Lenin, Marx and Ho Chi Minh could disappear from Kolkata street signs
Panel weighs new names as BJP government reviews roads linked to Communist icons
Dubai: Kolkata could soon lose some of its most distinctive political street names, with West Bengal’s new BJP government considering proposals to rename roads honouring Communist icons Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx and Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh.
A 10-member committee set up to examine street and place names has received proposals concerning Lenin Sarani, Karl Marx Sarani and Ho Chi Minh Sarani — names that have survived for more than half a century and reflect West Bengal’s long history of Left politics.
“We have received a number of proposals for changing the names of the streets named after Lenin, Karl Marx and Ho Chi Minh,” committee chairman Swami Pradiptananda, also known as Kartik Maharaj of Bharat Sevashram, told AFP. “We are considering the proposal.”
The panel is expected to hold its first meeting after Durga Puja, when proposals involving Kolkata roads are likely to be taken up.
The move comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party won power in West Bengal for the first time in May, ending 15 years of Trinamool Congress rule. The Trinamool had itself come to power after more than three decades of Left Front government.
‘Make amends’
Former Meghalaya and Tripura governor Tathagata Roy, a former BJP state president and member of the committee, indicated that the three Communist-linked names were firmly in its sights.
“The committee will try to make amends for the mischiefs committed by the leftists,” Roy told AFP.
Why does Kolkata have a Ho Chi Minh street?
The history behind the names stretches back to the era when Communist politics dominated West Bengal.
Ho Chi Minh Sarani was previously Harrington Street, named after a British colonial official. It was renamed during the Vietnam War.
The road has an unusual geographical connection to the conflict: The US Consulate General is located on it.
“Harrington Street was named after Ho Chi Minh to spite the Americans because the American consulate is located on the street,” Roy told AFP.
He has proposed replacing Ho Chi Minh’s name with that of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Lenin Sarani was formerly Dharmatala Street and was renamed in 1970 during celebrations marking the centenary of the Russian revolutionary’s birth.
Roy has proposed naming it after mathematician Debaprasad Ghosh, a former president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the political precursor to the BJP.
Circular Garden Reach Road was subsequently renamed Karl Marx Sarani. Roy has proposed that the road instead honour 19th-century Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt or poet Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, citing their connections to the area.
“Streets honouring Lenin, Marx and Ho Chi Minh would definitely be renamed,” he said.
The committee will consider the relevance of personalities to Indian and Bengali heritage and culture before making recommendations, which will then be sent to the state Assembly for consideration.
Among the panel’s members are Chief Minister’s adviser Subrata Gupta and Kolkata Municipal Corporation Commissioner Smita Pandey.
Lenin statue could also go
The proposals extend beyond street signs.
Roy has called for the removal of the Lenin statue at the crossing of Jawaharlal Nehru Road and Sidhho-Kanhu Dahar and suggested that an important Kolkata road be named after India’s first deputy prime minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
He has also proposed changes to some places named after Muslim figures, suggesting they instead honour Muslims he described as “nationalist”.
Names proposed include writer Qazi Abdul Wadud, educationist Begum Rokeya and author S Wajed Ali. One proposal would replace the name associated with Titumir at a bus stand in Barasat, near Kolkata.
No final decision has been taken on the proposed changes.
The committee’s recommendations will have to go before the state Assembly, setting the stage for a wider debate over whether Kolkata’s street names should better reflect Indian and Bengali heritage — or whether changing names that have existed for decades risks rewriting parts of the city’s political and cultural history.
