Mumbai Sapphire? No Thanks!

On the programme Victoria's Empire this evening, Victoria Wood followed standard BBC practice and referred to Calcutta as "Kolkata", or however one is supposed to spell it. There are many examples of this practice of re-naming in today's India, most notably the rendition of Bombay as "Mumbai", a change mercifully repudiated both by that city's High Court and by its Stock Exchange. For the forces behind these innovations are seriously nasty. "Al-BBC", say the neocons. Not a bit of it, if this is anything to go by. Rather, the BBC, Voice of the RSS and the BJP.