Delhi’s Teen Murti Chowk renamed after Israeli city Haifa

In a meeting in April, some NDMC council members had claimed that the proposal had been passed but the civic body chairman, Naresh Kumar, announced hours later that the issue was deferred.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu will jointly pay tribute at the memorial,” a senior NDMC official said.

“The Teen Murti Chowk will be renamed as Teen Murti Haifa Chowk, in the centenary year of the Battle for Haifa as a symbol of friendship between the people of India and Israel,” he said.

The Israeli city was liberated from Ottoman occupation by Indian soldiers during World War I.

A large number of Indian soldiers of the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade died during the battle to free the city and nearly 900 were buried in Israel.

September 23 is celebrated as Haifa Day in India and Israel every year as a mark of respect for the soldiers who lost their lives in the battle and to mark the end of 400 years of Turkish control over the city.

Demands to rename Teen Murti road and chowk have been made over the past few years by various organisations, including the RSS.

Senior RSS functionary Indresh Kumar had said in 2015 that the government should acknowledge the role played by the three regiments of the Indian Army in the Battle of Haifa in 1918.

According to the Ministry of Culture, a “wrong impression” has been built about the Teen Murti Chowk that it has something to do with Mahatma Gandhi.

“The Teen Murti Chowk was named to mark the role of the three cavalry regiments. But no one knows this today. The moment people think of the Teen Murti they think of Gandhiji’s monkeys. This is a wrong impression that needs to be corrected,” it had earlier said.

Teen Murti Bhavan, the residence of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and now a museum, is at the Teen Murti crossing.