Opinion | Red Road’s Lessons For Kolkata’s Street Renaming Exercise

Some road names in Kolkata simply refuse to fade into oblivion.

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Most Kolkatans, if asked today where Indira Gandhi Sarani is, will look blank. Even though it has been 41 years since the name was officially changed, that boulevard slicing through the central Maidan is still mostly called Red Road.

But then again, if you ask most Kolkatans why that iconic road was christened that in the first place, most of them will look blank again. And no, it was not because a PWD functionary back in the British Raj decided to paint it red.

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Some road names in Kolkata simply refuse to fade into oblivion. Like Park Street. Chowringhee. New Market. Camac Street. Loudon Street. Central Avenue. And, of course, Red Road.

On the other hand, only people above a certain age now remember that AJC Bose Road was once Lower Circular Road and APC Road was Upper Circular Road. And the city’s denizens seem evenly split over whether Theatre Road is more widely known now as Shakespeare Sarani.

Those who know what the previous name of AJC Bose Road was would also be able to say why Red Road was named thus: because it was originally laid with powdered red brick (surkhi), a surface gentle on horses’ iron-clad hooves. Back then, horses and horse-drawn carriages were the mode of transport for lofty notables of British India who lived and........

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