The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to rename the Hoshangabad district as Narmadapuram. The same was announced by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. On the occasion of Narmada Jayanti, the CM announced that the name of Hoshangabad has been changed and it will now be known as Narmadapuram.
The Hoshangabad town, the headquarter of Hoshangabad district, is already also known as Narmadapuram among the locals. This is because the district lies in the valley of Narmada river, with the town located on the south bank of the river.
The locals in the area had been demanding that Hoshangabad should be renamed Narmadapuram. The demand was also raised by several BJP leaders recently, following which the BJP govt decided to accept the demand. In November last year, Madhya Pradesh Assembly Protem Speaker and BJP leader Rameshwar Sharma had raised the demand, saying that Hoshang Shah was a looter, who had attacked the city and destroyed its temples. Following that, BJP Madhya Pradesh president V D Sharma had also said that Hoshangabad should be renamed as Narmadapuram on the popular demand of people.
The name Hoshangabad was given after Hoshang Shah, the first formally appointed Sultan of the Malwa Sultanate of Central India. Like several other Muslim rulers in India, Hoshang Shah had also destroyed temples, and constructed mosques in their places. Apart from temples, he had also destroyed other infrastructure, like earthen dams built on Betwa river by Raja Bhoj. He had demolished the dams to destroy the massive water reservoir known as Bhopal Lakes built by Raja Bhoj to store water.
