Aligarh to become Harigarh? Civic body gives go-ahead

The Aligarh Municipal Corporation has unanimously passed a resolution to rename Aligarh as Harigarh and will now send the proposal to the state government for approval.

Aligarh mayor Prashant Singhal the name change has been a long-standing demand from Aligarh. If Aligarh’s name is changed to Harigarh, it will join the list of cities whose names have been changed by the UP government –Allahabad has been renamed to Prayagraj, Mughal Sarai is Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Nagar and Faizabad’s name was changed to Ayodhya.

In 2021, Aligarh Zila Panchayat passed a resolution seeking to rename Aligarh as Harigarh. According to reports the demand to change Aligarh’s name goes as long as the 1970s as the Aligarh unit of the then Hana Sangh party wanted it to rename as Harigarh. Several VHP leaders claimed that Harigarh was the original name of the place as mentioned in Hindu mythology.

According to one account, the historic name of Aligarh since the 13th century CE has been ‘Kol’ or ‘Koil’. In the 1740s CE Mughal commander Mirza Najaf renamed it Aligarh.

“In a meeting yesterday, a proposal was presented to change the name of Aligarh to Harigarh. All councillors unanimously supported this. Now, this proposal will be sent to the administration. I hope that the administration will take cognizance of this and fulfill our demand to change the name of Aligarh to Harigarh…This demand has been being raised for a long time…,” the Aligarh mayor said.