Just hours before news of Queen Elizabeth II's death spread, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a fiery speech urging India to shed its colonial ties in a ceremony to rename a boulevard that once honored King George V.
Rajpath, formerly called Kingsway, was a "symbol of slavery" under the British Raj, he said. Instead, under the newly named Kartavya Path that leads to the iconic India Gate, "a new history has been created," Modi beamed.