‘President Of Bharat’ On G20 Invite Triggers Row – History Of The Nation’s Names

A Shift From “India” To “Bharat” On President Draupadi Murmu’s G20 Invitations To Foreign Leaders Triggered A Huge Row, With The Opposition Accusing The Ruling BJP Of Rebranding The Nation...

Zaheer Hussain
September 6, 2023
322

Zaheer Hussain
September 6, 2023
322

A Shift From “India” To “Bharat” On President Draupadi Murmu’s G20 Invitations To Foreign Leaders Triggered A Huge Row, With The Opposition Accusing The Ruling BJP Of Rebranding The Nation Over Political One-upmanship.

‘President Of Bharat’ On G20 Invite Triggers Row – History Of The Nation’s Names

Why In The News?

A Shift From “India” To “Bharat” On President Draupadi Murmu’s G20 Invitations To Foreign Leaders Triggered A Huge Row, With The Opposition Accusing The Ruling BJP Of Rebranding The Nation Over Political One-upmanship.
For The First Time, Official Invites To Heads Of State For A Dinner On September 9 In Delhi Are From The “President Of Bharat” Instead Of The Traditional “President Of India”.

Speculation Of An Official Change

There Is Speculation Of An Official Change In The Name Of The Country From India To Bharat, Even Though Article 1 Of The Constitution Uses The Two Names Interchangeably: “India, That Is Bharat, Shall Be A Union Of States.” Even RBI & Railways Already Have Hindi Variants With “Bharatiya” In Them.
In June 2020, The Supreme Court Had Dismissed A PIL Seeking To Remove “India” From The Constitution And Retain Only Bharat In Order To “Ensure The Citizens Of This Country…get Over The Colonial Past” Saying: “India Is Already Called Bharat In The Constitution Itself.”

Origin Of The Name ‘Bharat’

The Roots Of “Bharat”, “Bharata”, Or “Bharatavarsha” Are Traced Back To Puranic Literature, And To The Epic Mahabharata. The Puranas Describe Bharata As The Land Between The “Sea In The South And The Abode Of Snow In The North”.
Bharata In The Sense Of A Religious And Socio-cultural Entity, Rather Than A Political Or Geographical One. Bharata Is Also The Name Of The Ancient King Of Legend Who Was The Ancestor Of The Rig Vedic Tribe Of The Bharatas, And By Extension, The Progenitor Of All Peoples Of The Subcontinent.

From Where Does Word ‘India’ & ‘Hindustan’ Come?

The Name Hindustan Is Thought To Have Derived From ‘Hindu’, The Persian Cognate Form Of The Sanskrit ‘Sindhu’ (Indus), Which Came Into Currency With The Achaemenid Persian Conquest Of The Indus Valley Around 6^th Century BC.

The Greeks, Who Had Acquired Knowledge Of ‘Hind’ From The Achaemenids, Transliterated The Name As ‘Indus’. By The Time, The Macedonian King Alexander Invaded India In The 3^rd Century BC, ‘India’ Had Come To Be Identified With The Region Beyond The Indus.
By The Time Of The Early Mughals (16^th Century), The Name ‘Hindustan’ Was Used To Describe The Entire Indo-Gangetic Plain. From The Late 18^th Century Onwards, British Maps Increasingly Began To Use The Name ‘India’, And ‘Hindustan’ Started To Lose Its Association With All Of South Asia.

‘Bharat’ And ‘India’ In The Constitution

In His Monumental ‘Discovery Of India’, Nehru Referred To “India”, “Bharata” And “Hindustan”: “Often, As I Wandered From Meeting To Meeting, I Spoke To My Audiences Of This India Of Ours, Of Hindustan And Of Bharata, The Old Sanskrit Name Derived From The Mythical Founders Of The Race.”
But When The Question Of Naming India In The Constitution Arose, ‘Hindustan’ Was Dropped, And Both ‘Bharat’ And ‘India’ Were Retained. During The Constituent Assembly Debates The “Name And Territory Of The Union” Was Taken Up For Discussion On September 17, 1949.
Right From The Time The First Article Was Read Out As “India, That Is Bharat, Shall Be A Union Of States”, A Division Arose Among The Members. There Were Quite A Few Members Who Were Against The Use Of The Name ‘India’, Which They Saw As Being A Reminder Of The Colonial Past.

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