The Hindu Editorial Vocabulary– September 7, 2023; Day 465

India that is Bharat: On a name game  

There is no need for one name to be given primacy (The state of being first in importance) over the other 

India and Bharat have both evoked (Call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses)) the same emotions among patriots for decades, but these labels of pride have now been weaponised for narrow political ends. The Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre has decided to use Bharat instead of India in some official communication and documents, a practice that its representatives say will now expand. ‘India, that is Bharat,…’ is how the Constitution of India names the country, and the use of one or the other has been largely contextual all this while. The cultural echoes (A close parallel of a feeling, idea, style, etc.) of Bharat have never been in doubt, and the current hype (a lot of attention that something gets, especially in newspapers, on television, etc, making it seem more important or exciting than it really is) around it is more about a campaign to discard the use of India, as if both cannot exist in harmony. India, according to this telling, is a foreign imposition (an unfair or unreasonable thing that somebody expects or asks you to do), and hence unsuitable for national dignity. Bharat, linked as it is to various ancient sources, goes beyond the geographical and cultural landscape that constitutes the modern republic of India. In that sense, both names are an outcome of India’s nation-building journey. Labouring to tease out the foreign from the native in the expanse (A wide and open space or area as of surface or land or sky) of this nation that hosts a multitude (A large indefinite quantity) of ethnic, linguistic, and genetic diversity and that has been formed as a result of millennia (A span of 1000 years) of migrations and cross-currents of human interactions serves no purpose other than creating new flashpoints (A place of political unrest and potential violence) in society.

This farcical (silly and not worth taking seriously) hubbub (Loud confused noise from many sources) hoisted upon the country should have been allowed to dissipate (Cause to separate and go in different directions) and recede (to become gradually weaker or smaller), but the knee-jerk reaction (made or occurring as a predictable and automatic response, without thought) of the Opposition gave it the aura (a feeling or particular quality that is very easy to notice and seems to surround a person or place) of a fundamental identity question before the nation. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been asking for privileging the use of Bharat over India for long (for a long time), but the Opposition bloc’s decision to label itself INDIA as an acronym also might have influenced the BJP’s hurry in the naming exercise. Far from demonstrating a nation’s strength and pride, the government’s name game undermines the confidence and soft power of the nation. Bharat has been part of popular culture, political and cultural idioms, and literature across many Indian languages. Similarly, India is also used by millions within and outside the country who yearn (Desire strongly or persistently) for its progress. It is possible that contexts and constituencies of these proper nouns might vary, but that is the very reason to desist (stop) from attempting to impose the use of one and edge out (to force someone or something out of a place, situation, etc., usually in a way that is not direct or honest) the other. Whether it is India or Bharat, the essence of the meaning that it conveys remains the same. The needless juxtaposition (The act of positioning close together (or side by side)) of the two names should not affect the bonding of the inhabitants in the pursuit of a misplaced cultural combat. Let India and Bharat coexist as they have always been.

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