New Delhi: In a quiet act of historical vandalism, the Grand Trunk Road – laid under the Mauryan Empire in the 3rd century BCE – lost its distinct identity when India’s highway network was reorganised and its once-celebrated Calcutta-Delhi-Amritsar-Wagah stretch was absorbed into the much longer National Highway 44 (NH 44) some 15 years ago.Shockingly, along this over 2,000 km corridor, not a single sign acknowledges the road’s layered past – its centuries-old identity as the GT Road, or its earlier names: Uttarapath, Sadak-e-Azam, and Sher Shah Suri Marg.Travellers speeding along NH 44 remain largely unaware that they are moving along a corridor shaped by centuries of trade, travel, and cultural exchange. That amnesia is no accident. Reduced to a number within a vast national grid, one of India’s most storied routes has been stripped of visible memory, severing a tangible link to the country’s civilisational past.Grand Trunk Road towards Burdwan from Hooghly, West Bengal. Photo: Pinakpani, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.The GT Road’s historic name met its abrupt demise when India’s highways were reorganised under a systematic, grid-based numbering scheme that culminated in 2010 with the creation of nearly 600 numbered national highways, along with secondary and feeder routes spanning some 145,000 kilometres.Under this grid-based system, north-south corridors were assigned even numbers increasing from east to west, while east-west routes received odd numbers; major highways were given single- or double-digit designations, and three-digit numbers marked lesser routes branching off from primary arteries.Consequently, the GT Road that for millennia had been a living thread linking successive empires, traders, religious figures, and travellers across the subcontinent was, by bureaucratic fiat, reduced almost overnight to a number on a map, its layered inheritance brutally and thoughtlessly erased.“Re-designating the GT Road as NH 44 is a historical travesty,” said former Manipur Governor Gurbachan Jagat, who has traversed this fabled highway countless times over his decades-long career as a civil servant and private citizen. For the 82-year-old, it is more than just a highway – it is a testament to centuries of human movement and exchange, and a historical legacy that needs to be preserved and amplified.“This road carries the memory of empires and deserves more than just a number on a map,” added Jagat, who was also the director general of police in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s and thereafter headed the Border Security Force. It is a majestic thoroughfare of the subcontinent, and its highly evocative and memorable name needs to be announced loudly as part of that inheritance, he added.The GT Road’s origins stretch back more than 2,500 years, when it was first developed as part of a trade network by the Mauryan Empire under Chandragupta Maurya, linking the fertile plains of the Ganges to the western and northern frontiers. Over centuries, successive rulers – the Mauryas, Guptas, Sher Shah Suri, the Mughals, and the British – expanded, repaired, and modernised it, recognising its strategic, economic, and cultural significance.But it was Sher Shah Suri, the 16th-century Afghan ruler known for his administrative genius and infrastructural vision, who formalised the road’s structure, introducing milestones, serais, and other roadside facilities to support travellers and traders. In the centuries that followed, the Mughals, and later the British, further expanded and integrated it into their imperial infrastructure, connecting key administrative centres and using it as a strategic route for the rapid movement of troops, supplies, and ordnance across the country to wage war.However, for most locals under 55 years of age, the GT Road today is little more than a traffic-choked strip of asphalt from Calcutta to Amritsar and onward to Wagah. Few realise that this nearly 3,000 km route once spanned much of the subcontinent, beginning in Bengal, passing through Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and the Punjab plains, before reaching Lahore, Peshawar, and finally the Afghan frontier.Original GT Road between Margalla and Kala Chitta in Pakistan. Photo: Khalid Mahmood, CC via Wikimedia Commons.After Partition, two of its stretches – Delhi-Wagah and Agra-Calcutta – were accorded symbolic elevation as NH 1 and NH 2, respectively. Yet for decades thereafter, the majority of people continued to call it the GT Road, underscoring a wider reality-even its prestigious numbered labels could not eclipse its historic name or diminish its stature as a living thread of civilisation, a route that had carried rulers, advancing and retreating armies, traders, pilgrims, and above all, ideas, across Hindustan for generations.Thus, at a moment when the BJP government is actively reclaiming India’s civilisational past, an unavoidable question presents itself: can the GT Road formally reclaim its historic name – honouring centuries of continuous history – while retaining NH 44 as a purely administrative and navigational label?Such a dual, practical approach of perpetuating history while appeasing bureaucracy would, doubtlessly, preserve the road’s civilisational depth and historical meaning but without impairing its contemporary utility. At a time when cities, towns, airports, and even streets were being routinely renamed across the country along political, ethnic, or ideological lines, the GT Road stands apart as a rare, genuinely non-denominational designation. Its name or title carries neither sectarian nor political baggage, evoking instead India’s deep history, geography, and continuity rather than any single ruler, faith, or doctrine.In short, its title remains politically unburdened – a living thread connecting the past to the present. Revising its historic designation would only offer travellers a living reminder of India’s enduring heritage in an extended blacktop strip that has ferried life, commerce, and culture for centuries.Grand Trunk Road in Ghaziabad. Photo: Rainer Jehl, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.While roads like Rome’s Via Appia, China’s Silk Road, Persia’s Royal Road, or South America’s Inca Qhapaq Ñan are celebrated today, they largely survive as archaeological sites or tourist trails, no longer serving as major transport arteries. By contrast, the GT Road remains fully functional, carrying millions of vehicles daily across eastern and northern India – and in Pakistan – just as it once bore caravans, traders, emissaries, and scholars across successive empires. Unlike these other ancient roads abroad, the GT Road is not a relic of the past but a living highway, where ancient and medieval history and daily life in the 21st century coexist.Along it, the old and the monumental stand seamlessly side-by-side, reminding travellers that history here is not curated – it is lived. One such tangible aspect of this continuity is reflected in the 30-odd Kos Minars that stand between Delhi and Ambala, many partially obscured by unfettered roadside construction. These tall cylindrical stone pillars, erected during the Mughal era to mark every kos – roughly 3 km – served centuries ago as beacons for travellers, royal caravans, and merchants. In recent years, some have been restored, albeit somewhat crudely, as markers of movement and interaction across the GT Road in olden times. Food along the GT Road, too, is another storyteller, subtly bringing the past to life even as most travellers take it for granted, rarely considering its hoary origins. Scores of dhabas here serve parathas soaked in butter, slow-cooked dal, and saag from recipes refined over centuries. These time-honoured dishes not only unite the road’s varied travellers – truckers, farmers, students, and executives – but also evoke a link to earlier times, when weary passers-by on horseback, elephants, bullock carts, or on foot shared similar meals along broadly the same pathway and who knows, even at the same angethi.Every few kilometres along the GT Road, history quietly surfaces, often unnoticed. Among the most consequential – yet relatively little known – were the twin Battles of Tarain in 1191 and 1192, fought near present-day Taraori, close to Karnal. Control of this route was critical, linking the Punjab plains to Delhi and the Gangetic heartland. Muhammad Ghori’s victory in the second battle did more than defeat Prithviraj Chauhan – it opened the road to Delhi itself. What followed was Ghori’s advance along the GT Road, enabling the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate and ushering in a new political order in north India.Centuries later, the same corridor witnessed another turning point. Liaquat Ali Khan, independent Pakistan’s first prime minister, was born in Karnal, then as now a prominent GT Road town. His early life unfolded along this historic axis, underscoring how the ancient road continued to shape political leadership long after empires had faded.Meanwhile, a cross-section of conservationists suggested that the GT Road’s preservation could start with official recognition of it as a National Heritage Corridor, while retaining its NH 44 designation for planning, budgeting, and regulation. Road markers and public documents could, for example, read NH 44 (Grand Trunk Road), restoring the historic name to everyday visibility. Such measures could be further complemented by informational plaques at towns and historic junctions like Panipat and Kurukshetra, highlighting the road’s historical role in wars, trade, migration, and administration and in reminding travellers that they are traversing more than just a highway. Besides, a focused conservation programme – potentially led by the Archaeological Survey of India and supported by the Union Ministry of Transport & Highways, along with state and local private partners – could restore select markers and create small lay-bys where travellers can engage with history without impeding traffic.GT Road in Lahore, Pakistan. Photo: Taha Tahir, CC via Wikimedia Commons.Online research has revealed that globally, countries have shown that modern infrastructure and heritage preservation can coexist. In Europe, ancient roads like the Via Appia, Watling Street, and France’s Route Nationale, for instance, retain their historic names alongside motorway codes.And, though in the US, the legendary Route 66, stretching 3,940 km from Chicago to Santa Monica in California, was officially decommissioned in 1985, it is still culturally preserved as a national icon. In Britain, Watling Street, a principal Roman road from Dover through London to the Welsh border, survives in modern highways like the A2 and A5, with its historic name maintained on signboards and maps. China, too, overlays expressways on Silk Road corridors without erasing their civilisational significance.Ultimately, restoring the GT Road’s status is not about nostalgia – it is about preserving civilisational memory. Administrative efficiency and modernity matter, but they should never come at the cost of forgetting history. Honouring the GT Road will not only connect the past and present but also remind current and future generations to respect and value the history beneath their wheels.