India As Bharat: Mixed Reactions

As reported earlier today, the government of India is proposing to change the name of India to Bharat and the same could be enforced in the coming parliamentary session on 18 September.

Shortly after the news broke out, there has been a flooding of opinions on the same on social media. Here’s a brief look into the initial reactions for the name change.

Firstly, most of the reactions on social media have been in approval of the name change. There’s a song sense of positivity surrounding the same.

Many have been commenting that Bharat is a term that is deeply ingrained in India and the name change isn’t too big of a deal anyway. They say India is a game given by Britishers while the soul name remains to be Bharat.

There’s a sense that Bharat has more of a native touch to it and the sounding of it evokes nationality and patriotism.

On the other hand, a few comment “what’s the use of changing the name when the core political system remains the same without any progress. This is just a political cover up before the election to suggest as if there’s something big in the reckoning.”

This could be a cultural shock to everyone as the name India is deeply rooted in the country and it has an emotional impact as well. Changing it up all of a sudden could be rather shocking.

“While there is no constitutional objection to calling India “Bharat”, which is one of the country’s two official names, I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with “India”, which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries. We should continue to use both words rather than relinquish our claim to a name redolent of history, a name that is recognised around the world.” Shashi Tharoor commented about the incident. This is more of a general option.

On the other hand, opposition party leaders say “the BJP government changed the name of India just because the opposition alliance is named India. Will they change the name from Bharat as well if we change our name to it?”

All in all, the general consensus has been largely positive for the name change, but there’s also a section that’s against it for the aforementioned reasons.