Origins of 'Connaught Place' title?

Shiver me Timbers

Hello people, could one of you learned folk perhaps tell me how Connaught Place got its name? The reason for the interest is that 'Connaught' is the name of Ireland's western province, I was thinking there could be a link.

Thanks!

Conor.

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rangss

We have a hotel in Chennai...the Taj Connemara. How about that?

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jennifericous

thats hillarious.
i live in connaught, Galway to be precise. i find that so interesting, i just assumed that connaught happened to be an indian word for something else?

cfhi

hahah i am sure many people are as puzzle as u where did the name come from,

i am from singapore and , jus like india, ( we'r all british colony in the past ) we do have our fair share of british people here and that's probably where these english names comes about.

there's a lot of places in singapore with english names , e.g. raffles place, queenstown, farrer park, etc etc and much much more

there's also a town in penang malaysia, call butterworth, now where did that name come from ? heh heh

SHIMLA

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Alan D

Conor

Connaught Place was constructed in 1933 and named after the Duke of Connaught (Arthur 1850 - 1942, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert) to honour him on his visit to Delhi.

He had been Commander-in-Chief of British Forces in Ireland during the years 1900-1904.

In 1996, the New Delhi Municipal Council renamed Connaught Circus as Indira Chowk and Connaught Place as Rajiv Chowk, but my Indian friends in Delhi still seem to use the old names. I'm not sure if this is general among Delhi-ites.

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genevieve_lalune

What is the difference between Connaught Place and Connaught Circus?

Is it true that "chowk" is pronounced to rhyme with "shock" (short o) or can you say chowk so that it rhymes with "goat" (long o)?

SHIMLA

The pronounciation of "Chowk" is actually the way you'll pronounce "chavk". The literal meaning of chowk is "square".

I suppose Connaught Circus refers to the inner circle, though I'm not sure.

jens

Neat, now I know. I always figured the colonists used to say "I cannot stand this heat", I cannot fathom that these little villages aren't connected by a massive train system", "I cannot have another morning without marmalade", etc...then they added a "u" (because the English always do), then they kept saying it with their head tilted to the sky and nose stuffed from the dust so it came out "connaut", then they added the "gh" just to try to maintain their superiority via confusingly spelled words, which made it "connaught". This, of course incited the independent nation of India to plot their revenge in the next century by going on to trounce the world in spelling bees....

bijapuri

con place and con circus . . .
circus is the inner round road, place is the whole dang meatball.

I think . . . .

And I've never heard anyone use the newer names

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AvidTrekker

The word has the long o somewhat as in goat. With a short U sound inserted. The exact pronun'n is difficult to write in words. Again, the delhi chowk is different from the mumbai chowk [pronounced differently]

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crvlvr

and there has not been a "movement" to replace the name connaught place with an indegenous name?

Alan D

Seems quite an apt abbreviation! For foreign visitors at least.

crvlvr

What are you saying? I've seen the signs.

crvlvr

given that a number of place names are officially being reverted back to their original (although some claims are dubious - Madras - Chennay, Bombay - Mumbai, Clalcutta - Kokata) In many cities, the names of roads are being changed too. I was wondering if there was any inkling of a name change for Connaught Place.

for example, even though the british built the viceroy Palace as residence for the viceroy of india in 1911, after independance, the name was changed to rastrapathi bhavan.

Alan D

crvlvr

May I ask you - how long is it since you've been in Delhi?