Dear Listers, In a book published in 1878 called 'A Memoir of Indian Surveys' by Clements R. Markham http://www.archive.org/details/memoirontheindia025502mbp, I came across an chapter (from p. 384 onwards) that narrates efforts of several experts to device a satisfactory system to render Indian names of persons, towns, villages, rivers etc. into the Roman script. Diverse systems were in use till Dr Hunter's system received Government's approval in 1870 and, after that, some standardization came about in this chaotic field. The Hunterian system abolished Scinde, Scind, Scindh, Sindh and Sinde and replaced them with Sind. It did away with Oude and Avadh and approved Oudh. It replaced Cawnpore, Khanpur and Kanhpur with Cawnpur. The post-1947 Government had even less difficulty in understanding and pronouncing Indian names and has brought them much closer to the original. Sind is now Sindh, Cawnpur is Kanpur and Oudh has gone back to being avadh. Poona is Pune, Mumbai is restored in place of Bombay and so on. The pendulum is now swinging towards the other extreme. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (translation- Army for Regeneration of Maharashtra), an offshoot of Shiv Sena that came into being to champion the cause of the Marathi people and has to show that it surpasses its parent, is now on warpath demanding replacement of Bombay from the names of the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) and the major industrial conglomerate Bombay Dyeing. The argument that these commercial names have value and goodwill attached to them cuts no ice with these warriors. A few days ago they blackened the name-board of the Bombay Scottish Mission's Secondary School for the reason that it contained the word Bombay. Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, May 15, 2008.