Google Search, Maps, News now recognises ‘Bharat’ as ‘India’

Google has recently updated its search algorithms to recognise both 'Bharat' and 'India' as the same country in South Asia. This change is reflected across Google’s products, including Google Maps, Search, Translator, and News. If you go to Google Search and type in 'Bharat' you'll see the icon of the Indian flag and the description- 'India- Country in South Asia'.

When users search for ‘Bharat’ on Google Maps, it now displays the same results as a search for ‘India’. This is consistent across both the Hindi and English versions of Google Maps. Similarly, if you search 'Bharat' on Google News, you'll see the search result as 'India'. 

The central government of India has been gradually pushing the use of ‘Bharat’, even for its official communications. In line with this, Google has also started to prefer the use of 'भारत' over 'इंडिया' in its Hindi language services. For instance, the English-to Hindi-translation now displays 'India' in English as 'भारत' in Hindi. Other nouns for 'India', such as 'हिंदुस्तान' and 'भारतवर्ष', are also offered by Google Translate.

This change can also be seen as a part of a broader trend toward recognising and respecting local languages and terminologies on digital platforms. It also aligns with recent governmental changes. Last week, a railway ministry proposal to the union cabinet completely replaced “India” with “Bharat” in its entire document. 

Earlier last week, a National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) committee recommended the revision of ‘India’ as ‘Bharat’ in all textbooks.  This also led to political controversy.  So far, no decision has been taken on the use of ‘Bharat’ instead of ‘India’ in CBSE textbooks. 

The inclination towards the use of ‘Bharat’ was highlighted during the G20 Summit held in the month of September, raising speculations about the renaming of ‘India’. An invitation letter for a G20 dinner was sent by the President of India, Droupadi Murmu. However, the letterhead stated, “President of Bharat”. This triggered speculations that ‘India’ could be renamed to ‘Bharat’ officially. 

While there has been no official statement from Google regarding these changes, they are evident through simple searches on the platform. This move by Google is seen as an acknowledgment of the renewed push for the use of the term ‘Bharat’ in India.

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