Amid India Vs Bharat Debate, Here's A Look At How Our Nation Has Been Referred To Since Ancient Times

A political debate over the name of the country on whether it should be 'India' or 'Bharat' has begun. Here we try to trace the journey of the names our nation has had so far.

India Or Bharat: The Many Names Of Our Nation.

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History is said to be what has already happened in the past, but it always sets the ground for being relevant again and again, generation after generation and this is what makes past and future two sides of the same coin. Historians, researchers, and academicians among others debate and deliberate to arrive at a conclusion for things that suddenly become contemporary. A similar case has come forth before the citizens of India which has taken centre stage. India or Bharat. What is it that this country should be called? The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre is of the view that 'India' is a name given by the British to leave their colonial footprint while the opposition argues it is a tactic by the ruling dispensation because opposition parties named their alliance I.N.D.I.A.

According to Article 1 of the Constitution:  "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States". Now, rumours are that the Central government might try to change it during the special session of the Parliament it has called from Sept 18-22 (5 days).

Notably, the Constituent assembly, that was tasked to draft the Constitution of India, had rigorously debated what the country should be called. In his book ‘The Discovery of India’, the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru says: "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", as reported by The Indian Express.  

However, as mentioned above, the Constitution noted in Article 1:  " India, that is Bharat..." 

History records the many names of India through texts and mentions of those who were in India, who came from outside, who were fascinated by our land among others. Primarily, there are said to be nine names that this land has had: 

• Jambudweep 
• Bharatkhand 
• Himvarsh 
• Ajnabhavarsh 
• Bharatvarash 
• Aryavarta 
• Hind 
• Hindustan 
• India 

Recently, a video has also surfaced on Instagram where a user was describing these names one by one. 

Many may not know, but India and Bharat are not old names that are in existence, the Indian subcontinent has had many names associated with it. According to an Indian Express article, scholars have pointed out that one of the oldest names ever used was Meluha. The name is said to have been mentioned in the texts of ancient Mesopotamia in the third millennium BCE, to refer to the Indus Valley Civilisation.

 

Tracing Many Names Of India

The genesis of ‘Bharat’, ‘Bharatvarsh’ goes back to the days of the Indian epic ‘Mahabharata’ 

In her article, "‘India, that is Bharat…’: One Country, Two Names", social scientist Catherine Clémentin-Ojha says: "‘Bharata’ refers to the “supraregional and subcontinental territory where the Brahmanical system of society prevails". 

 As per Indian Express, geographically, the Puranas mentioned Bharata to be situated between the ‘sea in the south and the abode of snow in the north’. Therefore, Bharata, as explained by Ojha, was more of a religious and socio-cultural entity, rather than a political or a geographical one, the article suggested.  

Jambudweep 

According to Hinduwebsite, to the Buddhists, the Indian subcontinent was the land where the Buddha was born. They called it Jambudveepa, which means the land of the Jambu (rose apple) trees. According to an article in The Outlook, the name was derived from a popular fruit Jamun. 

Bharatkhand, Himvarsh And Ajnabhavarsh 

In many Indian texts including Vedas, Puranas, Mahabharata and Ramayana, the name ‘Bharatkhand’ has been used, which means the land of India. Also, it is said that due to the spectacular and grand Himalayan region in its north, India was also called as Himvarsha. 

Apart from this, many articles and texts claim that Ajnabhavarsh was also one of the names of India. This is said to have been written in Agnipurana and Markenday Purana. 

Aryavarta 

A very famous name of the Indian subcontinent is ‘Aryavarta’, the land of the Aryans. According to a report, Hindu texts such as the Dharmashastras refer to the Indian subcontinent as Aryavarta, the land of the Aryas or noble people. It was apparently a reference to warriors, administrators and influential people in society who wielded power and prestige but not to a particular caste or community. These were also called Aryans. 

 

Hind And Hindustan 

Among all names, it was ‘Hindustan’ that was the case of the first nomenclature carrying political undertones. It was first used when the Persians occupied the Indus Valley in the seventh century BCE. Hindu was the Persian version of the Sanskrit Sindhu, or the Indus river. According to a report in The Outlook, Persians found it difficult to pronounce the initial ‘S’. The initial S of a Sanskrit word was invariably rendered as an aspirate, ‘H’. Therefore, they called it ‘H’ and pronounced the river Sindhu as Hindu. 

Thereafter, the Greeks who had acquired knowledge of ‘Hind’ from the Persians, transliterated it as ‘Indus’. Later, by the time the Macedonian ruler Alexander invaded India in the third century BCE, ‘India’ had come to be identified with the region ‘beyond the Indus’, the IE report added. 

The Outlook report mentions that Mughal ruler Babur called the forces of Ibrahin Lodhi, the ‘Hindustanis’, at page 464 of ‘Babarnama’. He writes, as quoted by The Outlook:"When we had left Rupar and dismounted at Karal opposite Sirhind, a Hindustanii coming said, ‘I am Sultan Ibrahim’s ( Lodhi) envoy’." 

Notably, by the 16th century, the name ‘Hindustan’ was used by most South Asians to describe their homeland.  The Indian Express quoted historian Ian J. Barrow as saying in his article, From Hindustan to India: Naming change in changing names, that "in the mid-to-late eighteenth century, Hindustan often referred to the territories of the Mughal emperor, which comprised much of South Asia." 

It added that it was from the late 18th century, when British maps increasingly began using the term ‘India’, and ‘Hindustan’ started to lose its significance. 

The references are numerous. Countries across the world have different names for India. For example, Tianzhu was the name used to denote India in ancient Chinese chronicles.   

Similarly, Hodu or Hoddu was the Biblical Hebrew name for India, which is mentioned in the Book of Esther of the Old Testament and is said to be identical to ‘Hindu or Sindhu’. 

Naming In The Constitution 

Less known to many, the Constituent Assembly debated heavily on the section ‘Name and territory of the Union’. It was taken up for discussion on September 17, 1949 and right from the moment the first article was read out as ‘India, that is Bharat shall be a union of states’, a division was visible among the members. 

A member of the Forward Bloc, Hari Vishnu Kamath, that the first article be replaced as ‘Bharat, or in the English language, India, shall be and such,’, as quoted by Indian Express. However, Seth Govind Das, representing the Central Provinces and Berar, proposed: "Bharat known as India also in foreign countries".  

On the other hand, as per the IE report, Hargovind Pant, representing the hill districts of the United Provinces, said that the people of Northern India wanted ‘Bharatvarsha and nothing else’. 

 Amid the debate, Pant made it clear that "So far as the word ‘India’ is concerned, the Members seem to have, and really I fail to understand why, some attachment for it. We must know that this name was given to our country by foreigners who, having heard of the riches of this land, were tempted towards it and had robbed us of our freedom in order to acquire the wealth of our country. If we, even then, cling to the word ‘India’, it would only show that we are not ashamed of having this insulting word which has been imposed on us by alien rulers."