Mumbai railway stations are being stripped of British colonial names

Elphinstone Road station, named after a British governor, was re-christened as Prabhadevi this week

Elphinstone railway station in Mumbai has been renamed by authorities (AFP/Getty Images)

Indian authorities have begun renaming Mumbai's rail stations in a bid to strip the city of relics of its British colonial past.

Elphinstone Road station, named after a British governor, was re-christened as Prabhadevi this week and ministers have indicated more changes are likely to follow.

The station takes its new name from a local Hindu temple.

The switch followed a campaign by Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist party, which in the 1990s also pushed for the city to be renamed Mumbai instead of the British title, Bombay.

The party is junior coalition government partner with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) in the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital.

It has long campaigned for colonial names to be scrapped and was instrumental in Mumbai's central rail station, swapping its name from Victoria to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in 1996.

“We are working to rename railway stations as per locally known names instead of older names,” said Diwakar Raote, Shiv Sena's transport minister for Maharashtra.

He told the The Times of India: "I had first made the demand to change the name of Elphinstone Road station to Prabhadevi in 1999. Those residing in the locality have been demanding that the station be remained Prabhadevi for a very long time."

The station had been named after John Elphinstone, the 13th Lord Elphinstone who was the British governor of Bombay between 1853 and 1860.

Stations including Currey Road, Sandhurst Road, Reay Road, Cotton Green, Marine Lines and Grant Road could also now be renamed.

But the move has not been welcome by all locals, some of whom see it has an attempt to erase Mumbai's past.

One resident said: "Government after government is run by elements who are merely keen on tokenism. Where is Elphinstone Road and where is Prabhadevi? The two are not even remotely close. This renaming is even factually incorrect."