Al-Jazeera

'Democracy' is hard work and for billions around the world the definitions vary.

In India, my home country and indeed the 'world's largest democracy'- governments have been voted in and out for generations since independence in 1947. The elected have always chosen to impose their
will and the expeditious re-naming as in the case of Iran has been frequent. Hence Bombay, became Mumbai when the Hindu 'extremists' of the Shiv Sena deemed it more culturally appropriate. And now we have Madras to Chennai, Calcutta to Kolkata and so many more. The pretext is often the idea of re-claiming national identity and in some of these cases, obliterating the painful memories of a colonial past.