| Calcutta, Aug. 19: Sharpen your tongue-cleaners, you have nothing to lose but your inability to roll your Os and your identity. Those who do not speak Bengali but live in West Bengal need to learn how to spell Paschimbanga and say Poschimbongo, if an "all-party" decision today is taken to its logical conclusion. That means many Calcuttans and countless denizens of Darjeeling, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri will have to learn the art of strategically placing their Os in the right place every time they mention their home state. Even those who can speak Bengali will have to figure out who they are: Bengalis, Bongolis or Poschimbongolis? If the word "Bengal" itself will not be allowed to exist, how can a derivative like "Bengali" survive without an existential crisis? Not to mention "WB" automobile licence plates and the price of changing boards and stationery in the so-called cash-strapped state. The proposed change of name — a display of alphabetical acrobatics that will supposedly push Bengal up the pecking order at meetings for spoils from Delhi — does not change much in the vernacular world. Paschimbanga is already used in formal Bengali correspondence as well as popular conversation, where its colloquial variant, Paschimbangla, may be more common. What the proposal threatens to do is dump the English name and bruise a mass of population that has given Calcutta its cosmopolitan character and made Bengal the antithesis of identity politics played in some states. (See chart) It also shows that some habits die hard. Irrespective of whether Jyoti Basu, who banned English in primary school and realised the folly too late, or Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who buried Calcutta and midwifed Kolkata, or Mamata Banerjee, who gave in to the "all-party" suggestion, is in power. Not that the government is entirely happy with the choice. "Paschimbanga does not fulfil all our aspirations but at this moment, it was more important to arrive at a consensus. It (Paschimbanga) is being used and we won't have to bring too many changes," minister Partha Chatterjee said after the end of the all-party meeting chaired by the chief minister. "We are not satisfied yet but we have climbed up the ladder," Chatterjee said. "We wanted to change the name to get administrative advantage. We wanted a name that was acceptable to all." That invites the question why the poor "W" had to give way to an also-ran "P" and not the all-important "A". Chatterjee had a ready answer: "A name closer to the letter 'A' would have been preferable but with this, we are giving other states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh a fair deal (by not going too high)." Some pointed out that most states have names in Indian languages but West Bengal is an exception. It appears no one mentioned Delhi, which has not yet switched to Dilli. Sources said the RSP's Subhas Naskar had suggested the name "Paschimbanga". They said Mamata liked "Bangabhoomi" and said so at the meeting. However, she agreed with the views expressed by the other leaders. "Any other name would have meant forgetting the history of Partition. Since the name is already in use in Bengali, the changeover will be hassle-free," said the RSP's Manoj Bhattacharya. Only the SUCI (Communist) raised the question that many common people are asking. The party felt that the drive to change the name was a "needless exercise" but agreed reluctantly. The state government will now have to get the cabinet to clear the decision or place it before the Assembly. The proposal will then be submitted to the Union home ministry. If the home ministry agrees, a bill will have to be passed in Parliament. A 1999 effort to rename the state "Bangla" got stuck in Delhi. "I always believe in dialogue. How easily we came to the conclusion today to change our state's name from West Bengal to Paschimbanga! Everyone has agreed. Only the English becomes Bengali. Parents now want to name their children with A or B so that they are ahead of others but P isn't bad either. We will move ahead of several states… because of this," chief minister Mamata said this evening. It is open to conjecture whether, had Amartya Sen been named Womesh Sen, he would have ended up at the bottom of the pile. After all, a certain Tagore also stuck to T and did not leapfrog to P. | 
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