Do you know that Rajpath that overlooks the magnificent Rashtrapati Bhavan was once called Kingsway?
It is not Rajpath alone that has over the years been renamed in Lutyens’ Delhi — once the capital of the British empire — but several other English names in Rajdhani Dilli have made way for Indian ones.
As the Indian government set about making Delhi its capital, many roads were named and renamed after leaders of modern India, in the process of erasing the memory of the British empire.
Rajpath, the ceremonial boulevard of the country that runs from Rashtrapati Bhavan through Vijay Chowk to India Gate, right up to the National Stadium, was once called Kingsway.
Likewise, the Motilal Nehru Marg, which houses the likes of the chief minister of Delhi, was once called York Road when Edwin Lutyens started building New Delhi in 1912.
New Delhi, the capital of the modern India, turns 100 on Monday and a lot of things have changed in the city, the names of roads being just one of them.
Teen Murti Marg, that houses the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, was once known as Roberts Road and the present day Rafi Marg was known during the British Raj as Old Mill Road.
The original name of Tees January Marg, which got its name after Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948 at Gandhi Smriti, is Albukerd Marg.
While the erstwhile Canning Road is now called Madhavrao Scindia Marg, after the Congress leader who died tragically in 2001, G.B. Road is known as Swami Shradhananda Road.
However, the Connaught Place, the centre of the British capital, retains the original names of its roads, with Chelmsford Road, Minto Road, and Hailey Road yet to be renamed.