The people who make the “My job just got Bangalored” T-shirts face a challenge. On November 1, the iconic city, which gave India a world-beating information technology industry and changed the country’s international image, will be renamed Bengaluru. It is the latest move by regional politicians to reject Anglicised place names in favour of pre-colonial ones and follows the rebranding of Bombay as Mumbai, Madras as Chennai and Calcutta as Kolkata.

Local legend says the name’s roots lie in the 13th century when a prince lost his way while hunting and wandered for hours before chancing upon an old woman who cooked him beans. He named the spot Bendakaalooru literally “boiled bean place” – a mouthful simplified first to Bengaluru and then by the British to Bangalore.