South Delhi's Bengali enclave naming was a toss between Purbanchal & CR Park, claims new book

New Delhi: It could have been called 'Purbanchal' if not 'C R Park' — the post-Independence Bengali enclave in south Delhi, the story of whose naming is as fascinating as its inception, according to a new book.

Nicknamed 'Little Calcutta', the upscale neighbourhood in the capital city, known for its fish markets, old shops selling delectable sweets like 'sondesh' and 'chomchom', and for its affluent residents, many of whom trace their roots to undivided India on the eastern front.

A slice of Bengal in Delhi, known officially, today as 'Chittranjan Park', and popularly called 'C R Park', was conceived nearly 70 years ago, after the 1947 Partition, to cater to people who had migrated or been displaced from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), which was born out of the East Bengal region.

Notwithstanding the contemporary popularity of the neighbourhood's name, a new book has claimed that 'Purbanchal' and not 'C R Park' was the choice of the majority of people, when the two options were "put to vote" by the East Pakistan Displaced Persons' Association or EPDP.

Journalist Adrija Roychowdhury in her debut book "Delhi, in Thy Name", explores the stories behind the naming of this 'Bangali colony' as it is informally also referred to by many, and of several other post-Independence conurbations which bear the names of prominent nationalist leaders, freedom fighters, such as Lajpat Nagar, Malviya Nagar and Netaji Nagar.

The nearly 200-page volume also looks into naming of Connaught Place and Connaught Circus, Lutyens' Delhi commercial showpiece, and its renaming after mother-son duo of former prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, which was "not accepted by people and the business community" operating establishments at the iconic market complex designed by British architect Robert Torr Russell.

Beginning with the story of Chandni Chowk of Mughal-era Shahjehanabad, where "two pasts are competing to make space for themselves", the author navigates through the British-era 'New Delhi' built after shifting of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi, and onward to post-Independence resettlement colonies, and eventually to modern enclaves of Saket and Shaheen Bagh, set up in the last few decades.

But, the story of naming of the post-Independence Bengali colony in the national capital throws an element of surprise to the readers.