Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to move a resolution renaming India as 'Bharat' at the five-day special session in Parliament starting September 18. "REPUBLIC OF BHARAT - happy and proud that our civilisation is marching ahead boldly towards AMRIT KAAL,” tweeted Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as reported by CNN-News18.
Meanwhile, the Congress claimed that the masthead of a dinner invite from the president’s office sent to G20 summit delegates described Droupadi Murmu as the “President of Bharat”, instead of the usual “President of India”. “Article 1 in the Constitution can read: ‘Bharat, that was India, shall be a Union of States’,” the party’s General Secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted. “But now even this ‘Union of States’ is under assault.”
Read More: Congress says Union of States 'under assault' in Modi govt, cites 'President of Bharat' in G20 dinner invite
Defending the use of the name Bharat, top BJP leader JP Nadda asked why does the Congress party have “so much objection to every subject related to the honor and pride of the country?"
“Why do political yatras in the name of Bharat Jodo hate the proclamation of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai?’ It is clear that the Congress has neither respect for the country, nor for the constitution of the country, nor for the constitutional institutions. He just means to praise a particular family. The whole country knows very well the anti-national and anti-constitutional intentions of the Congress," Nadda added in a post on social media site X.
According to a Zee News Report, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had earlier said that regardless of whether people understand it or not, we should not say "India" but should say "Bharat" instead.
Should the name change go ahead, India will not be the first country to do so. The United Nations announced that Türkiye will replace the name Turkey, whenever the country is referenced, while the government of the Netherlands also overhauled its image by ditching the name Holland.
In 2019, the Republic of Macedonia officially became the Republic of North Macedonia.
Sri Lanka changed its name to break from colonial associations. The official name change was made in 1972. However, it was not until 2011 that Sri Lanka officially wiped the old colonial name Ceylon from government use.
In 2016, the Czech government officially changed Czech Republic’s name to Czechia.
Sulley87 on September 5th, 2023 at 09:23 UTC »
That's interesting. In Arabic the name for "spices" is "bharat". after a quick google search it is confirmed we named spices bharat because that's where we got them from. History can be cute.
StephenHunterUK on September 5th, 2023 at 08:49 UTC »
That article isn't quite correct on Czechia. Czech Republic remains the official long form name, they just added an official English translation of the short form one. Like French Republic/France.
MoFauxTofu on September 5th, 2023 at 08:14 UTC »
Should call it Native America and really confuse people.