Three days ago, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) panel had proposed to universally replace “India” with “Bharat” in all school textbooks.
The Opposition had also recently attacked the Centre for replacing India with ‘Bharat’ in official documents such as invite, with the first such mention being on an ASEAN event invitation extended to PM Modi referring him as the “Prime Minister of Bharat“.
A report in Times of India quoted its sources as saying that the usage of ‘Bharat’ is going to be more in government documents in the coming days.
They added that ‘India’ and ‘Bharat’ have been used interchangeably in the Constitution and there is nothing wrong in using this in Cabinet proposals, the report stated, adding that railway ministry’s proposal is perhaps the first proposal for the Cabinet that has used ‘Bharat’ in place of India in every aspect whether the logistics cost, modal share of cargo and country’s economy.
Bharat is an ancient Sanskrit word which many historians believe dates back to early Hindu texts. The word also means India in Hindi.
The change in nomenclature is backed by some leaders as they argue that the name India was introduced by British colonials and is a “symbol of slavery”. The British ruled India for about 200 years until the country gained independence in 1947.
Kajal Agarwal
