India or Bharat: Colonial Rulers Change Name of a Slave Nation

(B. Someswar Rao) 

Most Indian newspapers on Sept 6 ĺed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the nation should be called Bharat and not India which is the name given to it by the country as a colonial ruler.

It was not mere talk. The nation’s President Smt Draupadi Murmu was called Rashtrapati of Bharat, to show that Modi meant business. It was also reflected in three videos that went viral around the same time.

The first video was of Modi himself with a background song by a Pakistani poet, Iqbal, who thought he was writing the national anthem in Urdù. He wrote “Saare jehan se accha Hindustaan Hamara.” The video showed the 14 things that the PM wanted all Indians to do. It did not mention visits to temples or a return to Hinduism. (The 14 included things like giving way to Ambulances.) Modi could have named it Hindustan which makes it the land of Hindus, which would have irked the minorities. It also made false the canard that Modi stood for Hinduism.  On the other the Rahul was declared by then INC spokesman Tiwari as a ‘Jenaudhari Brahmin’ though no one knew when the grandson of Feroze Ghandy had an ‘upanayanam’ after which alone a Brhmin wears the sacred thread or Jenau.

The second was of Isha Foundation chief and spiritual guru Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev (who is, incidentally a Telugu man from Mysuru in Karnataka) who pointed out that every colonial invader first changed the name of the country or State which was conquered. They gave the country a meaningless name, he told Mrs. Kiran Bedi, the first female IPS officer of Bharat and ex- Lt. Governor of Puducherry in an interview. He said ‘Bha’ in Bharat stood for Bhava or what can be from senses as “we are creatures of the five senses.” ‘Ra’ the second syĺlable in the name stood for Raaga (tune) and the third ‘ta’ for taĺa or rhythm. The last two show how the nation stood for harmony. Modi could have named the country Hindustan which makes it the land of Hindus. which would have irked the minorities, though it was coined by Isĺamìsts themselves.

Another viral video was titled Many ‘How. I Ĺost My Name’ and tells the story of an Aleen who was called Allen and tells of how names are distorted.

India in search of which the ÙSA was discovered by Columbus means nothing while Bharat stands for harmony.