Recently, the Haryana government has renamed Gurgaon and Mewat and this is triggered calls to change names of other cities as well. As per reports, an RSS affiliate of VHP has now proposed to rename Shimla as Shyamla.
Manoj Kumar, the organizing secretary of VHP has appealed to Acharya Devvrat, the Himachal Pradesh Governer to discuss this issue to rename various historical places. This move was made after VHP mooted a proposal for designating the historical Peterhoff building of Shimla as Valmiki Sadan and renaming Dalhousie after Netaji Subhash Chander Bose. VHP believes that the places have a strong British legacy and connection.
Know the history!
The popular Peterhoff building of Shimla houses various governor generals and viceroys of India during British Raj. After a massive fire, it was ravaged completely in the year 1981. Dalhousie was established by the Britishers in the year 1854 as a summer retreat for officials and troops. The name of this place was named after Lord Dalhousie, the later British Governor General in India.
Why VHP wants to rename Shimla?
This renaming supports various theories with regards to origin of the name of this hill town. These versions are documented on the official administration website. One theory states that the word Shimla is derived from the word ‘Shyamla’, the meaning of which is blue house. A ‘Faqir’ had built a blue house on Shimla’s Jakhu Peak.
Another theory says that Shimla got its name from ‘Shyamla’, the meaning of which is blue female. Interestingly, the other name for Goddess Kali is Shimla.
