India that is Bharat

India that is Bharat

Subject : History

Section: Ancient India

Context: A political row has erupted after invites for a dinner to be hosted by the President for world leaders, during the upcoming G20 Summit, were sent out in the name of the ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the customary ‘President of India’.

More about the news:

• A political row has erupted after invites for a dinner to be hosted by the President for world leaders, during the upcoming G20 Summit, were sent out in the name of the ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the customary ‘President of India’
• There is speculation of an official change in the name of the country from India to Bharat, even though Article 1 of the Constitution uses the two names interchangeably: “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”

What is the history of the Nation’s Names:

• The nation was known by different names. They are:
• Bharat:
  • The roots of “Bharat”, “Bharata”, or “Bharatvarsha” are traced back to Puranic literature, and to the epic Mahabharata.
  • The Vishnu Purana describes Bharata as the land between the sea in the south and the abode of snow in the north.
  • ‘Bharata’ refers to the subcontinental territory where the Brahmanical system of society prevails.
  • Bharata is also the name of the ancient king of legend who was the ancestor of the Rig Vedic tribe of the Bharatas, and by extension, the progenitor of all peoples of the subcontinent.
• Hindustan:
  • The name Hindustan is thought to have derived from ‘Hindu’, the Persian equivalent form of the Sanskrit ‘Sindhu’ i.e Indus, which came into currency with the Persian conquest of the Indus valley that began in the 6th century BC.
  • By the time of the early Mughals i.e 16th century, the name ‘Hindustan’ was used to describe the entire Indo-Gangetic plain.
  • In the mid-to-late eighteenth century, Hindustan often referred to the territories of the Mughal emperor, which comprised much of South Asia.
• India:
  • The Greeks used ‘Indus’ in place of ‘Sindhu/Hindu’. By the time the Macedonian king Alexander invaded India in the 3rd century BC, ‘India’ had come to be identified with the region beyond the Indus.
  • From the late 18th century onwards, British maps increasingly began to use the name ‘India’, and ‘Hindustan’ started to lose its association with all of South Asia.
  • Part of the appeal of the term India may have been its Graeco-Roman associations, its long history of use in Europe, and its adoption by scientific and bureaucratic organisations such as the Survey of India.