India Or Bharat: Hinduaisation Or Sanskritisation Of Everything Has Become The Sole Objective Of A Large Chunk Of People

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 9 September 2023 Jaise Baaqi Masle Ho Gaye Hon Tamaam Ab Yahi Rah Gaya, Kya Rakkhein Vatan Ka Naam? -Dr Navroze Kotwal (As if all other issues don't exist any longer/ Now what remains is, renaming the country) My Bombay-based venerable friend and a famous dental surgeon Dr Navroze Kotwal's aforementioned couplet encapsulates the whole charade of renaming the country from India to Bharat. There's absolutely no sense of priority, responsibility and propriety. In the last nine years, the current political dispensation has just changed the names of 'Muslim' cities to 'Hindu' ones and now India is going to be officially renamed as Bharat. In fact, it has already become Bharat for the Sanatanis and sycophants of this political outfit. Roman poet Ovid wrote, 'Stupidity always moves in an ascending order’. The idiocy of changing the names of the cities has gathered momentum to change the character of a nation by rechristening it. The million-dollar question is: What purpose will this renaming serve? Sycophantic Hindus are of the opinion that the name Bharat is rooted in our culture, heritage and ancient civilization. The name India was given by the Brits. This Hinduaisation or Sanskritisation of everything has become the sole objective of a large chunk of people. Years ago, the legendary journalist and editor Frank Moraes, father of poet Dom Moraes, wrote one of his perspicuous editorials that dealt with this name-changing syndrome. Mind you, even during the Nehruvian era and during the Congress rule, there were elements in the Parliament who were afflicted with this malady of nomenclature. Rajshri Purushottam Das Tandon, popularly known as UP Gandhi, also wanted India to be officially called Bharat way back in the fifties. Frank Moraes wrote, "When a name becomes the character and identity of a place and country, it must be retained. This logic doesn't hold water that it was given by invaders and attackers. So, it should be changed and the old name must be brought back. Going by this logic, can India part with everything that it (accidentally or incidentally) got from the Brits? Was there a concrete concept of a country before the English rule? To a few nationalists, the name India may remind them of its colonial past. They're free to call India by its alternative names like Bharat and Hindustan. A country can have multiple names. Sparring over a specific name of the country smacks of political immaturity. For a nascent country like ours, it'll be a futile exercise to indulge in such petty issues. " What Moraes wrote in 1959 is all the more relevant in Modi's 'new' India. All the important issues have been put on the back burner and an insignificant issue like renaming the country as Bharat has become the be-all and end-all for this government. Jay Ho. Jay Bharat! ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/india-bharat-hinduaisation-sanskritisation-objective-/d/130638 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism