Will India change its name to Bharat? What’s behind the controversy?

Speculation about India changing its name

“The name India should be removed from the constitution”

“Bharat” appears in ancient Indian scriptures

The BJP has changed colonial names of towns and cities

An attempt to erase the Muslim Mughal history

An attempt to advance a Hindu-nationalist agenda

An attempt to impose Hindi as the national language?

Will India’s name actually change to Bharat?

Speculation about India changing its name

Speculation has been circulating around India that the country might change its name to Bharat, the Hindi or Sanskrit version of India.

G20 invitation

The rumors were fueled by an invitation to a dinner reception sent to world leaders who attended the G20 summit, issued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which referred to the country’s head as the “President of Bharat”, several media reported.

A suspicious tweet

Moreover, a post on X (formerly Twitter), by a senior spokesman of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) referred to Modi (pictured) as “prime minister of Bharat”.

Hindu nationalist ideology

Given the Hindu-nationalist ideology of Modi’s government and its push for increased use of Hindi, critics have said the use of Bharat in the invites suggests the government is pushing for the name to be officially changed, Reuters reported.

A remnant of India’s colonial past

The BJP has argued before that the name “India” is a remnant of the country’s colonial past.

“The name India should be removed from the constitution”

“The British changed Bharat’s name to India,” Naresh Bansal, a BJP member of parliament said in a session, according to Al Jazeera, adding that it should be removed from the constitution.

“India” derived from the Indus Valley

But, according to historians, both names have existed for more than two millennia. They say the name “India” actually predates colonial rule by centuries, deriving from the Indus Valley.

“Bharat” appears in ancient Indian scriptures

The name Bharat on the other hand, is even older, historians say, occurring in ancient Indian scriptures. But according to some experts it was used as a term of socio-cultural identity rather than geography.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The BJP has changed colonial names of towns and cities

Over the years, the Hindu-nationalist BJP government has been changing colonial names of towns and cities claiming to help India move past what it has called a mentality of slavery.

An attempt to erase the Muslim Mughal history

However, critics also say the new names were an attempt to erase the Mughals, who were Muslims that ruled the subcontinent for almost 300 years, from Indian history.

Violence against Muslims in India

Violence and hate speech targeting Muslims in India, which has the second-largest Muslim population in the world, have been making headlines regularly since 2014.

An attempt to advance a Hindu-nationalist agenda

This is why, for critics, the name changing is just another intolerant move from Modi’s BJP and an attempt to advance the Hindu nationalist agenda.

An attempt to impose Hindi as the national language?

Some experts also view it as another attempt by the government to impose Hindi as the national language, according to NBC News.

Indian constitution lists 22 languages

While the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages, none of them have been given the status of the national language.

Will India’s name actually change to Bharat?

While there is no official confirmation that the country’s name will actually be changed,

a special parliamentary session

that will take place from September 18 to 22, has led to speculation that it will be used to rename the country, according to Reuters.

Rumors spread by the opposition?

However, according to Al Jazeera, some government officials, such as Information Minister Arunag Thakur, have dismissed the idea as “rumours spread by the opposition.”