Kerala’s ‘m’ dash
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What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
Bachi Karkaria’s column for the Times of India uses Kerala’s Centre-approved renaming to ‘Keralam’ as a springboard to examine India’s broader place-renaming movement. She traces the pattern — from Mysore to Mysuru, Allahabad to Prayagraj, Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar — arguing that while the official justification is reclaiming heritage and parampara, the real driver is a nationalist political agenda to shed a perceived “slave mentality” rooted in colonial and Mughal-era names.
Karkaria also highlights the political calculus behind these decisions: Mamata Banerjee condemned the Keralam move as electoral maneuvering ahead of Kerala’s assembly elections, while noting that the Centre simultaneously blocked her own demand to rename West Bengal as ‘Bangla’. The column closes with a sharp reminder of the material cost — any renaming of public places carries a price tag of ₹200–500 crore — delivered with Karkaria’s signature wit.
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Kerala Becomes ‘Keralam’
The Centre approved Kerala’s renaming to ‘Keralam’, restoring the original Malayalam form of the state’s name and adding it to India’s growing list of renamed places.
Heritage vs. Political Tool
Proponents frame renaming as reclaiming cultural heritage and rejecting colonial “slave mentality,” but critics see it as electoral and ideological maneuvering.
Mamata Cries Double Standard
Mamata Banerjee accused the Centre of approving ‘Keralam’ to influence Kerala elections while denying West Bengal’s long-standing request to become ‘Bangla’.
Delhi Wants ‘Indraprastha’ Too
Keralam’s approval spurred BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal to push for renaming Delhi to ‘Indraprastha’ — though the city’s current name traces to the ancient King Dhilu, not foreign rulers.
Renaming Has a Real Price Tag
Beyond the symbolism, any renaming of public places costs the public exchequer between ₹200 crore and ₹500 crore — a figure Karkaria deploys as her wry punchline.
History Complicates the Narrative
Several names being “reclaimed” as pre-colonial turn out to have equally ancient indigenous roots, exposing the selectivity of the civilisational identity argument.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
Renaming as Political Theatre, Not Just Heritage
India’s place-renaming wave, triggered here by Kerala becoming ‘Keralam’, serves a dual purpose: a genuine linguistic restoration on one hand, and a calculated tool of nationalist identity politics and electoral maneuvering on the other — with a steep public cost either way.
Purpose
To Satirise and Scrutinise a Political Pattern
Karkaria writes to puncture the high-minded justifications for renaming by exposing the political opportunism beneath them — using wit, historical facts, and financial figures to argue that name changes cost far more than national pride bargains for.
Structure
Contextual → Comparative → Political → Punchline
Opens with the Kerala announcement, broadens to compare India’s renaming trend, examines the political double standards across BJP and Mamata, exposes a historical irony about Delhi’s own name, and closes with a financial punchline — a tightly compressed satirical arc.
Tone
Witty, Sardonic & Politically Sharp
Karkaria’s signature Erratica voice is on full display — multilingual wordplay, dry irony, and bilingual asides (naam ke vastey, parampara, khela) that signal insider fluency while keeping the critique accessible and pointed throughout.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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A Sanskrit and Hindi term meaning tradition, lineage, or a practice passed down continuously through generations.
“Re-naming is a re-claiming — of tradition, heritage, parampara (paramparam in Kerala’s case?).”
An Urdu word for a burial shroud; used here metaphorically to mean the final nail in the coffin of something already dying.
“Increasingly, renaming is yet another nail in the kafan of our even-more vilified masters.”
Sanskrit/Hindi for “certainly” or “of course” — used here sarcastically by Karkaria to mock the grandiose certainty of nationalist rhetoric.
“Nishchayah, thus ‘reclaiming’ of its ‘civilisational identity’ would reaffirm Bharat’s maha past.”
Tending to incite, stir up, or provoke action or reaction — typically used in political contexts to describe deliberately provocative moves.
“Mamata condemned the latest name-change as one more SIR, special instigative revision.”
A Karkaria coinage blending “political” and “potence” (power) — meaning the seat or symbol of political power, here referring to Delhi as the centre of governance.
“Speaking of Dilli as city not symbol of politi-potence, the ‘Keralam’ approval promptly prompted…”
Colloquially meaning legitimate, proper, or acceptable — borrowed from Jewish dietary law; here used ironically to note Delhi’s name has a perfectly legitimate ancient Hindu origin.
“There’s an awkward detail. The long-standing current name stems from a kosher king, Raja Dhilu.”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to Karkaria, the Centre approved Mamata Banerjee’s request to rename West Bengal as ‘Bangla’ at the same time as approving ‘Keralam’ for Kerala.
2What “awkward detail” does Karkaria raise about BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal’s demand to rename Delhi ‘Indraprastha’?
3Which sentence best captures the official ideological justification that renaming proponents offer for place name changes in India?
4Evaluate the following statements about the examples and claims made in the article.
The renaming of Allahabad to ‘Prayagraj’ and Aurangabad to ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ are cited as examples of India’s place-renaming trend.
Karkaria’s column suggests that West Bengal is also facing an upcoming election around the same period as Kerala.
Karkaria argues that the BJP would benefit politically from approving Mamata’s demand to rename West Bengal as ‘Bangla’.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5What can most reasonably be inferred about Karkaria’s overall attitude toward India’s place-renaming movement?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Proponents argue that renaming restores pre-colonial or indigenous names that were distorted or replaced by British rulers and earlier foreign powers, framing it as a cultural and civilisational reclamation. Critics, including Karkaria, contend that many renamings are driven by contemporary nationalist politics rather than purely historical necessity, and that the financial and administrative costs are rarely acknowledged.
The title is a typographical pun: an ‘m’ dash (—) is a punctuation mark used to signal a break or addition, and here it refers to the literal addition of the letter ‘m’ to make ‘Kerala’ into ‘Keralam’. Karkaria’s Erratica column is known for this kind of wordplay — the title itself performs the wit the column promises, treating the political event as a single punctuation mark in a longer, ongoing story.
Bachi Karkaria is one of India’s most celebrated senior journalists and editors, having served at the Times of India for decades. Her column Erratica, launched in 1994, is known for its satirical takes on Indian politics, society, and culture, delivered in a signature multilingual, punchy style with a sign-off quip from her fictional alter ego “Alec Smart.” It has built a loyal readership over three decades.
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This article is rated Intermediate. Karkaria’s Erratica style blends English with Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, and Sanskrit terms (parampara, kafan, nishchayah, khela), requiring readers to infer meaning from context. The political argument is compressed and allusive, demanding background knowledge of Indian electoral politics and the renaming debate. Readers must also navigate satire and identify when the author’s voice is ironic rather than sincere.
By closing with the ₹200–500 crore cost of renaming public places, Karkaria punctures the idealistic framing of the entire renaming movement. She implies that the grand rhetoric of civilisational reclamation and heritage restoration ultimately comes at a very concrete, very taxpayer-funded price — a pointed reminder that symbolic politics is never truly free.
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