Gujarat Man Wants To Change His Name To ‘RV155677820’ And The Government Won’t Let Him

If someone told you, in all seriousness, that they are atheist, how likely is it for you to take them seriously? The thing about being iconoclastic is that it is easy to preach it amongst your friends and on social media, but utterly difficult to follow in front of your family member who are ardent believers. 

Meet Rajveer Upadhyay from Ahmedabad. Rajveer is one of us, a non-believer, who didn’t want his name to draw attention to any religious beliefs, and therefore urged the government that he be allowed to change his name.

indiatv

Unfortunately, his request was turned down. A Gazette office at Rajkot has rejected Rajveer’s plea, without citing a valid reason. In response, he was informed, “New name according to your desire cannot be published”.

Rajveer wanted to change his name to ‘RV155677820’.

toi

The 34-year-old has been running a crusade against his own name since 2015. He’s not only trying to alter his name but is also fighting to add an atheist column in the religion section. 

Believing that his name points to his caste, he wants his name to be ‘RV155677820’ — short for Rajveer and his enrollment number on his school-leaving certificate.

Rajveer now wants to take this matter to the high court and challenge the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act which, according to him, doesn’t have a provision to embrace atheism.  

“I am a rationalist and secular person and this is a secular country. The law of the country should give me the right to be known as an atheist. If I write my name and surname, people will know my religion and caste but I do not want my identity to be shrunk to the narrow confines of religion and caste.” he told TOI.