhoods in the Indian state of Maharashtra based on the caste of people who have traditionally lived there are to be changed to reflect the nation’s evolving attitudes.
In the same way Indian surnames reveal the caste to which a person belongs, neighborhoods have acquired names based on the caste of the community that predominates.
For centuries, villages have been organized on the basis of caste, with strict segregation that confines the lower castes to the fringes. Some towns, too, have certain areas inhabited by the members of a particular community.
The Maharashtra government has decided that, for a nation that keeps promising to eliminate the caste system, to have neighborhoods and roads named after a particular caste is undesirable.
“Keeping that in mind, and to maintain social harmony and goodwill in the state to increase national unity, all caste-based names of areas and localities in rural and urban parts of the state will be changed,” Maharashtra Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Dhananjay Munde said earlier this month.
Places in Maharashtra, home to 125 million people, are to be renamed after well-known social workers or rights advocates so that no caste is indicated.
However, columnist Chandra Bhan Prasad, who writes on caste issues, was unimpressed.
“Without a change in people’s consciousness and behavior, this is just a childish antic. Changing the names of places is only of value as a minor media story, nothing else,” Prasad said.
Despite efforts to erase the caste system, it remains resilient.
Earlier this month, a Dalit (formerly known as an untouchable) youth in Gujarat was assaulted after being asked his caste by coworkers and giving the name of a higher caste.
His other “offense” was wearing his shirt unbuttoned. Trying to look fashionable if you are a Dalit is a crime in the eyes of some upper-caste Hindus.
The question of surnames is something everyone is aware of.
Upper-caste Hindus who do not know someone’s caste, and know that it is politically incorrect to ask directly, try to find out a person’s surname so they can “place them” in society.
Some people from lower castes have abandoned their surnames, going only by their first name, as a gesture of rebellion against being instantly branded the moment they utter their surname.
Senior civil servant Narendra Jadhav in 2015 said that he had considered a private member’s bill in parliament outlawing surnames altogether, leaving Indians with one-name identities as a way of defeating caste, but he did not pursue the idea.
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