A hue and cry has been raised by the opposition parties that by renaming our country Bharat, the BJP government is trying to destroy the Federal character of our polity. Is that so?
Bharat and Bharatiya are not alien words. Long before the Britishers named their conquered territory India, Bharat existed. It was also known as Aryavart, Hindusthan, etc.
What does the Constitution say? Article 1, at the very beginning, says, Name and Territory of the Union
(1) India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.
Some of the names used for “Republic of India” in twenty-three constitutionally recognized languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India are “Bharatiya Prajasattak, Bharatiya Gantantra, Bharatiya Ganarajya, Bharat Maharajyam, etc. In the Kashmiri language, it is defined as Hindustan, and in Urdu language as Jumhūrīyat-e Bhārat.
Only those who hate the motherland, who are still mental slaves of the British Raj could oppose the proposed move, which has been long overdue.
