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Well, they could take a leaf from India and just rename the city? Although, politically motivated in India, it works. Eventually Bombay became Mumbai, Bangalore

by sh87 7y ago

Well, they could take a leaf from India and just rename the city? Although, politically motivated in India, it works. Eventually Bombay became Mumbai, Bangalore is Bengaluru, Madras is now Chennai and what was known as Allahabad is now Prayagraj.

save_ferris 7y ago
Didn’t India do this specifically for cities whose names have their origins in British colonialism? That’s a very different context than a virus originating from a particular area.
- sh87 7y ago
  Yes very different but my point being, the names were changed and over time people do refer to these cities by their "new" names. Also, in India the colonial reference was the official excuse. In my view, it was purely a show of political power.
  - viklove 7y ago
    Those are the original names of those cities... The British Raj changed the names when they took control, and the residents of those cities wanted to go back to their original names.
    - sh87 7y ago
      If that were true, the people would have renamed them back 70 years ago when India took back control, just as a symbol of regaining control. They didn't. Failing that, local culture would refer to those cities by those reticent names somewhere. Local newspapers, pamphlets, propaganda material. No evidence of that.
      - save_ferris 7y ago
        Apparently the effort to reestablish native Indian community names began in 1947 and has been going on for several decades[0], you're not correct about this. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaming_of_cities_in_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaming_of_cities_in_India
KineticLensman 7y ago
It used to be a joke in the UK that after a nuclear incident 'they' would change the name of the facility so that people wouldn't make the connection. I remember hearing this in the context of the Windscale Fire [0], after which the site was referred to as Sellafield. In fact Sellafield is a multi-function nuclear site [0] of which Windscale was just one facility of many. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield

by sh87 7y ago

save_ferris 7y ago

Didn’t India do this specifically for cities whose names have their origins in British colonialism? That’s a very different context than a virus originating from a particular area.

sh87 7y ago
Yes very different but my point being, the names were changed and over time people do refer to these cities by their "new" names. Also, in India the colonial reference was the official excuse. In my view, it was purely a show of political power.
- viklove 7y ago
  Those are the original names of those cities... The British Raj changed the names when they took control, and the residents of those cities wanted to go back to their original names.
  - sh87 7y ago
    If that were true, the people would have renamed them back 70 years ago when India took back control, just as a symbol of regaining control. They didn't. Failing that, local culture would refer to those cities by those reticent names somewhere. Local newspapers, pamphlets, propaganda material. No evidence of that.
    - save_ferris 7y ago
      Apparently the effort to reestablish native Indian community names began in 1947 and has been going on for several decades[0], you're not correct about this. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaming_of_cities_in_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaming_of_cities_in_India

KineticLensman 7y ago

It used to be a joke in the UK that after a nuclear incident 'they' would change the name of the facility so that people wouldn't make the connection. I remember hearing this in the context of the Windscale Fire [0], after which the site was referred to as Sellafield. In fact Sellafield is a multi-function nuclear site [0] of which Windscale was just one facility of many. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield