Gurgaon, the corporate hub of Haryana in the outskirts of Delhi, will now be known as Gurugram with the Haryana government deciding to change the satellite town's name, according to news reports.
Apart from Gurgaon, the largest city in Haryana, the neighbouring Mewat district will be rechristened as Nuh.
Gurgaon, with a population of 1.7 million people, is a leading financial and industrial hub. Gurugram is said to be its historical name. It is believed that some villages in the area was gifted by the Pandavas and Kauravas to Guru Dronacharya as per the ancient epic Mahabharata. Hence, it is believed, it came to be called Guru Gram, meaning Guru's village.
Gurgaon, which boasts of affluent residential and commercial complexes, has become an important hub with more than 250 offices of Fortune 500 companies. The city has transformed from a sleepy manufacturing automobile hub in the 1970’s to a buzzing satellite town.
Mewat used to be a part of the Gurgaon district earlier. Like Gurugram, Nuh used to be the older name of Mewat, also known for its large population of Jat Muslims.
The headquarters of Mewat district is at Nuh town. The people of area and the elected representatives had been demanding that the name of Mewat be changed as Nuh, he further said.
Mewat, in fact is a geographical and cultural unit and not a town. It is spread beyond Haryana in the adjoining states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, the spokesman said.
The decision to change the name of Gurgaon to 'Gurugram' has been taken on the basis of the representations received at several fora that it would be appropriate to rename Gurgaon as Gurugram, an official spokesman said.
"Haryana is a historic land of the Bhagwat Gita and Gurgaon had been a centre of learning," the spokesman said.
"It had been known as Gurgaon since the times of Guru Dronacharya. Gurgaon was a great center of education where the princes used to be provided education.
Therefore, since long the people of the area had been demanding that Gurgaon be renamed as Gurugram," he reasoned.
(With PTI inputs)
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