Meet HN: HN Bangalore Meetup

I grew up in Bombay, whose name was changed to Mumbai some time in my childhood. My friends and I still call it Bombay. We use “Mumbai” in more formal contexts, or with people who grew up in a different city.

Similarly, I know of people who say “Calcutta”, “Bangalore”, “Gurgaon”, etc.

The thought of colonialism does not occupy mindshare. It is just the name we grew up using and find it comfortable to continue using it.

History going back to 1600s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_Presidency

The British East India Company purchased the village of Madraspattinam in 1639 and established Fort St. George. Post Independence, in 1947, it became Madras Province. When India formally became a republic in 1950 , it became Madras State. At the time, it covered the geographic area encompassing the entire state of present day Tamilnadu, almost all of Kerala, parts of Karnataka (where Bengaluru is) and parts of Andhra Pradesh (which is today bifurcated into two states, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana). The capital of the province was also named Madras and during the 1960s, after the restructuring of states on linguistic lines resulted in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madras State, the political movement to rename Madras State to Tamilnadu gained momentum and succeeded. The state became Tamilnadu and the captial city remained Madras.

In 1998, the City of Madras was renamed to Chennai as part of a move to reclaim an older history. Chennai is from the name of a ruler of the region predating 1600s named Chennappa Naicker.

The city's history shows up when international travelers arrive at the Chennai Internation Airport (which still has the airport code MAA).

Many cities in India have moved from their anglicised names to their pre-British local names as part of a revival of nationalism. Bombay -> Mumbai, Calcutta -> Kolkata are some examples.

https://www.madrasmusings.com/vol-28-no-9/from-madras-to-tam...

More 'Bombayites' say 'Bombay' than do 'Britishers' these days, sort of politically incorrect here. From what I understood I thought it was variously Bombay/Mumbai locally according to political party lines.

Never heard Madras used for the location itself in my lifetime, couldn't have told you it was Chennai. It is used in describing British Indian crappy takeaway/supermarket food though (I don't mean that as a slight on the actual food of Chennai, just some of the stuff we have/invent here in the UK and give random names).