Why India Should Be Renamed As Bharat

Bharatwa Editor

Jul 14, 2021. 8 min read

When the name has great importance in every person’s life, the country in which we are living and link our identity with her must also have an inspiring name which signifies its virtues. Indeed the Name Bharat has many advantages over the Name India, Name ‘Bharat’ has deep mystical and logical meaning and restoring the old name will restore the dignity of this great country.

In 2016, when SC dismissed PIL seeking to rename India as 'Bharat' a group of nationalists started looking towards Modi government to bring about some fundamental changes in the constitution to make it happen. Because if Lion cub forgets that he is a lion and starts roaming with goats then definitely one day he will be a goat. Bharat, a roaring lion is having the history of ancient most civilization, most glorious victories; we had Aryabhatta, Bhaskaracharya, Sankaracharya for bringing the mathematics, Geometry,

Trigonometry to such a level that even current mathematicians have not reached up-to that extent, such a great nation must have its original name as Bharat.

Importance Of A Name In Every Person’s Life

When you google for baby names then you get over 40000 boy and girl names, complete with name meanings, origins, popularity and additional information and today everyone is aspiring to name their child uniquely. But, what is the importance of a name? Why should one have a good Name?

Understand the importance of the name, just do one experiment, close your eyes and imagine if someone is calling you Pappu, Dumb, Sala, Feku or any gag name which is funny, strange, or vulgar, what would you feel! Obviously, you will be embarrassed! as no one wants to be called like this.

In our life we wish for true love, gain wealth, become strong, brave, powerful but, what if we don’t have any name? No! We cannot afford so as our personality will not be complete without a Name. Indeed name is the identity which encircles all your desires, longings and cravings, it makes you distinct, original, particularized and it is fundamental supposition imprinted in our unconscious mind. If people know your name you feel pride, if people respect your name you feel respect and if people support your name you feel secured.

Why Should A Country Have an Inspiring Name?

When you don’t feel pride for motherland, how do you build a nation, if you don’t have commitment to your nation and its well being then how would you contribute to it and if majority of individuals whose aspirations are not alive will not contribute then nation is only in papers, it is a dead nation.

We have always seen land or earth we live upon as a mother because if we sow a seed, life grows, it nourishes us, provides us with food, warmth, and shelter just like a doting "Mother" and we feel as the integral piece of our great country.

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When the idea of oneness burns through our mind and sinks into our heart, and our passion rises, we have a real nation. The name has to inspire the passion for the nation, we may expand the scope of our passion, involvement, and concern beyond our own likes and dislikes but the name of our country should also be exhibiting something equivalent to the same. If it is still a colonial name, this would be shameful for us and will not be a motivating force, for collective humanity living as a nation.

Name ‘India’, What Are The Disadvantages Of This Name, When We Compare It With Name 'Bharat' (Bharata)

The name India is derived from Indus (a major river flowing through Pakistan, China, and India), which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, this name was given by Britishers as a symbol of dominance and enslaving, to those foolish and greedy Englishmen nothing had to do with greatness of the name Bharat (Bharata).

Therefore, how can we stick to a name which is the symbol of colonial abuse and which figures out towards exploitation by Britishers through Trade Policies, Export of British Capital to India, exploitation through payments for the Cost of Administration, Declining of Indian languages, Unfair laws, Cruel conduct, Forcing Indian Soldiers into World Wars etc. Beside this there are other valid reasons too:

‘India’ sounds to be an English name and it is estimated that only 10% of the population can speak English and among those most reliable estimate is around 2-3% who are native English Speaking. On the contrary, name Bharat is more comfortable for the majority of Population.
Modern nations are made based on language, religion, race, ethnicity, ideology or other deep meaning but Name ‘India’ does not carry any such meaning, as this has evolved from the corruption of words, on the other hand, name Bharat (Bharata) has much deeper, unique and appealing meaning.
Word India is too new and it appears as if Indian Union is an infant state, however, we know that our existence is thousands and thousands of years old, therefore it does not reveal the self-respect, honor, and dignity our country really deserves.
India has ancient origins and has been mentioned in Arabic, Persian Roman and Greek texts from 350 B.C. onwards, there have been many archaeological discoveries all over the world which verifies that our civilization is much older than it was assumed earlier.
Such discoveries include 5000+ years Hindu Devata Vishnu’s underwater temple near Bali-Indonesia, Lebanon, there is a temple in Baalbek which is over 4,000 years old, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in Cambodia etc.
The name Bharat (Bharata) has been greatly glorified in olden days, this is evident through archaeological discoveries and also great records of ancient Indian merchants who used to walk in all parts of the world.
It is not only India’s venerable past which belongs to the essence of man's achievement on this planet but at present we are the superpower as 65% of its population below the age of 35, 35 million Indian diasporas live across the globe.
India is world's largest democratic republic, have important role in international politics, economy is booming, leader in Science and technology, Hub of Tourism and India is world's third largest defense force.Name ‘India’ does not suit the superpower it must have a different and unique name like Bharat (Bharata).
At present our nation has two names India and Bharat which creates a confusion; the public should have an “unambiguous understanding” that the country’s name is Bharat (Bharata).

Swami Vivekananda & Rabindranath Tagore On Bharat (Bharata)!

Swami Vivekananda, a great son of Bharat (Bharata), had said:

This is the ancient land, where wisdom made its home before it went into any other country… Here is the same Bharat whose soil has been trodden by the feet of the greatest sages that ever lived… Look back, therefore, as far as you can, drink deep of the eternal fountains that are behind, and after that look forward, march forward, and make Bharat brighter, greater, much higher, than she ever was.

Sri Rabindranath Tagore in 1903 had written on The History of Bharatvarsha as:

While the lands of the aliens existed, there also existed the indigenous country. Otherwise, in the midst of all the turbulence, who gave birth to the likes of Kabir, Nanak, Chaitanya, and Tukaram? It was not that only Delhi and Agra existed then, there were also Kasi and Navadvipa. The current of life that was flowing then in the real Bharatavarsha, the ripples of efforts rising there and the social changes that were taking place — none of these find an account in our history textbooks.

Meaning Of Word Bharat (Bharata)

Name Bharat has very mystical and deep meaning, it is composed of three words: Bha, Ra and Ta; among these Bha means sensation out of which emotion arises, Ra means Raga or the tune of existence and Ta means Tala. Therefore, Bharat means, “master your senses in such a way that emotions evoked through these are fine tuned with the music of existence and do this by catching the rhythmic pattern of your own consciousness”.

Some people also argue that Bharat is one of the names of Agni, the Hindu god of fire, and is also the name of the brother of Rama in the Hindu epic the 'Ramayana'. It was also borne by a legendary king, the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala. And say, “The official name of the country of India, Bharat, derives from him”, but in fact this is not true; because in India’s long history there have been many kings by the name of ‘Bharat’ and they themselves have been named after the name of country and not otherwise.

Some old geographical names of India are Jambudvīpa, Nābhivarṣa, Drāvida which are still used in Thailand, Java, and Bali, to describe the Indian subcontinent. These names also have no match with Bharat or Bharatvarsha as these symbolize only land and geography and not the native living beings and their virtues or aspirations.

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Renaming India To Bharat (Bharata), To Restore Country's Dignity

Name Bharat has been recognized in Constitution of India as an official name for the country, It is a modernization of the historical name Bharatavarsha but it has not been promoted as the national name, because of Indian Government’s leaning towards English. Bharat is used in Hindi and India is used in English, but you will surprise to know that English is more widely used official language than Hindi. Indeed there is no national language for India as declared by the Constitution of India i.e. Hindi is not our national language and so is the case with declaring the name of our nation.

On one side we have a name for whom historians have no satisfactory explanation for the evolution of name and on the other hand, ancient scriptures like Vishnu Purana say “jambu dweepe Bharatha varshe….” And from time immemorial a meaningful Samskrita ‘padham’ Bhaarat, has been in vogue: no one can deny this. While addressing the nation in English, people refer to it as India, like a translation of the original name for non-bhaaratiyas to understand, what an irony is this!

Many small countries also have woke up long ago, like under British rule, the Sri-Lankan island was known as Ceylon from 1815-1948 but as soon as Britishers packed their bags and went away it was named as the Republic of Sri Lanka, Lanka was the classical name bestowed on the island at the time of Ramayana. Even some people say that Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi wanted to dissolve the Indian National Congress and form a party with an indigenous name.

A country of aprx 1.2 billion inhabitants, who is also known as Intellectual Capital of World and whose Military and Economic powers have distinctive world reputation must be called by the name of Bharat (Bharata) and not India a name we have been imposed by accident or through some tragedy and does not represent the true color of our great nation.