People should use the name “Bharat” instead of India, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said at a programme organised by the Sakal Jain Samaj in Guwahati on September 1. He also said that the name Bharat has been continuing since ancient times and must be taken forward. “Our country is Bharat and we will have to stop using the word “India”. We must start using “Bharat” in all practical fields and only then will change come. We will have to call our country Bharat and explain it to others as well,” the RSS chief said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting on July 25, while taking a dig at the opposition parties for naming their alliance as INDIA, said that the East India Company and the Indian National Congress were formed by the British. Amid questions as to which is the right name for the country that was known as India, the Modi-led Central government, which has been emphasising liberating the people of the country from the “slavery mentality” and any elements related to such a psyche, is reportedly planning to remove the word “India” from the Constitution. Reports said that a preparation pertaining to the proposal is underway.
The reports also said that at the upcoming Special Session of the Parliament scheduled to be held from September 18-22, the government is likely to present Bills related to the ‘India’ word omission proposal. The agenda for the upcoming Special Session of Parliament is, however, yet to be announced officially. However, a roadmap would be prepared to make India a ‘Developed Country’ by 2047, and discussions would also be held on this very subject at the Parliament session. During this 13th session of 17th Lok Sabha and 261st session of the Rajya Sabha, five sittings are to be held from September 18-22.
It seems the government is seriously mulling removing the word ‘India’ from the expression ‘India, that is Bharat’, which has been used in the definition of India in Article-1 of the Indian Constitution. Notably, Modi, while stressing on the five vows of the Amrit Kaal, said that one of them includes freedom from the mentality of slavery. The government has undertaken several steps, ranging from bringing changes in education policy to omitting symbols, changing names of streets and places related to slavery, removing statues of people associated with colonial power, and installing statues of prominent (historical) Indian personalities.
In fact, during the Monsoon Session in the Lok Sabha on August 11, Home Minister Amit Shah had called the IPC, prepared in 1860, the CrPC (1898) and the Indian Evidence Act (1872) a sign of slavery. Accordingly, three new bills — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 — have been introduced to replace the existing ones. Also, during the Monsoon Session of the Parliament itself, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Bansal had demanded the usage of only the Bharat word by removing India, while describing India as a symbol of colonial slavery.
