Did Dubai ruler order to rename Al Minhad as ‘Hind City’ to honour India and Hindus?
It is claimed that Al Minhad district is renamed as Hind City to honour the contribution of India and Hindus towards humanity.
Claim
Ruler of Dubai and PM of UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has ordered that a district in the emirate be renamed.
Al Minhad and its surrounding 84 Square KM areas will now be known as “Hind City” to honour the contribution of India and Hindus towards humanity.
Rating
Explanation
The Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on 29, January 2023 announced that the district Al Minhad and its surrounding areas are renamed as ‘Hind City’.
This piece of news is shared widely on social media by BJP leaders and followers with the claim that the order to rename the district as ‘Hond City’ was made to honour the contribution of India and Hindus towards humanity. Posts with such a claim can be seen here, here, here, and here.
Some of these posts relate this news to Modi’s leadership, some have the hashtags ‘India’, and ‘history’. An article by ‘Arabian Business’ is quoted as a source of these tweets.
What is the truth?
When searching with the keywords from the claim post, we found multiple articles with the news of Al Minhad being renamed as Hind City. But none of the articles mention the connection between the name ‘Hind City’ and India.
Gulf Insider article titled “Sheikh Mohammed orders Dubai District to be Renamed as Hind City” while reporting the news on Hind city mentions that “Hind” is also a word in Arabic which means “100 camels”. It is said to be a common and ancient name for girls in the Arab region. Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s senior wife’s name has Hind in it – Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum.
Time Out Dubai article dated 30, January 2023 titled ‘A Dubai district is going to be renamed’ mentions that Hind means Brave and courageous in Arabic. It could also mean a group of camels.
The Arabian Business article mentioned as a source of the viral tweets too did not mention India or Hindus or Modi. The article mentions that Al Minhad and its surrounding areas will be known as “Hind City” and has no mention of the reason behind the name.
Other Middle-East news media such as Gulf News, and Khaleej Times also relayed the same information. None of the articles we referred to prove that the name Hind City is to honour India or Hindus for their contribution towards humanity.
Conclusion
It is found from our search that the Ruler of Dubai did not order to rename Al Minhad district and its surrounding areas as ‘Hind City’ to honour India and Hindus for their contribution towards humanity. The reason behind the name was not mentioned by any officials but some of the media pointed out that the ruler’s wife has ‘Hind’ in her name, Hind refers to brave, and it also denotes a group of camels.
