New Delhi: At a time when India is seeking to remove all remnants of a ‘slave mentality’ emanating from a colonial hangover, an Odisha politician has called on the Union government to drop the ‘Lord’ when mentioning former British Viceroys and Governor Generals in textbooks, NCERT material, official papers and government websites.
BJP’s Sujeet Kumar, who represents Odisha in the Rajya Sabha, said that continuing to use the term ‘Lord’ keeps alive a “colonial hangover” decades after India earned freedom.
Kumar, who raised the matter during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha on Friday, said he had found widespread use of the title after checking a range of government and educational sources, PTI reported.
Kumar, who previously served as an MP representing Biju Janata Dal (BJD), noted that a survey of these documents and websites was enough to show how common this usage still is.
A practising lawyer, Kumar pointed out that NCERT history books for classes VIII and XII refer to British administrators as Lord Curzon, Lord Mountbatten, Lord Dalhousie, Lord Leighton, etc.
Lord terminology persists even on official platforms, including those of Union Ministry of Culture, the Press Information Bureau, Archaeological Survey of India, he maintained.
Questioning the need to continue giving British officials an elevated status, many of whom were responsible for atrocities in India, whereas homegrown freedom fighters have never been accorded such titles, Kumar argued that a mature and inclusive democracy like India should refrain from maintaining such colonial-era practices.
It undermines the spirit of equality and conflict with constitutional values, Kumar stressed.
To strengthen his point, Kumar cited the renaming of Rajpath to Kartavya Path as an example of consciously moving away from colonial nomenclature toward names that reflect national ideals.
