Invisibility of Female Street Names in India Exploring the Intersection of Culture, Law and Social Situations

Main Article Content

Tania Sebastian
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4167-6870

Abstract

The aim of this article is to offer an analysis of the invisibility of women street names in select Indian cities. This study is comprised of four Indian cities, each one representing the northern (Delhi), southern(Chennai), eastern (Kolkata) and western (Mumbai) parts of India based on the highest population (Census of India, 2011). These cities have a background of different historical circumstances, diverse political influences, skewed sex ratios and varied population characteristics that make them a good representative sample for analyzing street names. The role of law and law-making surrounding the naming of streets is examined through this lens of political, social and historic divisions of these cities in India. This paper then proceeds to examine the guidelines issued by these cites that provide specifications for change of name of the street. The process for naming and renaming in these cities is as easy as moving a proposal with the state government stating the suggested name of the street accompanied by a brief write up about the accomplishments of the individual whose name is proposed- and the disproportionate number of street names of femalesvsends out the message of the non-recognition of their achievements.


The naming of streets as a political choice with traces of the legal history of the city is explored from the ancient background upto the twentieth century spur of ‘reclaiming’ India by renaming streets. When read together with the denial of public spaces to women leads to the conclusion that the exclusion and bias of leaving out female names is symbolic of the visual aspects of the roles that women play in society. The present article is probably one of the first such attempts in scholarly literature that looks at female street names in India

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Sebastian, T. (2021). Invisibility of Female Street Names in India : Exploring the Intersection of Culture, Law and Social Situations. McGill GLSA Research Series, 1(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.26443/glsars.v1i1.144
Section
Part I: General

References

Charlie M. Shakleton, ‘Urban Street Names: An Opportunity to Examine Biocultural Relationships?’ (2018) 13 (7) PloS ONE, e0200891, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200891.

Rose-Redwood R, Alderman D. and Azaryahu M, ‘Contemporary Issues and Future Horizons of Critical Urban Toponymy’ in Rose-Redwood R, Alderman D and Azaryahu M (eds) The Political Life of Urban Streetscapes: Naming, Politics, and Place (Taylor & Francis Group 2017).

Georges Augustins, ‘Naming, Dedicating: Street Names and Tradition’ (September 2004) 15 (3) HA 289, 10.1080/0275720042000257421.

Daniel Oto-Peralías, ‘What do Street Names Tell Us? The “City-Text” as Socio-Cultural Data’ (2016) Working Papers in Responsible Banking & Finance, University of St. Andrews <https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/business/rbf/workingpapers/RBF16_013.pdf> accessed 12 June 2021.

Pamela Rougerie, ‘Streets of Paris Renowned for Honoring Women’ Madame Figaro (Paris, 26 August, 2015), <https://madame.lefigaro.fr/societe/des-rues-a-paris-renommees-pour-honorer-les-femmes-260815-97892> accessed 12 June 2021. See also, Anon, ‘France: Feminists Group ‘Renames’ Paris Streets,’ BBC (France, 26 August 2015) <https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-34062602> accessed 12 June 2021.

<https://www.zeit.de/feature/streetdirectory-streetnames-origin-germany-infographic-english> accessed 12 June 2021.

Nouria Ouali, Pierre Lannoy, Virginie Desamoury, Sandrine Guilleaume, Fanny Mayné, Sophie Merville, Charlotte Odier et Adèle Thébaux, ‘Women in Brussels Street Names. Topography of a Minoritization,’ (2021) BS 1 <https://journals.openedition.org/brussels/5433> https://doi.org/10.4000/brussels.5433 accessed 23 June 2021.

Liora Bigon and Dorcas Zuvalinyenga, ‘Urban Pulse- Gendered Urban Toponyms in the Global South: A Time for De-colonization’ (2020) 42 (2) UG 226 https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1825275.

Pierre-Nicolas Schwab, ‘The Feminization of Street Names: Useful Debate or a Political Artifice?’ INTO THE MINDS (Brussels, 20 March 2020) <https://www.intotheminds.com/blog/en/feminisation-street-names/> accessed on 18 May 2021.

Selma Franseen, ‘In Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, Feminists are Campaigning to Name More Streets after Women’ CITY MONITOR (Brussels, 15 August 2018) <https://citymonitor.ai/fabric/paris-amsterdam-and-brussels-feminists-are-campaigning-name-more-streets-after-women-4137> accessed on 29 June 2021.

Geetha Sunita Pillai, ‘Rajasthan: Nagaur Names Village Roads after Girl Toppers,’ THE TIMES OF INDIA (Udaipur, 4 August 2020) <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/udaipur/nagaur-names-village-roads-after-girl-toppers/articleshow/77339599.cms> accessed on 29 June 2021.

Aruna Shankaranarayanan, ‘Mapping Female versus Male Street Names’ (3 November 2015) <https://blog.mapbox.com/mapping-female-versus-male-street-names-b4654c1e00d5> accessed on 29 June 2021.

<https://twitter.com/genderlogindia/status/636473536626880512> accessed on 29 June 2021.

Linda Poon, ‘Mapping the Sexism of City Street Names’ BLOOMBERY (Washington D.C., 5 November 2015) <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-04/mapping-the-sexism-of-street-names-in-major-cities> accessed on 29 June 2021.

Palonen E., ‘The Politics of Street Names: Local, National, Transnational Budapest’ in Beyen M., Deseure B. (eds) Local Memories in a Nationalizing and Globalizing World (Palgrave Macmillan 2015) https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137469380_3.

Jean Bouvier,a historian, tells us about the city of Aix-en-Provence, as mentioned in Schwab (n 9).

Maoz Azayahu, ‘The Power of Commemorative Street Names’ (1996) 14 EPD; SS 311.

Aditi Rao, ‘A Forgotten Profession gives this Road its Name, its History’ The Times of India (Mumbai, 22 May 2017) <https://indianexpress.com/article/india/a-forgotten-profession-gives-this-road-its-name-its-history-4667327/> accessed on 29 June 2021.

Smritikumar Sarkar, Technology and Rural Change in Easter India: 1830–1980 (OUP 2014) 24 - 25.

Stephen P. Blake, ‘Cityscape of an Imperial Capital: Shahjahanabad in 1739’ in R E Frykenberg (ed.) Delhi through the Ages: Selected Essays in Urban History, Culture and Society (OUP 1986) 152–91.

Nidhi, ‘The History and Practice of Naming Streets in Delhi’ (2017) 2 (3) IJARD 215.

Rizwan Ahmad, ‘Renaming India: Saffronisation of Public Places’ Aljazeera (Qatar, 12 October 2018) <https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/10/12/renaming-india-saffronisation-of-public-spaces> accessed on 29 june 2021. See also, Vikas Pandey, ‘Allahabad: The Name Change that killed my City’s Soul’ BBC News’ (Delhi, 7 November 2018) <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46015589> accessed on 29 June 2021.

Kolkatta Municipal Corporation Act, 1980.

Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888,

Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919.

Siddharth Bhatia, ‘Politician’s Game: Changing the Name of the Street’ The Free Press Journal (Delhi, 20 May 2016) <https://www.freepressjournal.in/analysis/politicians-game-all-in-the-name> accessed on 29 June 2021.

Street names of Chennai, <https://chennaicorporation.gov.in/others/StreetNames.pdf> accessed on 29 June 2021).

Street names of Kolkata, <http://wbpwd.gov.in/files/contents/road_list_of_pwd_04112017.pdf> accessed on 29 June 2021, Street names of Mumbai, <http://www.ebookmaps.com/en/mumbai-bombay-streets-on-map-for-ebook-readers-en.php> accessed on 29 June 2021, Mapbox crowdfunding resources for Delhi street names.

Priyanka Ghosh, ‘Street and Place Name Changes in Kolkata: India’s First Modern City’ in S. Brunn and R. Kehrein (eds) Handbook Of The Changing World Language Map (Springer 2020), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02438-3_174

<http://kolkatatrafficpolice.gov.in/ONEWAY_REGULATION.pdf> accessed on 29 June 2021.

<https://chennai.nic.in/history/> accessed on 29 June 2021.

Census of India (2011) https://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/data_files/mp/06Gender%20Composition.pdf accessed on 29 June 2021.

Emanuela Lombardo and Petra Meier, ‘Good Symbolic Representation: The Relevance of Inclusion’ (2018) 51 (2) PS 327.

Ana-Maria Niculescu-Mizil, ‘(Re)naming Streets in Contemporary Bucharest: From Power Distribution to Subjective Biography’ (2014), <http://www.analize-journal.ro/library/files/numarul_3/ana_mizil.pdf> accessed on 30 June 2021.

As an example, see, Sanjay Kumar and Praveen Rai, ‘Gendered political exclusion: Crucial Implications for Indian Democracy’ (December 2007) 37 (4) SOCIAL CHANGE 180, <https://www.csds.in/uploads/custom_files/1568798182_Gendered%20Political%20Exclusion%20Crucial%20Implications%20for%20Indian%20democracy.pdf> accessed on 30 June 2021.

Subrata Bagchi, Beyond the Private World: Indian Women in the Public Sphere, (Primus Books 2014).

M Muneer and Chitra Talwar, ‘India must Bridge the Gender Parity Gap’ The Hindu Business (India, 26 April 2021) <https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/india-must-bridge-the-gender-parity-gap/article34416513.ece> accessed on 30 June 2021.

K M Pavithran, ‘Decadal Review (2010-2019): Crime Rate Increases Both in the Case of Crimes against Women & SCs’ The Facilty (India, 7 January 2021) THE FACTLY <https://factly.in/decade-review-2010-2019-crime-rate-increases-both-in-the-case-of-crimes-against-women-scs/> accessed on 30 June 2021.

UNDP, ‘Almost 90% of Men/Women Globally Are Biased Against Women’ (5 March 2020) <https://www.undp.org/press-releases/almost-90-menwomen-globally-are-biased-against-women> accessed on 30 June 2021.

Roshen Dalal, ‘Manimekalai: Seeking the Ultimate Beyond Gender’ The Pioneer (Dehradun, 6 December 2018) <https://www.dailypioneer.com/2018/state-editions/manimekalai—seeking-the-ultimate-beyond-gender.html> accessed on 30 June 2021.

Religious Census of India (2011), <https://www.census2011.co.in/religion.php> accessed on 30 June 2021.

Dolores Gutiérrez-Mora and Daniel Oto-Peralías, ‘Gendered Cities: Studying Urban Gender Bias through Street Names’ Working Papers in Responsible Banking & Finance, (2021), University of St Andrews, School of Management, <https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/business/rbf/workingpapers/RBF21_008.pdf> accessed on 30 June 2021.