CALCUTTA, India -- The eastern Indian city of Calcutta, the country's industrial and cultural hub during the British Raj, will be renamed Kolkata in a bid to shed its colonial tag and emphasize its ethnic Bengali character.
Marxist rulers and opposition deputies joined hands in West Bengal's legislative assembly late on Tuesday to pass a resolution to rename the metropolis as Kolkata on Aug. 24, when Calcutta will be 309 years old.It also resolved to rename West Bengal as Bangla.
"It is a memorable day today because we have not only just freed ourselves from colonial hangover but also rendered justice to history," said state Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya.
Calcutta is the third Indian metropolis to be rechristened in recent years. Bombay is now called Mumbai, and Madras was renamed Chennai for similar reasons.
The decision to rename Calcutta has generated vociferous debate in the city, which prides itself on a cosmopolitan culture that assimilates people from disparate backgrounds.
An opinion poll published in The Telegraph found that 52 percent of the people surveyed were opposed to the change.