Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today opened the G20 summit with a label that designates his country with the ancient Sanskrit word “Bharat”, amid strong internal controversy over a possible change of the official name of the State.
It is the first time that the premier refers to the term in an official event, but before this weekend’s meeting of the world’s major economies in New Delhi, invitations to the event’s official dinner were sent in the name of “President of Bharat.”
Modi often refers to India as “Bharat”, a word that dates back to ancient Hindu scriptures and is one of the two official names in the Constitution.
The Magna Carta formulates in its first article that the country is called “India, which is Bharat.”
Many Indian media outlets have reported in the last week that the government could table a resolution to change the official name during a special session of Parliament this month, but the government has not yet revealed the agenda for the session to be held from 18 to 22 September.
Leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) support the nomenclature change by maintaining that the name India was introduced by British colonists, who ruled the country for 200 years, and is a “symbol of slavery.”
In that same sense, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar seemed to support the idea of adopting the name Bharat, pointing out that it has “a meaning and understanding and a connotation” reflected in the Constitution, according to the Hindustan Times newspaper.
Rumors of the name change generated outrage among opposition legislators and enthusiasm in other areas of society.
“I hope the government is not so foolish as to completely suppress ‘India’,” Shashi Tharoor of the opposition Congress party commented on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter.
But the former figure of cricket, a very popular sport, Virender Sehwag urged the leaders of this discipline to adopt “Bharat” on the national team uniforms, reported the AFP news agency.
“India is a name given by the British (and) it is time for us to return to our original name ‘Bharat’,” he defended.
Source: Ambito
