Did India just soft launch a name change?
In dinner invitations sent to guests of this upcoming weekend’s G20 summit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, President Droupadi Murmu was referred to as the “President of Bharat” instead of the “President of India.”
“India” and “Bharat” are both official, interchangable names for the same place, with “Hindustan” also serving as an alternative name for the country, though it's primarily used by Hindu nationalists. Members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) praised the move, contextualizing it as a rejection of British colonialism. “Another blow to slavery mentality,” chief minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said on X, formerly known as Twitter. Himanta Biswa Sarma, chief minister of Assam, said that he’s “happy and proud that our civilisation is marching ahead boldly towards” Modi’s vision for a new India.
However, there might be more behind this decision than just wanting to strike out British colonialism. Since taking office in 2014, Modi has repeatedly and controversially advanced the cause of Hindu nationalism while trying to erase India’s Muslim history and minimize the country’s Mughal past. For instance, in 2015, New Delhi’s Aurangzeb Road, named after a Mughal king, was renamed Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, after a former BJP-backed Indian president.
The move comes 2 days after Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the right-wing, Hindu nationalist paramilitary organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), implored people to use “Bharat” instead of “India.”
The move could also be a message to Modi’s enemies in government. This summer, more than two dozen opposition parties formed an alliance known as “INDIA,” a.k.a. The Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance, to combat the BJP in Parliament. Today, Shashi Tharoor, a member of Parliament, criticized the decision to write “Bharat” on the G20 invitation, saying the term “India” has “incalculable brand value built up over centuries.”
In the past few years, several countries have renamed themselves. In 2019, Macedonia changed its name to North Macedonia, partially to end a dispute with Greece; Turkey changed its spelling to Tükiye in 2022; and the Czech Republic recently simplified its name to Czechia.
KnowThis
“Bharat” is a Sanskrit word that can be traced back to ancient Puranic literature and “The Mahabharata,” a Hindu epic that states Indians are the descendants of King Bharat, the mythical founder of the Hindu race. The word “India,” on the other hand, developed as a bastardization of the River Sindhu, which Greeks came to pronounce as “Indus.” That term became widely recognized in the English language beginning in the 17th century.
