After Mughalsarai, Rajasthan renames ‘Muslim-sounding’ village

JAIPUR: A village in Rajasthan called ‘Miyon ka Bara’ has been officially rechristened to ‘Mahesh Nagar’ after residents complained that they stopped receiving matrimonial matches owing to the ‘Muslim-sounding’ name.

“The residents were facing difficulty in finding marriage proposals for their children because of the village’s name. They approached the government authorities with the request to change the name,” Tahir Samma, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Siwana tehsil told to The Hindu.

According to media reports, the village ‘Miyon Ka Bara’ located at the border district of Barmer has only four families as Muslim making it a Hindu-majority village with a population of around 2,000 people.

“We had sought reports from Intelligence Bureau, Geological Survey of India (GSI), the Department of Post and the Ministry of Earth Sciences. There were no adverse reports from any agency and a NOC was issued. The state government can remove the name Miyon ka Bara. A notification has to be issued by the Public Works Department of Rajasthan, informing the Department of Post and GSI so that people do not face any inconvenience when referring to Miyon ka Bara as Mahesh Nagar,” The Indian Express quoted a senior home ministry official as saying.

Other two ‘Ismailpur village’ in Jhunjhunu district and ‘Narpara’ village in Jalore district also saw similar name changes.

Formerly known as Ismailpur, the village will henceforth be called as ‘Pichanwa Khurd’. Meanwhile, Narpara was renamed ‘Narpura’.

On August 5, Mughalsarai Railway Station in Uttar Pradesh was formally renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhyay station.