The Thakre's

Well, here is a piece of info I came across. Apparently Bal Thackeray or more popularly known as Balasaheb Thackeray has a British connection! Oops! Did I cause a mob to burn down my house, stamp over my car and create a bandh for two days in India. Probably it might be enough reason for such a thing to happen.

Well, I was browsing through some books in a book store and I came across a book called Vanity Fair, written by William Makepeace Thackarey. Yes, you heard it right WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKAREY! Read it again THACKAREY! THACKERAY. I blinked my eyes, it was THACKERAY. I rubbed my eyes! I banged myself into an iron column to see if I was dreaming. The name still shouted from the hardback cover. It said WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.

So now that I was in my senses and not sleeping and at the same time not hallucinating, I decided to come home and check out certain details. Thakre is a Maharashtrian name. Apparently, Thackeray is an Anglicized name. Do a Google search and you will know!

But looking back, wasn’t it Bal, who wanted to abolish the British connection with India, by changing the names of the cities, stations, airports etc. How come it did not start from his home itself? How come this fact never came to the fore? No body, not even the Opposition could make a mention of! Secondly, why are we so negative about the fact that we were ruled for over a 100 years. We were ruled because, we allowed the British to rule us. We were ruled because, they knew how to rule us. Ruling a country for more than 100 years is no mean task. They were a country with a vision of expanding its boundaries and setting their flags on distant shore. They were quite apt and methodical in that. We, as Indians were sitting in our own crab basket, dreaming that our country is the best.

It is a fact that we all have to learn to respect and accept within ourselves. We were ruled because we allowed them to. We made them leave because of our sheer determination. History can never change, but what we can change is the present and the future. Changing names will only allow a huge bureaucratic changes and money spending but not in the progress of the nation. Let the money be spent elsewhere, so that we can turn our country into a more self reliant India.

Let us accept the past and dream about the future!!!
As for the Thackeray's in this link http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,838984-4,00.html it says it was indeed his fathers liking to Williams literature that the name of the family was anglicized. But with such a strong stance in changing names of various places in the country to get rid of the British shadow, how come he missed out on his own name?

Bal Thakre, you can only anglicize your name, not yourself…