EDITORIAL: When William Shakespeare posed that question in Romeo and Juliet he meant names are used to distinguish between people and things but otherwise have no worth. In some situations, nonetheless, a name can have a lot of worth, at least so think the rulers of present-day India.
A raging controversy has erupted in that country after a dinner invite to leaders attending the G20 summit in New Delhi, sent on behalf of President Droupadi Murmu, described her as “President of Bharat” even as all official websites still refer to her as President of India.
Other official communications also use the same name. Although ‘India’ and ‘Bharat’ have been interchangeable for long, the county’s constitution mentions it only once where it says “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”. Everywhere else it is called India.
It is not something extraordinary for states to rebrand themselves; several have changed their names. The Czech Republic has become Czechia, Holland as the Netherlands, Swaziland changed to Eswatini, Siam to Thailand and closer home Turkey to Turkiye, Ceylon to Sri Lanka, and Burma to Myanmar. But in the present instance, the name is seen as part of the Modi government’s effort to further burnish its Hindutva credentials.
In fact, the move came just a couple of days after Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), ideological fountainhead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the BJP, proclaimed that the country should be called ‘Bharat’ rather than India.
As mentioned earlier, save for the preamble, for all intents and purposes the constitution refers to it as India. Yet, he went on to state that “at times we use India so those who speak English will understand. But we must stop using this. The name of the country Bharat will remain Bharat wherever you go in the world”.
If only the BJP-RSS combine had some interest in etymology they could use a better argument for the rebranding, given the fact that the word ‘India’ comes from the River Indus, which rises in western Tibet and after briefly meandering through the disputed region of Ladakh flows all through Pakistan.
In other words, it is a Pakistani river. In fact the word “Hindu” also has the same origin. As a next step would the RSS also consider changing the name of the religion or culture that they profess to theirs?
The move has drawn a sharp reaction from the opposition parties, 27 of them united under the banner of Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). While the national elections are only eight months away, the opposition alliance’s acronym ‘INDIA’, which evokes the country’s founding ideals of secularism and pluralism, has rattled PM Modi.
As noted by a reputable news and opinion website, The Wire, “a week later [following the formation of INDIA], Modi was still thinking and talking about the alliance’s name – going as far as to say that even Indian Mujahideen and East India Company had India in their names.”
Evidently, while mulling over what he should do, Modi came up with the idea of calling the country ‘Bharat’ instead of India. If it can give him any advantage in the electoral race remains to be seen.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023