A dinner invite from Rashtrapati Bhavan was sent to all the G20 delegates ahead of the G20 Summit set to take place on September 9 and 10. What caught everyone’s attention was the invite that was sent in the name of ‘President of Bharat’ instead of ‘President of India’
It sparked rumours around if the Centre is planning to introduce a bill to change the country’s name from India to Bharat. The Opposition was quick to point out that this change came after the opposition parties named their alliance INDIA.
Former cricketer Virender Sehwag said that he welcomed the prospect of a name change and urged India's cricket board BCCI to begin using Bharat on the men’s cricket team’s uniforms for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2023. He wrote: “India is a name given by the British (and) it has been long overdue to get our original name 'Bharat' back.”
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Virender Sehwag also shared an old video by Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru who explained the significance of the term Bharat. Sadhguru said, “The name has a sound that has power, and Bharat has power. Bha means sensation out of which comes emotion. R means raga or tune, which is already set. You cannot set the tune, existence has already set the tune, and now you just have to find the rhythm, which is the taal. If you find the right rhythm, you are a fantastic human being. If you miss the rhythm, you are crushed by the process of life. So we called this nation, Bha.Ra.Ta.”
Sadhguru was in conversation with former IPS officer Kiran Bedi in the video from 2014. He also shared an excerpt from the video. Sadhguru wrote on X (Twitter), “‘Nation’ is just an idea. When this idea burns through your mind and sinks into your heart and your passion rises towards the idea, we have a Nation. ‘Bharat’ is a cultural identity that resonates in everybody’s mind and can evoke this passion. India is an English name. Bharat as an utterance itself reverberates in everybody’s hearts and minds. Bharat Mata Ki Jai.”
The India vs Bharat row has led to mixed reactions. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, "I have no official information that this (a name change) is happening. Just because many opposition parties have formed an alliance and called it INDIA, will the Centre change the name of the country? The country belongs to 140 crore people, not to one party. If the name of the alliance is changed to Bharat, will they change the name of Bharat to BJP?"
The Republic of India has two short names – India and Bharat. Bharat is said to be derived from the name of the Vedic tribe of Bharatas as mentioned in Rigveda. As per reports, it is also said to be named after King Dasaratha's son Bharat of Ramcharitmanas, King Dushyanta's son Bharata of Mahabharata or Rishabha's son Bharata. Initially, Bharat was used for the western part of the Gangetic Valley.
The name 'India' is originally derived from the name of the river Sindhu (Indus River) and has been in use in the Greek language. The term was popularised by Greek historians and the British Raj also chose to use the term ‘India’ during their colonial reign.
Article 1 of the Constitution uses the two names interchangeably: “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
Some netizens expressed support in changing the country’s name from India to Bharat as they say that India as a term was adopted by the Britishers. Several pre-independence maps created by British authorities started dropping the term Hindustan or Bharat and replaced it with India.
Independent India’s first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru wrote in his autobiography ‘Discovery of India’, “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.”
While there is no official statement on the same, Minister of External Affairs Dr. S Jaishankar said in an interview with ANI, "India, that is Bharat - it is there in the Constitution. I would invite everybody to read it...When you say Bharat, in a sense, a meaning and an understanding and a connotation that comes with it and I think that is reflected in our Constitution as well."