Mustafa, Fazil, Jalal: Adityanath Objects to These Names, Locals Change Them Even When They Don't Want to
Omar Rashid
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New Delhi: In October 2025, while addressing a religious gathering dedicated to the mystic poet Sant Kabir in a village in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath expressed surprise upon learning that it was named Mustafabad – despite not having a single Muslim resident. For him, this demographic detail was justification enough to change Mustafabad’s name.
“Think about this, when I came here I asked how many Muslims live here? I was told not even one. But the name is Mustafabad. I said the name should be changed now. It should be Kabir Dham and not Mustafabad,” Adityanath said then.
He declared that the village would be renamed Kabir Dham, honouring the 15th-century saint and social reformer whose followers had established a local ashram. Kabir is revered by a large section of Dalits, especially Jatavs and Chamars, in North Indian states such as Uttar Pradesh.
Adityanath framed the name change of Mustafabad as part of a larger campaign for the "restoration of cultural pride,” asserting that it was imperative to secure mukti (liberation) from the "pakhand" (hypocrisy) of "secular" names.
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"Those people had changed Ayodhya to Faizabad, Prayagraj to Allahabad, and Kabir Dham to Mustafabad... think, if your identity were to be erased, you would face an existential crisis," Adityanath argued.
Following Adityanath’s visit, the gram panchayat members unanimously passed a resolution proposing that the name of Mustafabad village be changed. But locals were not too keen on it initially, says Avtar Singh, the pradhan of Tenduva gram panchayat, under which Mustafabad falls.
“The villagers objected to the name change saying that it would create difficulties for their children in future, in getting transfer certificates and for securing jobs. They said they want development and not a change of name. But who listens to villagers,” Singh told The Wire.
Under the influence of the local Kabir Panth ashram, and the imposing public endorsement by Adityanath himself, the proposal was passed on November 7, 2025. “Who can defy the government,” asked Singh.
According to Singh, the village was known as Mustafabad after a garden called Mustafa Bagh. Its population is predominantly made up of OBC (Other Backward Classes) communities – Kurmis, Kahars, Yadavs and Kumhar – as well as Chamars/Jatavs (Dalit). He confirmed that no Muslims have lived in the village within living memory, though he feels they must have inhabited the area in the past given its name. The official process to change Mustafabad's name is currently underway.
But Mustafabad is far from an isolated case.
Overwriting the history and legacy of Muslim rulers
Ever since coming to power in Uttar Pradesh, the Adityanath government has changed or initiated a process to change the names of several places. It started with Allahabad and Faizabad districts in 2018. They were changed to Prayagraj and Ayodhya, respectively.
The town of Mughalsarai and its well-known railway junction of the same name were also renamed after Bharatiya Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.
Beyond the prominent cities and centres tied directly to the BJP's ideological project, the government has in its second term increasingly targeted smaller, relatively obscure places. Most, if not all, share a common thread: their Muslim-sounding names. In their place, the government has substituted names steeped in Hindu mythology or the BJP’s political legacy.
Through these name changes, the government is also appeasing both caste identity and Hindutva, overwriting the history and legacy of Muslim rulers and culture with Hindu-centric identities. The perfect example of this was the recent cabinet decision (on July 6) to change the name of Jalalabad town in Shahjahanpur district.
Jalalabad will now be known as Parashurampuri – after Parshuram, the axe-wielding warrior god and avatar of Vishnu.
Over the last few years, Parshuram has come to be strongly projected as a martial cultural-political icon for the traditionally priestly Brahmins.
Political parties across the ideological spectrum have invoked his name to woo the influential community before elections. In fact, it was Jitin Prasada, the former Congress leader and today a Union minister under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who strongly pitched for the name of Parshurampuri as part of his effort to plant himself as a political voice of Brahmins.
“This decision has brought a moment of pride to the entire Sanatani community,” said Prasada on X on July 6, adding two days later on the same site that Jalalabad had “gained a new cultural identity as ‘Parshurampuri’.”
While changing the name of Jalalabad, the Uttar Pradesh government said that the town was famous as the birthplace of Lord Parshuram and was prominently mentioned in mythological stories and scriptures.
The Union government had in August 2025 granted a ‘no objection’ certificate to the state government for its proposal to change the name of Jalalabad. The name of the place may have been derived from either Akbar or Jalal-ud-Din Firoz Khilji.
According to a gazetteer on Shahjahanpur authored by British officer H.R. Nevill in 1910, Jalalabad, an old Pathan settlement, was generally ascribed to Khalji dynasty ruler of the Delhi sultanate, Jalal ud din Firoz, who acceded to the throne in 1289.
However, it is “very possible,” Nevill noted, “that the foundation of the place, or at all events the adoption of its present name, did not take place till the time of” Jalal-ud-Din-Akbar (Mughal emperor). “There were no musalman settlements in Shahjahanpur till the occupation of the isolated garrison towns of Jalalabad, Kant and Gola,” wrote Nevill.
Jalalabad was for many years a flourishing trade centre but its unique advantages disappeared with the opening of the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway, which effectively diverted the trade, so that the place now presents an appearance of decay, noted Nevill.
In the decade following the mutiny of 1857, Jalalabad witnessed a temporary drop in population “due to the punishment of the town”, whose inhabitants attained considerable notoriety, said the gazetteer.
In June, while addressing an event in Kushinagar, Adityanath announced that Fazilnagar town would now be known as Pavagarh or Pawagarh in honour of the 24th Jain Tirthankar Mahavira. Adityanath said the town would get a “new recognition” through the name of Bhagwan Mahavira. “Why should we call it Fazil,” Adityanath quipped, dismissively.
Fazilnagar is a part of Kushinagar district and is located 16-20 kms south-east of its main urban centre. There is also an Assembly seat by the name of Fazilnagar, just like Jalalabad in Shahjahanpur.
Kushinagar is generally associated with its Buddhist heritage as Lord Buddha is said to have delivered his last sermon and attained mahaparinirvana at Rambhar there. However, the district is also linked to the Jain faith.
According to a district gazetteer of undivided Deoria published in 1988, when Kushinagar was a part of it, Mahavira often visited Pava (now Fazilnagar), where before attaining ‘kaivelya’ (supreme omniscience), he delivered his last sermon, which was attended by 18 confederates, nine Mallahas and nine Lichchhavis besides the “kings of Kasi and Kosala.”
Adityanath said that by connecting with Lord Mahavir, the country and the world would now come to Fazilnagar.
On July 10, while he was in Ayodhya, Adityanath announced that the town of Bhadarsa would now be called ‘Bharat Nagar Bharat Kund’, in honour of the penance of brother of Ram, Bharat. He also said the name of nagar panchayat Suchitaganj-Khiloni would be changed to Maa Jwala Devi.
“Driven by reverence and love for his elder brother, Lord Shri Ram, Bharat Ji waited for him near Bharat Kund throughout the 14 years of His exile. For those 14 years, the ‘charan padukas’ (sacred sandals) of Lord Shri Ram governed Ayodhya,” said Adityanath. “Bharat Ji’s conduct serves as a perfect example of how a brother should treat his brother. It is Ayodhya’s good fortune that great souls like Lord Shri Ram, Lakshman, Bharat, and Shatrughan incarnated here.”
Earlier in June, Adityanath announced that the Linepar area in Moradabad would be named after Dau Dayal Khanna, a former Congress MLA, who as a general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mukti Yajna Samiti, was also associated with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement of the 1980s.
Adityanath’s guru and former MP Mahant Avaidyanath, was the president of the Samiti. “This is our gratitude towards Dau Dayal ji's devotion to Ram,” said Adityanath.
Last year, Adityanath announced the renaming of the Akbarpur bus stand in Ambedkar Nagar to ‘Shravan Dham bus stand’, as a “tribute to the cultural and mythological legacy of Shravan Kumar from the Ramayana”.
More demands from BJP leaders
In the recent past, several leaders and elected representatives of the BJP have demanded that the names of various cities – such as Muzaffarnagar, Sultanpur, Agra, Aligarh. Firozabad, Ghazipur and Ghaziabad – be changed.
BJP MLA from Ballia, Ketaki Singh, last August urged the Union and the state governments to rename Ghazipur after Maharishi Gautam, the father of Parshuram, saying that names such as Ghazipur remind “us of our times of disgrace.”
Another BJP MLA from Bareilly last year demanded that the town of Faridpur be renamed Pitambarpur.
In May, BJP MLA Nand Kishor Gurjar demanded that the name of Ghaziabad be changed to Maharaja Agrasen Nagar. Adityanath has himself in the past hinted that the names of Akbarpur and Azamgarh (to Aryamgarh) could be changed.
With the crucial 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections drawing closer, the BJP is likely to accelerate its efforts to rename historical Islamic or Muslim sites with Hindu cultural or mythological alternatives.
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