Petition To Rename India As ‘Bharat’ – Burning Issues

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“What’s in a name,” -William Shakespeare
But most people wouldn’t agree with Shakespeare in their daily lives.
For, a name is the most prominent identity of a person, a family, a caste, a religion or a country.
Every name has a history.
This was hotly debated in the constituent assembly when India got Independence from British rule.
The British called India “India“.
Before them, the Mughals, the biggest empire in India, called it Hindustan.
After an intense debate, the Constitution adopted two names for the country, India and Bharat.

PETITION IN SC

Now, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking removal of ‘India’ as the name of the country and keeping just Bharat as the solitary identity of the nation.
The petitioner, Namah – a resident of Delhi, has sought to amend Article 1 of the Constitution, which names the country and defines its territories.

The petitioner says the name “India” is A “symbol of slavery“
While seeking to recognise “Bharat” or “Hindustan” as the only name for the country.

The constituent assembly debated Article 1 of the then draft constitution prepared under the chairmanship of BR Ambedkar.
It was a heated debate that saw sharp exchanges among the members on November 18, 1949 –
Just 8 days before the Constitution was adopted by “We, the people”

The debate opened with HV Kamath, a constituent assembly member from the Central Province and Berar.
Kamath objected to the Ambedkar committee’s draft that had two names – India and Bharat.
Kamath proposed amendments to Article 1 putting Bharat or alternatively Hind as the primary name for the country and pronouncing India only as the name in the English language.
He went on at length in the constituent assembly to assert that the Namakaran (the naming ceremony) should be taken up more seriously.
He enlisted names such as “Hindustan, Hind and Bharatbhumi or Bharatvarsh” to have been suggested by people.

“India, that is, Bharat” are not beautiful words for the name of a country.
We should have put the words “Bharat known as India also in foreign countries.“
Das cited the Vedas, the Mahabharat, couple of Puranas and the writings of Chinese traveller Hiuen-Tsang to say that Bharat was the original name of the country.
Hence India should not be put as the primary name in the constitution post-independence.
He also invoked Mahatma Gandhi saying that the country fought the battle of freedom raising the slogan of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai“
Asserting that Bharat could be the only plausible name for the country.
Among others who supported India being named only as Bharat included-
MA Ayyangar of Madras KV Rao from Andhra Pradesh
BM Gupta, Sriram Sahai, Kamalapati Tripathi and Har Govind Pant

In 2014, Yogi Adityanath – the incumbent chief minister of Uttar Pradesh – had moved a Private Member’s Bill in the Lok Sabha,
Seeking substitution of word “India” in the Constitution with “Hindustan” proposing “Bharat” as the primary name of the country.
His bill proposed to amend the language of Article 1 as, “Bharat, that is Hindustan, shall be a Union of States.”

We are seeing identity changes in the country today like
Bombay has become Mumbai, Calcutta has become Kolkata and Madras has become Chennai.
Bangalore to Bangluru Mysore to Mysuru