Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 5: The invitation to the foreign dignitaries in the name of the “President of Bharat” depicting the country’s name in Hindi instead of the usual “India” has created a row in the political as well as non-political circles in the country.
It was the first time that the central government’s official documents refers the country as “Bharat” taking recourse to the Constitution that in its preamble said “India, that is Bharat.” The name has been used in the dinner invitations on September 9 to the foreign dignitaries attending the G-20 summit in New Delhi, from the “President of Bharat Droupadi Murmu” and created immediate ripples in the political circles.
The Congress and other opposition parties said the change was due to the nervousness of the ruling BJP ever since the opposition block used “INDIA” (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) as the nomenclature of the non-BJP alliance to take on the ruling party in the 2024 Parliamentary elections, while the Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar said no one had the right to change the name of the country.
While the BJP leaders hailed the “welcome change” getting out of the colonial English name for the country, the move also received support from some non-political stalwarts. Bollywood mega star Amitabh Bachchan simply tweeted “Bharat Mata ki Jai,” while the former cricketer Virendra Sehwag suggested that “Bharat” should be in scripted on the shirts of the Indian team for the Cricket World Cup to be played in India later this year in place of “India.”
The dinner invitation in the name of “President of Bharat” marked a significant shift in nomenclature on the international stage as the country hosts the mega event featuring US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak among others.
President Droupadi Murmu’s invite to G20 foreign leaders and Chief Ministers for a dinner on September 9, says: “President of Bharat” instead of “President of India.” Officials say this is the first change of India’s nomenclature for any official event. The term “Bharat” is also in the Constitution, officials point out. “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States,” it says in Article 1 of the Constitution.
“Bharat” has also been used in a G20 booklet handed to foreign delegates, titled “Bharat, The Mother Of Democracy”, to highlight, in India’s G20 presidency, its rich democratic ethos for thousands of years. “In Bharat that is India, taking the consent of the people in governance has been part of life since earliest recorded history,” are the opening words of the booklet. It goes on to say: “Bharat is the official name of the country. It is mentioned in the Constitution as also in the discussions of 1946-48.”
The Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was among the first to cheer the big change. “REPUBLIC OF BHARAT – happy and proud that our civilisation is marching ahead boldly towards AMRIT KAAL,” he posted on X after the shared the invitation on the social media saying that the move was long overdue. “This should have happened earlier. This gives great satisfaction to the mind. ‘Bharat’ is our introduction. We are proud of it. The President has given priority to ‘Bharat’. This is the biggest statement to come out of the colonial mindset,” he said.
Government sources, however, rubbished the talk of a formal action in the upcoming session of Parliament to change the name of India. “It is clearly stated in the Constitution that ‘India, that is Bharat, is a Union of states’ so where is there any need for any change?” said a senior Union minister. “The INDIA bloc of parties have tried to reduce the identity of the country to their alliance, which is not good, and therefore the use of the name ‘Bharat’ both as a decolonising nomenclature and to bring the name of the country out of this reductive exercise was required,” added the Minister.
The Congress attacked the BJP government accusing it of being “scared” of the INDIA bloc and diverting from issues such as price rise and “rising joblessness.” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged, “Mr. (Narendra) Modi can continue to distort history and divide India, that is Bharat, that is a Union of States. But we will not be deterred.”
“After all, what is the objective of INDIA parties? It is BHARAT Bring Harmony, Amity, Reconciliation And Trust. Judega BHARAT Jeetega INDIA!” said Ramesh. “Also remember that it was the BJP that came up with Digital India, Start Up India, New India, and so on to which the Congress’ response was the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the first anniversary of whose launch is day after tomorrow,” he added.
RJD leader Manoj Jha said: “…It has just been a few weeks since we named our alliance as INDIA and BJP has started sending invitations with ‘Republic of Bharat’ instead of ‘Republic of India’. Article 1 of the Constitution reads ‘India that is Bharat’. Neither you will be able to take India from us nor Bharat.”
“Will BJP replace ‘Bharat’ with something else, if INDIA alliance changes its name to Bharat?” questioned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). BJP president JP Nadda retorted that the Congress was “anti-national” and “anti-constitution.”
Just two days ago, the suggestion that the country should be called Bharat instead of India had come from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the ruling party. “We must stop using the word India and start using Bharat. At times we use India to make those who speak English understand. This comes as the flow. However, we must stop using this…The name of the country Bharat will remain Bharat wherever you go in the world. In spoken and written one must say Bharat,” said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Politics over India versus Bharat has spiralled since the opposition alliance adopted the acronym INDIA in July. “The fight is between NDA and INDIA, Between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and INDIA, between their (the BJP’s) ideology and INDIA. You know what happens when someone stands against India, who wins,” Rahul Gandhi had said at the press conference where the name was announced.
The name had triggered a huge backlash from the ruling BJP, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing the opposition of trying to whitewash their “sins” by misusing the name. “They changed their name from UPA to INDIA to hide how they schemed against the poor… The name INDIA is not to show their patriotism but with an intention to rob the country,” he had said.
Veteran leader Sharad Pawar speaking to media in Jalgaon said INDIA bloc leaders would deliberate on the issue at the meeting to be held at the residence of the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday with chiefs of the parties which are part of the INDIA alliance, an opposition bloc of 28 parties aiming to take on the BJP-led Centre in next year’s general elections. “I don’t understand why the ruling party is perturbed over a name related to the country,” the NCP chief said.
The RSS sources have also questioned as to how many countries have two names, one constitutionally documented and another probably an English translation for people who cannot pronounce it? People speaking English or any other European language often have a problem pronouncing eastern names. So in the past they would change names according to their convenience, and we blindly accept those.
“Look at us: we operate with two names, the original name Bharat, and the given name, India. The invaders of Bharat who came up to the river Sindhu somehow managed to pronounce Sindhu as Hindu, and then Indus. And finally India is stuck on us for centuries now,” the sources point out.
In 2014, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court seeking to rename India as Bharat, but the apex court had refused to entertain and said a representation be made before the authority concerned. A bench comprising then Chief Justice H. L. Dattu and Justice A. K. Sikri asked petitioner Niranjan Bhatwal to first approach the authorities concerned with an appropriate representation.
The Ministry of External Affairs, however, refused to comment on the dinner invitation to the foreign delegates by the “President of Bharat” saying the President’s office would respond.
The DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin alleged the “BJP wants to change India for Bharat”, and said the saffron party was rattled by the term ‘INDIA’, the name of the Opposition bloc.
“After non-BJP forces united to dethrone the fascist BJP regime and aptly named their alliance #INDIA, now the BJP wants to change ‘India’ for ‘Bharat.’ BJP promised to TRANSFORM India, but all we got is a name change after 9 years!” he said in a post on micro-blogging site X.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said the BJP was using its majority in Parliament to treat the entire country as its “fiefdom.” “BJPs aversion to India’s foundational principle of unity in diversity has touched a new low. By reducing India’s many names from Hindustan and India to now only Bharat shows its pettiness and intolerance,” she posted on X.
Asserting that India is Bharat, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee questioned what suddenly happened that the country should be called only Bharat. “I heard that India’s name is being changed. The G20 invite that went out in the name of the honourable president has Bharat written on it. We call the country Bharat, what is new in this? In English, we say India… There’s nothing new to be done. The world knows us as India. What happened suddenly that the name of the country needs to be changed?” she asked.