The Councillors of the Greater Chennai Corporation are at it again. Last week, they have placed a request to the Chief Minister that their long-pending demand to rename principal roads after well-known personalities be agreed to. Their complaint is that the Corporation is not paying heed to their repeated reminders to this effect. While the response of the Hon.CM is awaited, to us at Madras Musings, the Corporation has emerged a hero if it has indeed put the brakes on name changing.
In the last one week, some of the GCC’s councillors, who would be better off looking after the cleanliness and condition of roads in their respective wards, have begun to focus on cosmetics. And the first step in that direction is changing the names of roads. One demand is to rename Triplicane High Road after the artist Sarma who created the original portrait of Thiruvalluvar. Another request is for a road to be named after former education minister and DMK stalwart K Anbazhagan (there are already a couple of places named after him in the city).
A third is for renaming all streets with caste identities in Korattur. While caste is an acknowledged evil, removing it from street names serves no purpose today, as there is thankfully no caste-based demarcation in the city. These are simply historic markers and need to be left as they are. Caste eradication is better done by focusing on social reform. But that possibly gets no votes. For that matter, does changing street names get votes? May be not but then it will be added as one more ‘achievement’ we guess when a councillor seeks re-election. After all, every point in a handbill adds to its length and makes it look impressive although hardly anybody would read it in full.
There is as yet no study on the cost impact of name changes of streets and localities, both tangible and intangible. However, the desired result, of honouring someone this way, is lost as the personality becomes just a street name with hardly anyone bothering to find out why someone merited such an honour. And over time, we also manage to successfully reduce most street names to mere initials and that makes even less sense, obscuring the persons honoured even more. A far more effective solution would be to retain old names and take up the practice of commemorative plaques. These can carry details of the persons who lived in that area, their achievements and why they are being thus honoured. Most historic cities abroad follow this practice.
But then most such cities also believe in making their roads and streets pedestrian friendly so that people can walk around in a leisurely manner and take in the sights. In our city the emphasis is only on making thoroughfares accessible for vehicles. Should not our Councillors be thinking about this and wondering over how to change the situation? That way, the rest of the issue, namely honouring forgotten achievers, would also be taken care by way of plaques would it not?
Such revolutionary steps are however policy decisions, and our Corporation Council has long ceased being a policy-making body. Ever since election to the Council was determined not by contribution to civic life but political alignment, the debates in the Council have reflected only party affiliations. An article in the Times of India dated Feb 1, 2025 lamented over how the Council today presents a picture of rampant absenteeism, empty gestures and unresolved civic issues. We would think that requests for name change come under the head of empty gestures.