Dharamshala: Senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar has urged Governor Himachal Pradesh Bandaru Dattatreya and chief minister Jai Ram Thakur to implement a decision taken by the state government in the year 1992 of renaming the popular hill station, Dalhousie. In a letter to the chief minister and the government, Kumar states that when he was the Chief Minister, heading a BJP government in 1992, an ordinance had been issued to change the name of Dalhousie, but the Congress government that came to power after him, canceled it.
Talking to this correspondent Shanta Kumar said that Dalhousie is associated with the memory of three great men: litterateur and Nobel laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore, who stayed at the hill station and did compose some parts of his famous composition Gitanjali there; Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, who stayed at the hill station for sometime before he escaped abroad and struggled to secure freedom for the country by raising the Azad Hind Fauj; and Ajit Singh’s a famous revolutionary who was also the uncle of Shaheed Bhagat Singh too was a resident of Dalhousie and died there.
He said that the memorials of these three great men should be built in Dalhousie, he demanded that the government should make a grand memorial of the house in which Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose stayed. He said, “today Dalhousie is only famous as a hill tourist center but after the creation of the memorials of three great men, this place will become a historical national pilgrimage centre across India.”
The demand for renaming Dalhousie – the famous hill station in Chamba district, as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Nagar, has surfaced again with another BJP leader Subramanian Swamy writing to state Governor Bandaru Dattatreya in this regard.
Dr @swamy39 writes to H.E Governor of Himachal Pradesh @Dattatreya for change of the name of Dalhousie who was British Imperialist to Subhash Nagar in honour of Netaji Subhash Chander Bose @jagdishshetty @BJP4Himachal @apjagga @republic #SubramanianSwamy pic.twitter.com/CBNnigdBEh
— Tejas (@NAVANGULTEJAS) June 4, 2021
The town is named after Lord Dalhousie, who was the Governor-General of India during British rule.
Senior Congress leader and Dalhousie MLA Asha Kumari has written to Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, claiming even the locals were against the proposal. “The sentiments of the Dalhousie residents should be given top priority while considering any such suggestion,” she said.
Those associated with the tourism industry claim the name Dalhousie gave the town an international identity to attract even international tourists.
Dalhousie (1,970 m ),is a high-altitude town spread across 5 hills near the Dhauladhar mountain range in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It’s home to colonial-era buildings, including St. Francis and St. John’s churches, which date back to the rule of the British Raj in the 1800s. Its Population is 7,051 (2011 census ).
Arvind Sharma is an award winning bi-lingual journalist with more than 20 years of experience.
He has worked with Divya Himachal, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasker, Vir Partap, Ajit and PTI.
In 2010, he was conferred the Himachal Kesri journalism award. He reports on the Tibetan Government in Exile, politics, sports, tourism and other topics. He lives in Dharamshala.
