Which is my country?
“India” or “Bharat”
Which is my motherland? Is it India or Bharat?
This is indeed a tricky question. Don’t feel the same?
If we look at the provisions mentioned in the Indian
constitution then
we notice that in the English version it is said that
‘we the people of
India’ whereas the Hindi version says,
‘we the people of Bharat’.
The English version of the constitution says
that India means Bharat,
which is a union of states whereas the
Hindi version says that Bharat i.e.,
India is a union of states.
The above description clearly says that India is
known by two names.
This is confusing, India in English and Bharat in Hindi.
When we look
around us then we see that American English,
Hindi and any other
European language, America is America,
Russia is Russia,
Japan is Japan and Germany is Germany,
England is England.
The names of these countries have not been
translated in their own languages.
When we look at our currency notes and coins,
we see that in Hindi it is written
‘Bharatiya Reserve Bank’
and in English it is written
‘reserve bank of India’.
Even on coins we can see India written in
English and Bharat in Hindi.
The gazette is known as Gazette of India in
Englishand Bharat ka Rajpatra in Hindi.
This needs attention that all the countries
left the names
that they used prior to their independence.
Old Viceroy House
is now known as Rashtrapati Bhavan and
the road leading to it is
known as Rajpath. Almost all the roads in
Delhi have own names.
Connaught Place is now known as Rajiv Chowk,
the names of our cities
have also changed, then Bombay is now Mumbai,
Madras is now Chennai,
Calcutta is now Kolkata,
Trivandrum is now Tiruvanthapuram.
The names of many other cities have also changed.
Not only that the name of Victoria Terminus Station
in Mumbai is now known as Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
Terminus, Sahara and Santacruz airports are now
known as Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
Palam airport is now known as Indira Gandhi
International Air- port and Dum-Dum airport at
Kolkata is now known as Subhash Chandra
International airport. The list of names is unending
which shows that we do not want to retain old
names of slavery there- fore we are changing those
names. But, some still not very fortunate,
for example, India Gate of Delhi, Gate- way of India of
Mumbai, are still known by their old names
whereas they should have been renamed long
time back as Bharat ka Rajdwar and Bharat ka Dwar.
The statues of British rulers and other prominent
personalities before independence have been
removed and kept at museums but it is our misfortune
that we have not thought of renaming India.
British had named our country as India whereas our
country is known as Bharat since ancient times by
the name of the son of Dushyant and Shankuntala, Bharat.
A small amendment in our constitution can overcome
the confusion of two names, in which several
amendments have already been done.
The phrase mentioned in English version of the
constitution, ‘India that is’ should be removed.
In the same way, the phrase ‘it means India’
from Hindi version should also be removed.
Will our government, our leaders, our politicians,
educationists, citizens of our country think on
the same lines that the confusion of two names
should not be continued anymore?
Only one name
‘Bharat’ will be used in all languages
whether in Hindi or any other international language.
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