While India is all braced up to welcome world leaders and their delegations for the G20 summit, the country is all set to undergo a major change. On Tuesday, multiple reports suggested that the Modi Government has decided to table a resolution during the Special Session of Parliament proposing to rename India to Bharat. Article 1 of the Constitution of India states - India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States. This article is likely to be amended. While there is no official confirmation on this move, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma made a cryptic post on X (formerly Twitter) which hailed the 'Republic of Bharat', fueling the speculation in political circles. Apart from this, the term "President of Bharat" has been used for the first time in an official invite to foreign leaders attending the weekend G20 summit, replacing the traditional "President of India".
To be precise, 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".
Why Bharat, not India?
As mentioned above the Constitution of India currently refers to the country as "India, that is Bharat". But ahead of the special session of Parliament slated for September 18-13, there have been growing calls to amend this to simply "Bharat". This movement is driven by a desire to shed remnants of colonial rule and embrace the nation's indigenous heritage. Talking about colonial rule, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has already tabled a bill revoking sedition laws and replacing the British-era IPC and CrPC with newly formulated rules & regulations in the last parliament session.
Former cricketer Virendra Sehwag took to his official X handle and welcomed the reports suggesting India renaming Bharat. "I have always believed a name should be one which instills pride in us.
We are Bhartiyas ,India is a name given by the British & it has been long overdue to get our original name ‘Bharat’ back officially. I urge the @BCCI @JayShah to ensure that this World Cup our players have Bharat on our chest."
I have always believed a name should be one which instills pride in us.
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) September 5, 2023
We are Bhartiyas ,India is a name given by the British & it has been long overdue to get our original name ‘Bharat’ back officially. I urge the @BCCI @JayShah to ensure that this World Cup our players have… https://t.co/R4Tbi9AQgA
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor write, "While there is no constitutional objection to calling India “Bharat”, which is one of the country’s two official names, I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with “India”, which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries. We should continue to use both words rather than relinquish our claim to a name redolent of history, a name that is recognised around the world."
While there is no constitutional objection to calling India “Bharat”, which is one of the country’s two official names, I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with “India”, which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries. We should… pic.twitter.com/V6ucaIfWqj
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 5, 2023
“Bharat is not India, Cannot be India, Name resonates power” 🔥🔥 #Bharat pic.twitter.com/tBYt3e0jSz
— Lala (@FabulasGuy) September 5, 2023
Recently, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had also said that "our country's name has been Bharat for centuries", while appealing to people to use the word Bharat instead of India. Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while stressing on the five vows of the Amrit Kaal, said that one of them includes freedom from the mentality of slavery.
Towards this direction, the government has undertaken several steps, ranging from bringing changes in education policy to omitting symbols, changing names of streets and places related to slavery, removing statues of people associated with colonial power, and installing statues of prominent (historical) Indian personalities.
It is pertinent to mention here that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal who is part of the I.N.D.I.A. alliance stated that he senses that the move to rename the country is because they have named their party after the country. "If an alliance of some parties become India, would they change the name of the country? The country belongs to 140 crore people, not to a party. Let's assume if the India alliance renames itself as Bharat, would they rename Bharat as BJP then?... What's this joke?... BJP is thinking that their vote count will decrease so they should change the name of Bharat," said Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.