Will 'India' become 'Bharat'?: Questions are being raised regarding the timing of using the name Bharat, why the Central Government is allegedly trying to change the name India written in the Constitution in the last year of its tenure. Is this exercise being done because the opposition alliance has changed its name to I.N.D.I.A.?
New Delhi: On the lines of 'one country, one election', 'one country, one ration card' and 'one country, one law', should the name also be the same - INDIA or Bharat? The debate is in full swing as to what should be the name of our country? Well, most of the countries have only one name. Like America, China, Russia, Germany or Pakistan. You might be wondering why our country has two or three or many names? Like - Bharat, India, Hindustan, Hind, Bharatvarsh etc. If we go further back in history, we also find names like Jambudip, Aryavarta, Himvarsh etc.. That means one country and many names.
According to the Constitution, only two names of our country are official – India and Bharat. Now there is a debate on whether there should be one country and one name.
By the way, Shakespeare had said, What is there in the name? Call it Bharat, India or Hindustan, the feeling towards the country is the same.
By the way, it is clearly written in Article 1 of the Constitution –
INDIA, That is Bharat.. shall be union of states. From reading it seems that more emphasis has been given on India. And India has been described as its synonym.
This debate took place in the Constituent Assembly on 18 September 1949. A special session of Parliament has been called on the same day i.e. 18th September.
There was a long discussion in the Constituent Assembly regarding the name of the country.
HV Kamath, representative of Central Province, had started the debate and in his arguments had said that Ambedkar ji had suggested two names in the draft – India and Bharat. Kamath said that he wants amendment in this Article 1. We should keep the main name as Hind and when we have to say the name of the country in English, we should say India only then. Kamath also said in his arguments that names like Hindustan, Hind, Bharatbhoomi or Bharatvarsh have also been suggested by the countrymen.
India is known as India in foreign countries.
Another member of the Constituent Assembly, Seth Govind Das, in his arguments in this debate had said that 'India, That is Bharat' are not beautiful words. We should write it like this - Bharat which is also known as India in foreign countries. That means India should not be the primary or prominent name in independent India. Seth Das also said that Mahatma Gandhi also used to raise slogans of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' during the freedom struggle. That means India should be the name of our country.
Yogi Adityanath had brought Private Member Bill in 2014
But till date there is a debate going on regarding the name, what should be the name Bharat or India? The matter has come up in the Parliament and also in the Supreme Court. Let us first talk about the Parliament - In 2014, when Yogi Adityanath was an MP, he had brought a private member's bill to write 'Hindustan' in the Constitution instead of 'India' and the name of the country. Mainly India. The language of his bill was something like this - 'Bharat, That is Hindustan'.
The Supreme Court had rejected the petition to change the name.
Use of the word India in the national anthem
'India Official' written on G20 officials' passports
These questions are also being raised because when India is there in all the schemes announced by the Central Government, like Make in India, Made in India, Skill India, Khelo India, then why is India being avoided now? Even the name of BJP's official Twitter handle is @bjp4india. However, this government has also run many schemes in the name of India, such as Ayushman Bharat.
Bharat or India, both BJP and 'India' see political benefit in keeping this Mahabharata going.
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