What is in a name? Should rose smell as same when we call it by another name, asks William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet. Toponymic politics has been the recipient of some attentions over the years. scholar Derek Alderman (2008) had argued that names of physical places are not merely geographical tags but "memorial arena". Streets, thus, are "tombstones of living memory" telling us about how 'placelore' carries the stories, meanings, myths and emotional associations.

In Punjab, the politics of street naming is no different where the battle of nomenclature reflects a deeper struggle. The recent decision by Punjab government under its Lahore Heritage Area Revival project to restore pre-partition names in Lahore is a move to showcase how diverse and pluralistic this region is. Islampura is back to Krishan Nagar and Rehman Gali is once again Ram Gali, amidst public uproar. Tania Mairaj, in her onomastic study of Lahori Gate area (2019), stresses that place names are "core of the........

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