Journalism of Courage
A day before the historic Mughal Gardens was to open to the public for the season, the Rashtrapati Bhavan announced Saturday that it was giving it “a common name” of ‘Amrit Udyan’.
Announcing that the gardens can be visited by the general public from January 31 to March 26, Deputy Press Secretary to the President Navika Gupta said, “On the occasion of the celebration of 75 years of Independence as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the President of India has given a common name to the Rashtrapati Bhavan gardens as Amrit Udyan.”
BJP leaders welcomed the decision as “historic”, with several saying it showed that India was coming out of “slave mentality”.
By the end of day, the old boards with the name ‘Mughal Gardens’ on them were gone, replaced with new ones saying ‘Amrit Udyan’.
Spread over 15 acres, the grounds drew their name from being laid out in the style of gardens built by the Mughals in Jammu & Kashmir, as well as around the Taj Mahal. As per the Rashtrapati Bhavan website, which describes the gardens as “the soul of the Presidential Palace”, miniature paintings of India and Persia were also an inspiration for them.
Last year, the pathway from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, which was earlier known as Rajpath, was renamed Kartavya Path. On the occasion, the Prime Minister’s Office had said: “It symbolises a shift from erstwhile Rajpath being an icon of power to Kartavya Path being an example of public ownership and empowerment.” These are “steps… in line with the Prime Minister’s second ‘Panch Pran’ for New India in Amrit Kaal: ‘remove any trace of colonial mindset’,” the statement said.
Law Minister Kiren Rijiju hailed President Droupadi Murmu for the new name for the Mughal Gardens, calling it “a powerful symbol of our nation’s progress and a reflection of a brighter future for New India”.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted: “This new name not only shreds yet another symbol of a colonial relic but also reflects India’s aspirations for the Amrit Kaal.”
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted, “In order to come out of ‘slavery mentality’ in ‘Amrit Kaal’, another historic decision of Modi government.”
Union minister Meenakshi Lehi said the name change “gives a positive message, as it is the period of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”. “We should break the fetters which remind us of slavery,” she said.
Like the erstwhile Rajpath, the Mughal Gardens were designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1917, and the first seeds planted in 1928-1929. Like the Rashtrapati Bhavan building that has two different styles of architecture, Indian and western, Lutyens brought together two different horticulture traditions for the gardens, the Mughal style and the English flower garden.
As the Rashtrapati Bhavan website says, Mughal canals, terraces and flowering shrubs are beautifully blended with European flowerbeds, lawns and private hedges in the gardens. They were originally divided into East Lawn, Central Lawn, Long Garden and Circular Garden, with former Presidents A P J Abdul Kalam and Ram Nath Kovind developing more gardens under their tenures, such as Herbal-I, Herbal-II, Tactile Garden, Bonsai Garden and Arogya Vanam. They will now collectively be called Amrit Udyan.
The Trinamool Congress and CPI criticised the move. “Who knows, they might now want to rename the Eden Gardens and call it Modi Gardens! They should focus on creating jobs, controlling inflation and protecting the precious resources of LIC and SBI,” TMC parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien told news agency PTI.
