Dear Amdavadi,Whats problem with name Amdavad ?

The demand of the renaming of the "Amdavad" with "Karnavati" never fructify but it never faded away from the popular discussion. Whenever some city of India gets renamed, the Demand of Renaming of Ahmedabad reappears. Yesterday, UP Govt. renamed the "Alhabad" with "Prayagraj" and it ensured by the demand of the renaming of Amdavad as Karanavati.

I am not a student of the History and so don’t know much about the meaning of word "Ahmedabad" and not about "Karnavati". But in short, the whole debate is between the Historic events. In Medieval time, Amdavad was known as the "Karnavati" which was ruled by Hindu ruler and Later period it renamed as "Ahmedabad" by a Muslim ruler.

But, Today it's "Amdavad" - " Aapnu Amdavad"! Today's Amdavad is neither ruled by Ahmad Shah and not by any Hindu ruler but it’s ruled by the Elected government. Today Amdavad is known to the world with the name of Gandhiji, Sabarmati Ashram, Vibrant Entrepreneur class, IIM etc. These are the symbol of the Modern Amdavad which doesn't have to anything with either Medieval Muslim rulers and not with Hindu ruler. Modern Amdavad has nothing to do with Medieval.

But it doesn't mean that Culture and History are unimportant. Cultural and Historic symbol are equally important as the Modern Symbol. But our historic symbols are not those which propagate by the what's app university. To understand real culture and history, one has to roam in the city, Have to read some books, refer some websites! Here I made small efforts to explain this.

 Following is the introduction of the city given on the website (UNESCO - AMC heritage city- http://heritage.ahmedabadcity.gov.in/index.html). No words can describe the city better than this. This is a really excellent introduction of the city.

"The city of Ahmedabad was formerly known as Ashawal of Asha Bhil; Karnavati of Karanadev, Ahamdabad of Sultan Ahmed Shah, Rajnagar, the capital of Jainism, a politico-cultural city of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel and Amdavad of 'Amdavadis'. The Britishers spelled it as Ahmedabad and it became internationally known as Ahmedabad. But in the vernacular language, it became popular as Amdavad and all the Gujaratis know it as Amdavadis. The citizens are known as Amdavadis across the world."

Dear Amdavadi, Hope These words made clear to you that our culture is not exclusive to Hindu religion and also not of the Muslim religion. We have to understand this. Our culture is the beautiful fusion of the various religion, region, traditions etc.  First, 5 names mention by UNESCO - AMC website in the list of the "Religious" traditions are - Hathisingh Jain Temple, Sarkhej Roza, Bhadrakali Temple, Sidi Saeed’s Mosque, Swaminarayan Temple.  5 Names mention about 3 religious traditions.

But the Culture-History is not only about the Religion. It’s including the clothes, architecture designs, literature etc. UNESCO-AMC website mention has a detail list. Some of them are - Kavi Dalpatram Chowk, Adalaj Vav, Old Ahmedabad Stock Exchange. This heritage has nothing to do with Hindu-Mulsim ( Karnavati-Amdavad) debate. Did only Hindu or only Muslim drink water from Adalaj vaav? Did only Mulism or only Jain trade in Amdavad stock exchange? NO! Then what is the problem with the name "Amdavad"?

So, I like to make a request to not to became pray of the political game of the political parties. They only seek your votes by dividing you. Firstly try to understand the importance of history-customs-heritage of city independently without material of the whats app university and then after you feel that city need to rename with another name, It ’s your right to do so! But please do not join the demand of rename of the city just some other people doing so!

And even if we rename city as the Karnavati, it may develop a new type of issues as I mention earlier that city known as "Ashawal before "Karnavati" . Some people may raise demand it to rename as "Ashawal". As Hindu pressing for the "Karnavati", Tomorrow Jaina may press for the name of the " Rajnagar" as a city known as this name for a brief period of time in history! This name-rename debate is useless. Rather we should focus to make Amdavad- Aapnu Amdavad as Clean, Green and Safe!