So it isn’t just ‘Calcutta’ and ‘Bombay’ getting the postcolonial heave-ho In Durban, South Africa, the renaming issue is on full boil:

Authorities in this South African city will rename a street after Mahatma Gandhi in an effort to give the notorious neighborhood a moral facelift. The Point Road in the centre of Durban [is] known as a prostitution hub…

“I know a lot of people will have problems with this decision, but I am delighted,” [said] granddaughter of the Mahatma, Ela Gandhi… [a] former MP for the ruling ANC…

The other [Indian] dignitary to be honored is Dr Yusuf Dadoo, who was leader of the South African Indian Congress at one time… Grey Street, once famous as Little India, has now degenerated into a crime-ridden area after most of the Indians and businesses moved out from the place to suburbs… [Link]

The renaming initiative seems to have angered all — Afrikaners for erasing their heritage, opposition parties for glorifying the African National Congress, desis for alternately choosing a seedy street one due to be renovated with multimillion-rand condos, political junkies for glorifying militants and dictators. These folks should look at whose names adorn Delhi streets: not just JFK, but also Eastern European Communists.

Many of Durban’s more than one million residents of Indian origin have reacted angrily to the move they feel is an insult to Gandhi… Over the last few decades, the neighbourhood of apartment blocks has been over-run by growing sex and illicit drug enterprises. Drug dealers brazenly ply their trade on the street alongside sex workers employed by escort agencies and massage parlours. [Link]

Last year Johannesburg International Airport, formerly Jan Smuts, was once again renamed, this time after Oliver Tambo, one of the ruling African National Congress’s leaders…. proposals to rename streets after heroes of the new South Africa, such as Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro, have been met with harrumphs… A proposal to rename Pretoria as Tshwane so annoyed opposition parties that it has been shelved for now. [Link]

The proposed renaming were met with protests more violent than a ticked-off email to the local paper:

Thousands of South Africans marched in Durban on Tuesday to protest the renaming of streets after heroes of the ruling African National Congress… At one point, shopowners and customers headed for cover as several hundred club-wielding militants ran down a major high street… [Link]

They were even more incensed by a proposal to name a street after Andrew Zondo, an African National Congress guerrilla who killed five white civilians in a 1985 bombing in that very neighborhood. “It’s akin to naming one of the streets in downtown Manhattan after one of the bombers of 9/11″… [Link]

It’s reassuring to know that even in a PoMo era, names matter. So, Durban, here’s my humble suggestion for the most famous desi in the U.S., another funny-looking, skinny dude who united the country in peace, love and sometimes even harmony:

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