“West” will soon be dropped from West Bengal and the state would be known as Bengal in English and Bangla or Banga in Bengali. This decision was taken at a state Cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday.
“A resolution will be passed at a special session of the state Assembly which will start on August 26,” education minister Partha Chatterjee said after the meeting. Thereafter the resolution will be sent to the Centre for Parliament’s approval. Mr Chatterjee claimed that the decision was taken “for the sake of the people of the state, its heritage and culture as well as to promote and protect its interests at the national level.”
This is not the first time that Ms Banerjee has started the process to change the name of the state. She first initiated the process for a name change after coming to power in May 2011. In an all-party meeting held in August 2011, a consensus was reached to rechristen West Bengal as Paschimbanga. The decision had evoked mixed response.
The proposal was sent to the Centre which informed the state that a bill—West Bengal (Alteration of Name) Act, 2014 — would be tabled in Parliament. However, the matter remained pending and the UPA II government was replaced by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre.
A sense of urgency to change the state’s name gripped the CM when she attended the inter-state council meeting in Delhi chaired by PM Narendra Modi. She was allowed to speak briefly after waiting for over five hours for her turn. This always happens as West Bengal figures at the bottom of the list of states in the alphabetical order. Ms Banerjee, who had several vital issues to discuss with the Prime Minister, was left disappointed. Sources said that she asked chief secretary Basudeb Banerjee to immediately start the process for the change of name.
Historically West Bengal has become a misnomer. After the creation of Bangladesh, there is no East Bengal so what is the relevance for West Bengal. Incidentally, it was the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-led Left Front government which had changed the name of the state capital from Calcutta to Kolkata in 2001. Now Ms banerjee is determined to change the name of the state from West Bengal to Bengal and Bangla or Banga.
What’s in a name Mamata Banerjee’s decision to drop West from West Bengal was prompted by her bitter experience at a meeting with the Prime Minister in New Delhi recently. She had to wait for about five hours as West Bengal comes near the bottom in alphabetical order.
While there is unanimity on calling the state Bengal in English, the government has not yet decided whether to call it Bangla or Banga in Bengali. Some feel that Banga (pronounced Bongo) is not appropriate as it’s the name of a musical instrument, while Bangla is a word for country liquor.
