Bharat's journey to the name India

The official name of the Indian subcontinent has been a matter of debate even while the Constitution was being drafted

The G20 dinner invitation from the President of India has sparked a political controversy. The invitation refers to Droupadi Murmu as “The President of Bharat" instead of “The President of India”. While BJP questioned the opposition’s alleged discomfort with the word “Bharat”, many parties wondered what prompted the Centre to suddenly think of “renaming” the country. Read here.

The official name of the Indian subcontinent has been a matter of debate even while the Constitution was being drafted. Jambudvipa, Nabhivarsa and Aryavarta are some of the names historically associated with India. Even India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru in his book, The Discovery of India, wrote, “Often, as I wandered from meeting to meeting, I spoke to my audiences of this India of ours, of Hindustan and of Bharata, the old Sanskrit name derived from the mythical founders of the race.” But when the Constitution came into effect in 1951 its first read — “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of states”. There are many stories and myths about how the name India and Bharat were coined.

The origin

Scholars say the name "India" is derived from the river Indus or  Sindhu River. It has been widely used in Greek since Herodotus and in English in the 17th century.

According to scriptures, India came to be known as Bharatvarsha after the emperor Bharata Chakravarti, the son of King Dushyanta of Hastinapura and Queen Shakuntala.  The land was named after him as he conquered the whole of the Indian empire. In Mahabharata, Lord Krishna also mentioned Bharatvarsha. According to a report by The Indian Express, one of the oldest names used in association with the Indian subcontinent was Meluha. It was mentioned in the texts of ancient Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC for the Indus Valley Civilisation. But Meluha had lost currency much before modern political systems developed in the region.

Over the years, India has been more commonly used, especially in the global context. Meanwhile, Bharat has been used widely in Hindi and other regional languages.

How can the country be renamed?

If the Centre wants to make only “Bharat” the official name, it would need to introduce a bill to amend Article 1 of the Constitution. Article 368 allows the Constitution to be amended through either a simple majority amendment or a special majority amendment. Read here.

Some articles may be altered by a simple majority of the total number of members present. For other changes, including any change to Article 1, a special majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting in the House would be required, according to an India Today report.

"In the preamble, we only have India. So, the preamble can be amended as it happened in the 42nd amendment in 1976 (when) Indira Gandhi inserted the words 'socialist' and 'secular'. In fact, these two words were rejected by the Constituent Assembly," told Supreme Court advocate Gyanant Singh to PTI.