The Mughal Gardens inside the Rashtrapati Bhavan have been renamed as Amrit Udyan, the president’s official website showed on Saturday.
Deputy Press Secretary to President Navika Gupta said that this has been done as part of the government’s celebration of 75 years of Independence, ANI reported.
Last year, Delhi’s Rajpath had been renamed Kartavya Path. Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture Meenakshi Lekhi had said the earlier name reflects a “colonial mindset”.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan’s website, however, on Saturday mentions both names – Mughal Gardens and Amrit Udyan.
Spread over 15 acres, Amrit Udyan draws its inspiration from the Mughal Gardens of Jammu and Kashmir, the gardens around the Taj Mahal as well as miniature paintings of India and Persia.
According to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the design of the gardens was finalised by British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1917. However, the saplings were planted between 1928-1929.
In May, the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party had asked the New Delhi Municipal Council to change the names of five roads that bear the “symbol of slavery of the Mughal era” in the national capital.
The party had asked the civic body to rename Tughlaq Road, Akbar Road, Aurangzeb Lane, Humayun Road, Shahjahan Road and Babar Lane.
Also read: By renaming cities and alienating Indian Muslims, BJP is undermining its own idea of national unity
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