Earlier this month, the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government decided to rename Ahmednagar district as Ahilya Nagar, after the 18th-century warrior queen Ahilya Devi Holkar. In February, it renamed Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv.
This renaming spree that the government has embarked on is a form of majoritarian politics. It suggests an erasure of those parts of history that are associated with Muslim rulers and can be seen as an attempt to make a community feel diminished by erasing its contributions to the nation. Aurangabad was named after Mughal emperor Aurangzeb; Osmanabad derived its name from the Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan; and Ahmednagar is associated with Malik Ahmed Nizam Shah, the founder of the Nizam Shahi dynasty. This trend has also ignited communal unrest. About a week after the decision to rename Ahmednagar, tensions prevailed in Kolhapur following a protest by right-wing outfits over social media messages that reportedly glorified Aurangzeb and the 18th century Mysore ruler, Tipu Sultan.
It was, in fact, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government which decided to name Aurangabad and Osmanabad in response to a long-standing demand of the Shiv Sena. This was the last Cabinet decision of the MVA government before it collapsed in June last year. After coming to power, the Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government scrapped the decision stating that the Uddhav Thackeray-led government lacked a majority and claiming that the decision would face legal hurdles. Its Cabinet cleared the renaming proposal once again, and Aurangabad and Osmanabad were renamed in a way which the government hopes will appeal to its core voter base in the Marathwada region.
