[BITList] Dilli? And, pray, why not?

[John Feltham]

"Dilli? What or where is that?"



Posted on 30th June 2009 at 09:48 by Sten

http://www.empirechronicles.co.uk/2009/06/30/dilli-what-or-where-is-that

Indians have now reached New Delhi with their name change
efforts to wipe out "colonial" names and expect, naturally, the
whole world to start using the new names, without considering
the fact that even if they change the official names of their
places, in other languages, like, in English, for example, the
names could still remain old and pronouncable.

Their latest bid is to change the name of New Delhi to more
"Indian" Dilli.

"When we speak to each other, we say we are going to 'Dilli'
not 'New Delhi'. When we try, we translate Mountbatten's
'New Delhi' as 'Naya Dilli'," the sports minister Dr MS Gill said
according to the Telegraph.

"Now even the British have no problem pronouncing 'Mumbai'.
What's wrong with Indians reclaiming their names? It doesn't
hurt anyone and the British don't care."

Well, they're basically right - the British don't care and why
should they care what are the official names of Indian places
in Indian languages. Especially when they use their own
names for places among each other anyway.

What people should care about, and I'm sure at least some do,
is that this Indian urge to change the names affects, for some
strange reason, also other languages. There are thousands of
places in the world where the official name is totally different
from what the place is called in English. Yerushalayim is Jerusalem,
Moskva is Moscow, Österreich is Austria, Suomi is Finland etc.
It's normal and natural that places - whether cities or countries
- have different names in different languages.

Why are then India's places different? Why are they, on one hand,
forcing English speakers to use their local names instead of old
English versions, and on the other hand, why are English speakers
going along with it? Can't it be that in local languages, Bombay
is Mumbai, and in English, Mumbai is Bombay? What's wrong
with calling Chennai Madras in English? No one is asking Indians
to use the English version.

And really, I don't care if Indians call their capital Dilli. They can
call it whatever they want. But they shouldn't frown upon people
who keep calling it New Delhi in English. As they shouldn't frown
upon people who keep saying Bombay.



ooroo

Bad typists of the word, untie.