[Assam] Naming Buildings after Traitors -Sentinel Letter

[Ram Sarangapani]

There have been several letters on this subject in the papers.
This convention of naming buildings, streets, towns etc after politicians
from Delhi or elsewhere speaks volumes of the habit of stooping to unknown
levels.
Really, why should we name these after politicians or officials who either
have little or no connection with Assam or have been blatantly against the
state's interests?

The Nehru family has no place in any of these landmarks in Assam. I can
understand Mahatma Gandhi, but I can't think of any other national
politician, past or present, that would qualify. Wonder which state
politician qualifies?
Generally, it is not a good idea to name landmarks after the living, and the
state should really assess carefully after whom they do name.

--Ram



Naming Buildings after Traitors
I refer to the letter by Mr Simanta Phukan on the above subject (The
Sentinel, October 16). For once, someone with some pride for his State has
raised his pen on behalf of a silent majority who feel the same way. I fully
agree with Mr Phukan that roads and buildings should be named after our own
icons, heroes and warriors who have contributed to our culture and heritage,
and not after 'national' politicians of dubious credentials who had
kick-started the process of wiping the Asomiyas out of their own land. Our
kings, queens and warriors who concretized the Asomiya subnationality and
fought and resisted the invaders, do not seem to be worthy of fond
remembrance. Glorifying some unworthy Browns and White-bashing, our pseudo
intellectuals did not find even personalities like Edward Gait, who did so
much to project our history, worthy of praise or mention. Are Miles Bronson
who took us miles ahead in the field of education, the ones who gave us the
first newspaper and saved the Asomiya language from being gobbled up by an
alien one, and Bruce whose pioneering efforts towards tea plantation
resulted in the largest industry of the State, not worthy of commemoration?
But we go and emblazon the names of politicians who mucked up our State and
left us in the mess that we are in today. One road is even named after the
father of a one-time national leader. I wonder what his contribution to our
State was!
And it is not politicians alone who muck around with our history and
heritage. Our so-called students' unions with their grey-haired 'advisors',
who like clowns fight over as to who should the planned flyovers be named
after even before the blueprint is made, do not seem to bother about this
state of affairs.
One factor contributing to all this is that the Asomiya middle class has
absolutely no ethnic pride. Our working class consists entirely of
outsiders. And the rural folk are barely surviving from calamity to calamity
to have time for these things. Then there are the builders who spoil the
landscape by building ugly high-rises, and the denizens who occupy them, and
they find it fit to name their creations as they like, forgetting our own
wonderful mountains and rivers. I have not seen any apartment or building
named Dikhow, Dihing and Kolong.
It is now important that the indigenous people of the State should resist
the naming of roads and structures after people who had made no contribution
to our State. Why should the sporting facilities that are being built for
the National Games be named after members of a dynastic political family who
already have hundreds of things named after them all over the country — like
a banana republic? Have these facilities been built out of personal funds of
such people? Is it not out of the taxpayers' money? Or were these the
conditions to be met before getting the privilege of hosting the National
Games?
Dhruba Jyoti Sarma,
Beltola, Guwahati.
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