From Lenin Sarani to Ho Chi Minh Sarani: Kolkata roads face possible name change

A 10-member committee set up by the West Bengal government is examining proposals to rename several roads, bridges and public places in the state, including three prominent Kolkata roads named after communist leaders Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx and Ho Chi Minh.

No decision has been taken yet, and any changes will depend on the panel's recommendations, a Kolkata Municipal Corporation official said on Monday.

The panel, headed by Swami Pradiptananda, better known as Kartik Maharaj of Bharat Sevashram, is expected to hold its first meeting after Durga Puja. Proposals to rename roads in Kolkata are likely to be taken up at that meeting. Among the roads under consideration are Lenin Sarani, Karl Marx Sarani and Ho Chi Minh Sarani.

Members of the committee include former Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy, Chief Minister's adviser Subrata Gupta and Kolkata Municipal Corporation Commissioner Smita Pandey.

Kartik Maharaj told reporters the panel would examine the relevance of the personalities after whom roads have been named in the context of Indian and Bengali heritage and culture.

"Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Lenin Sarani and Karl Marx Sarani will be renamed. Proposals have also been received for changing the names of other roads," he said. Kartik Maharaj added that the committee's recommendations would later be sent to the state Assembly.

Roy, a former BJP state chief, has suggested that Lenin Sarani be renamed after mathematician and former Bharatiya Jana Sangh president Debaprasad Ghosh, the official said.

He also proposed that Karl Marx Sarani in Kidderpore be named after Bengali poets Michael Madhusudan Dutt or Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, citing their links to the area. For Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Roy suggested the name of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Roy also called for the removal of the Lenin statue at the crossing of Jawaharlal Nehru Road and Sidhho-Kanhu Dahar, and suggested that an important city road be named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the official said.

Lenin Sarani was earlier known as Dharmatala Street and was renamed in 1970 during celebrations marking Lenin's birth centenary. Circular Garden Reach Road was renamed Karl Marx Sarani the following year.

Roy has also suggested that some places named after Muslim figures be renamed after personalities he described as "nationalist Muslims". Among the names he proposed were writer Qazi Abdul Wadud, educationist Begum Rokeya and author S Wajed Ali as alternatives for the Titumir-named bus stand in Barasat near Kolkata.

The proposed exercise has raised questions over whether changing long-established names could erase or alter parts of Kolkata's political and cultural history.