Some of the oldest roads and bazaars in the British-era Lucknow Cantonment have been given Indian names.A bazaar named by the British as ‘Infantry Bazaar’ has been renamed after Mangal Pandey, a sepoy who played a key role in the 1857 mutiny.Pandey from the 34th Bengal Native infantry mutinied against the British and was hanged to death in April 1857 at Barrackpore, West Bengal. His death had sparked a wider mutiny with Lucknow residency of the British being under seize for months.The Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Jattvibeday quoted Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, referring to the renaming of several markets in Lucknow Cantonment.The Minister was attending an event to launch multiple works in the cantonment, which is spread across 6800 acres. “Names associated with the British era have been replaced with those of prominent personalities of India’s freedom struggle and national life,” the minister said.The Royal Artillery Bazar has been renamed Ekta Bazar; British Cavalry Bazar is now Uda Devi Bazar; British Infantry Bazar is Matadin Valmiki Bazar; another British Infantry Bazar is Mangal Pandey Bazar; and Kanedy Market has been renamed Atal Bihari Vajpayee Market, the MoD said.Rajnath’s statement gives a formal seal to the decision of the Lucknow Cantonment Board taken in April this year. The board at its meeting had suggested a list of new names to replace those of the colonial era. The decision to accept the names was with the MoD, headed by Singh, who is also the Lok Sabha MP from Lucknow.According to the Lucknow Cantonment Board’s website, it was the headquarters of the Awadh military district of the 1850’s.The move of the Lucknow Cantonment Board to rename the bazaars stems from the Defence Ministry’s February decision that directed a comprehensive review of names of roads, buildings, halls, auditoriums, parks, institutions and establishments bearing names associated with colonial-era administrators.The MoD has sought the renaming of such roads, buildings and establishments in the honour of eminent Indian personalities, freedom fighters, military heroes, distinguished defence scientists or themes reflecting India’s civilisational heritage and constitutional values.Earlier in February, the Delhi Cantonment decided to shed its British-era names of roads and colonies. The re-naming honoured Indian soldiers, gallantry awardees, including Paramvir Chakra awardees and Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw. Old British-era roads were named as Hoshiar Singh marg, Arun Khetrapal marg, Manekshaw marg, Thimayya marg extn, Ramaswamy Parameshwaran marg, Padmapani Acharya marg, Shaitan Singh marg and Capt Anuj Nayyar marg.Maj Ramaswamy Parameswaran, Lt Arun Khetrapal, Col Hoshiar Singh and Maj Shaitan Singh are PVC awardees.