Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay’s PIL seeking renaming of historical places named after ‘foreign invaders’, rejected by the Supreme Court
Today, the Supreme Court rejected a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) filed by BJP Leader and Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhaya seeking the renaming of various historical places. He claimed in his petition that the names of many historical places in India are named after “foreign barbaric invaders”. In his plea, he stated that “We are celebrating the 75th anniversary of independence but there are many ancient historical-cultural religious places in the name of brutal foreign invaders, their servants and family members, successive governments have not taken steps to correct the barbaric act of invaders and the injury is continuing.”
While hearing the case, the bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and KM Joseph stated that “We are secular and supposed to protect the Constitution. You are concerned about the past and dig it up to place its burden on present generation. Each thing you do in this manner will create more disharmony.” In addition, Justice Joseph asked Advocate Upadhyay, “You want to keep this as a live issue and keep the country on boil? Fingers are pointed at a particular community. You run down a particular section of society. India is a secular state, this is a secular forum.”
During the hearing, Advocate Upadhyay highlighted various historical places mentioned in the Vedas and Puranas which are now named after “foreign looters”. He added, “We have roads after Lodhi, Ghazni, Ghori… there is no single road named after Pandavas, though Indraprastha was constructed by Yudhishtir…Faridabad named after person who looted the city.” Advocate further asked the bench regarding the relationship between Aurangzeb, Ghazni, Lodhi, and others with India. To which the bench asked not to highlight the past and affect the momentum of the country. Moreover, the Supreme Court said that “Let us not break society with such kinds of petitions, please have the country in mind, not any religion, there is no bigotry in Hinduism.”
Justice Joseph while addressing the greatness of the Hindu religion illustrated that “Hinduism is the greatest religion in terms of metaphysics. The heights which Hindusim have in Upanishads, Vedas, Bhagavad Gita is unequal in any system. We should be proud of that. Please don’t belittle it. We have to understand our own greatness. Our greatness should lead us to be magnanimous. I am a Christian. But I am equally fond of Hinduism. I am trying to study it. You read the works of Dr. S Radhakrishan on Hindu philosophy.” In context with the PIL filed by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, the Supreme Court stated that India has been invaded several times by foreigners in the past which cannot be wiped off from history by simply renaming the historical places named after the invaders.
