India’s parliament is considering renaming the country during the upcoming special session scheduled for September 18-22, India Times, a local media outfit, reports.
In the dinner invitations sent to guests attending this week’s Group of 20 summit, Minister Narendra Modi’s government replaced the name of the country, India, with a Sanskrit word, in a move that reflects his Hindu nationalist party’s efforts to eliminate what it sees as colonial-era names.
Also, official G20 dinner invitations from Droupadi Murmu, Indian president, were sent under the name of ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the usual ‘President of India’.
There have been growing clamour to rename the country as Bharat — an acronym for “Bring Harmony, Amity, Reconciliation And Trust”.
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The country’s government officials have also begun to gradually apply the changes.
Members of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have also come out in support of renaming the country “Bharat”.
On Tuesday, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam chief minister, said renaming the country would prove that India is marching towards civilisation.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood actor, also referred to India as Bharat.
Some in the country argue that the name ‘India’ is a symbol of “colonial slavery” and “should be removed from the constitution”.
“The British changed Bharat’s name to India. Under Article 1, the Constitution states: ‘India, that is Bharat’. Our country has been known by the name ‘Bharat’ for thousands of years… it is this country’s ancient name and is found in ancient Sanskrit text,” the Rajya Sabha, the country’s upper house of parliament, said.
