Fazil Nagar will now be called Pava Nagri, UP CM declares at Jain religious site

The chief minister added that this name change reflected Kushinagar district’s association with Mahavira.

The Uttar Pradesh administration under Yogi Adityanath has renamed various places across the northern state | ANI File

New Delhi: Fazil Nagar in Kushinagar district would be renamed to Pava Nagri, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath declared Tuesday.

The government has already initiated the process of renaming the town, he said at an event at Tarun Sagaram Tirth, a Jain religious site, in Ghaziabad’s Muradnagar.

The chief minister added that this name change reflected the district’s association with Mahavira, the 24th and last Tirthankara in Jainism.

The decision adds to a flurry of name changes initiated by the ruling BJP within the state and outside. In August 2018, the erstwhile Mughalsarai junction in Uttar Pradesh was renamed Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay junction, in memory of the Jana Sangh ideologue.

The city of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh also underwent a change in identity, as its name was changed to Prayagraj in October that year.

The idea behind it was to emphasise on its historic Hindu identity and the associated historic Kumbh Mela, while also eschewing the former name which was ideated by Mughal emperor Akbar. Faizabad district became Ayodhya in 2018.

Similar changes have been ushered in other places. For instance, Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi was renamed as A.P.J Abdul Kalam Road, after the pioneering aerospace scientist who later became the President. The name change took place in 2015.

Another notable name change took place in 2022. when the historic Rajpath, formerly Kingsway, was converted to ‘Kartavya Path’—meaning the path of duty—ahead of the reopening of the Central Vista project. The Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Mughal Gardens was rechristened ‘Amrit Udyan’ in 2023.

(Edited by Tony Rai)