India, one of the most populous countries in the world with a population of 1.4 billion, will host the G20 summit, which is held annually and attended by leaders from many countries, in New Delhi this weekend. The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent invitations to the guests of the Indian government for a dinner to be held on September 9 as part of this summit.
A phrase in this invitation also became a topic on the world’s agenda. In the invitation, the image of which was also leaked, it was seen that the name of India was “Bharat” instead of “India”. After this, information began to circulate that the name of the country would be changed.
Invitation sent by the government:
In the invitation you can see above, President Droupardi Murmu is described as the “President of Bharat”. This statement spread all over social media and gave rise to rumors that the country’s name was wanted to be changed from “India” to “Bharat”.
The name “Bharat” was already used for India. However, “India” was the more common name both within the country and around the world. We should point out that “Bharat”, which is frequently used by local people for the name of the country, comes from the Sanskrit language.
This is not the first time that the choice of Bharat as the name of the country has come to the fore. Recent unconfirmed reports suggested that the Modi government, which has been in power since 2014, was planning moves to officially change the name of the country.
The decision to replace it is supported by Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJT). The party states that the name India was brought by British colonialists and is a “symbol of slavery”. India, which was under British rule for many years, gained its independence in 1947. Finally, let us note that the name change was criticized by the opposition. Opposition figures say the name change belongs to billions of citizens, not a single political party.
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