India, a country, which is proud of its diversity and culture. For some people, it is India, for some Bharat and others relate more to it when they call it Hindustan because each of its connotations evokes a different feeling in every person.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru penned down his dilemma of choosing a name for the Country in ‘The Discovery of India’ saying ‘I wandered from meeting to meeting and asking people of India of ours, of Hindustan and of Bharata’.
But this was resolved when Article 1(1) of Constitution of India stated: “India, that is Bharat shall be a union of States”.
There is an interesting story which lies behind the formation of many connotations of a single country.
Let’s start this journey with the name of ‘Bharat’.
There was a very powerful king named Sudasa of Bharta tribe of Trtsu Dynasty, hence ten of his adversaries made an ally to overthrow the king and a great battle was fought near Ravi river in Punjab between ten kings known as ‘Dasharajna’.
Ultimately, King Sudasa won this fight with a glorious victory and people started classifying themselves as citizens of Bharata which later became ‘Bharat Varsha’. This story is mentioned in the 18th hymn of Rigveda.
The second story is from Vishnu Puran, a verse stating that “This land which is called Bharatvarsha, is the land of the Bharat when he was given this land by his father to him, resides to the north of the rivers and south of the mountains”.
The third story is a very popular one as it is taken from Mahabharata that Bharatvarsha is named after the king Bharat Chakravarti, who was the son of
King Dushyanta and Queen Shakuntala of Hastinapur and subjugated the whole country and called it ‘Bharatvarsha’.
The stories of Bharatvarsha are very emancipating and believable by many people because these are mostly mentioned in religious texts and the rhymes like ‘Jai Hind, Jai Bharat’ was very prominent in the pre-independence era.
Bharat took a slight discourse and became ‘Hindustan’ which means, a country that resides by the river Sindhu, Sanskrit name for Indus river and later was called by ‘Hindu’ from Persian texts.
But, as the geography of India evolved so does the meaning of the term ‘Hindu’, this word took a detour from being a geographical term to a religious aspect after the Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s book called Hindutva which was published in 1923 and called for Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan.
His call meant for one nation, one religion and one language as he despised the idea of his dream country to be politically free from boundaries. Talking of boundaries and one nation, this idea was strongly inspired by colonial rulers.
The word ‘Bharat’ took a slight detour in the mid-nineteenth century when various orientalist promoted the idea of Bharatvarsha through their work when the country was just rising without even acknowledging the right origins and roots.
However, Bipin Chandra Pal defamed the idea of India being a foreign land and also wanted to highlight the importance of Muslim rulers in playing an important part of bringing this country together.
He highlighted that during Moghul period the country was called Hindustan majorly and it was at that time when the country finally achieved the cultural diversity and every citizen from different religion can relate to this land as their own.
Even in 1904, a song written by Mohammed Iqbal wrote down the song ‘Saare Jahan Se Acha’ painted a picture of a nation which was culturally diverse.
The journey of today’s modern ‘India’ started from the British dreams when they showed us the map of, what we see as India today in the 1870s which is bounded by a central power and authoritarian government and different from old ‘Bharat’ which referred to space where social orders prevailed.
Savarkar ideology written in Hindusthan, left an impact on Sikhs during partition as they claimed that Hindus got Hindustan, Muslims got Pakistan, what did Sikhs get?
The term ‘India’ is only co-related to the young and urban part of the country, though I would barely say that this is even true for today as the situation prevailing in this country lately leaving behind the actual roots and many years of history of this country.
The naming process of this country after independence wasn’t as easy as it is naming a child. It was written and drafted under crucial situations such as post-independence and partition. It took various debates and standings to declare the name of this rising country.
I believe that the name, religion, caste, nationality, etc. are made by humans themselves to develop a sense of belonging and community through evolution so that we don’t eat each other alive due to hunger.
Hence, the petitions which are even filed today to change the name of this country is pointless as every person doesn’t believe in God, so does the people relate to every name very differently.
People like me who are young can relate to India very well whereas people who believe who want this country to be of one nation and one religion relates to Hindusthan far better than Hindustan, Bharat or India combined and some believe that ‘Bharat’ is more secular.
Hence, by changing the name of the country, feelings of people with different connotation won’t be eradicated as it is deeply set in the history of this country and the heart of its citizens.
Written by - Chavi Goel
Edited by - Ivanova
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