Tamil Nadu Name Changes & the Puducherry effect
On Thursday , the conversation in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry momentarily shifted from ‘Covid-19’ and ‘Lockdown’ to English spellings of towns and villages in Tamil Nadu. The TN government announced it would change the official English spellings of 1018 locations in Tamil Nadu to match their Tamil pronunciation. In Puducherry, this unleashed a special kind of internet frenzy – one which made social media pages and meme creators busy proclaiming Puducherry’s spelling was changed to Puthucherry and a flurry of social media posts prompting misplaced outrage over – wait for it- something that never happened!
Meme creators and social media pages got busy generating amusing memes and holding polls on preferred names for the Union Territory. Some demanded how dare the Tamil Nadu government change the name of Puducherry, a union territory; others stated that they would not abide by the name change. It is likely that a graphic by a popular Tamil News Channel (see below) could have added to this confusion.
So what did happen ?
Among the 1018 names released by Tamil Nadu, there is indeed a Puducherry at number 607. The gazette notification by Tamil Nadu government is available here on the government website . As clearly mentioned in this document, this Puducherry /Pudhucherry is a location in Nagapattinam District- a fact that netizens ignored along with the all-important question : how could Tamil Nadu have the authority to change the name or spelling of a Union Territory !Some twitter/instagram users to their credit, rightfully did express skepticism over this name and spelling change. Puducherry in Nagapattinam is located near Sikkal and is also referred to as Aavaraani Pudhucheri.
சிலர் ஏதோ புதுச்சேரி பெயரை தமிழக அரசு மாற்றம் செய்துவிட்டது என்ற ரீதியில் பதிவு இட்டனர். உண்மை என்ன? நாகப்பட்டினம் மாவட்டத்தில் புதுச்சேரி என்று ஒரு ஊர் உண்டு, அதை தான் தமிழக அரசு Puducherry-Puthucherry என்று பெயர் மாற்றம் செய்துள்ளது #Puducherry #TamizhNadu #NAMECHANGE pic.twitter.com/kSBksLXhGS
— Lourduraj D (@LourdurajD) June 11, 2020
“What’s in a name ?”, asked Shakespeare. Little did he know !
While this hoopla can be dismissed as a frivolous incident, it was also a classic example of how misinformation and fake news spread virally through screenshots sent over WhatsApp and DMs, unchecked and unverified.
There has been a spike in fake news since the onset of the pandemic all over the world and here too in Puducherry. At Pondylive, we have countered dozens of instances of misinformation which had real-life consequences creating panic, fear and confusion in Puducherry. Our appeal to local netizens is to spare a moment to question your news source, check its authenticity, verify official authoritative sources on twitter if in doubt, before sharing it !
Find latest Covid-19 case updates here
We are passionate and active about combating fake news at a local level in Pondicherry. At the same time, we are also open to fact-checking our own content. Write to us at info.pondylive@gmail.com if you have questions
Feature Photo: Joy Srivastava; Graphics: Pondy Diaries, Puthiya Thalamurai
