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India moving from secular to Hindu nationalist state, Modi govt changing cities locations name from Muslims to Hindu ones

June 13, 2022

By The South Asia Times

NEW DELHI: As part of the ongoing attempts of the Indian ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to move India from a secular state to a Hindu nationalist country, the Jammu and Kashmir government removed the Muslim names and renamed the historical places in the Jammu Municipal Corporation, local media said.

The Mayor of Jammu Municipal Corporation Chander Mohan Gupta said that he renamed the Sheikh Nagar which will be now known as Shivnagar, and Amphalla Chowk will be known as Hanuman Chowk, according to ANI.

Gupta is a local leader of the Hindu extremist RSS/BJP party in Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier Prime Minister Modi's government renamed several cities and areas from Muslim names to Hindu ones.

Now, his party also started attempts to remove the Muslim names from cities’ important locations in the Muslim majority region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Kashmir is a disputed territory between Pakistan and India that is currently occupied by India and deployed nearly a million troops in the valley.

However, Kashmiri are fighting against Indian rule since 1990 to get freedom from New Delhi and so far over 100,000 Kashmiri were killed by Indian forces and hundreds of thousand of others wounded.

Earlier, PM Modi also announced the renaming of three islands located in the Bay of Bengal.

The three islands -- Ross Island, Neil Island, and Havelock Island -- renamed to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Dweep Island, Shaheed Dweep, and Swaraj Dweep, according to Anadolu Agency.

The government of Uttar Pradesh, ruled by the BJP, renamed the district of Allahabad (named by a 16th-century Mughal era-ruler) to Prayagraj.

Several people, including politicians, have questioned the move of renaming the cities, according to AA.