It is that time of the year when everyone starts thumping their chests and say how proud they are to be Indians. I mean, 15th August is around the corner and the Indian cricket team is finally winning something.
In the middle of all this, I have been wondering whatever happened to the official name of our country - Bharat. Suddenly, it is "India this" and "India that." At one level, this does not seem important - after all, both words represent the same nation. But dig a little deeper and well, there does seem to be some reason for concern. Is "Bharat" difficult to pronounce? Is it derogatory to a particular community (some people object to "Hindustan," for obvious reasons)? If it is neither, why on earth are we thrusting it into other languages too?
India was a term given to us by invaders - after the river "Indus." Bharat is a name that is totally Indian - inspired by one of the nation's greatest kings. So why on earth are we fighting so shy of using it? I am not saying it should be used in English communication but surely "Bharat" has a place when one is talking in Hindi or other Indian languages? Germans refer to their country as "Deutschland" when speaking in their native tongue, Italians call their nation "Italia" when speaking in Italian, why are we so fixated with "India" even when talking in Hindi? Why is a Hindi film called "Chake de, India"? Why does Shah Rukh keep bleating about "India" to a bunch of girls who clearly are not from English-savvy backgrounds?
Is it just a matter of time before they change the national anthem to "Jana gan man adhinayak jai he, India bhagya vidhata"?
Whatever happened to "Bharat"? Or do we prefer referring to ourselves by the name our invaders gave us? If the answer is the latter, then perhaps we need to wonder why we bother celebrating our independence day.
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This is a classic case of dichotomy that prevails in India, or shall we say bharat! Whom do we blame - us or them? I think we have got lost somewhere after our Independence and are yet to find our moorings. Going back to anything cultural or traditional is revivalist and the only way ahead seems to be as India - English speaking and anglo-saxon way of thinking. What about the Indian languages and bharatiyata? Are these revivalist? It is more a question of continued lack of self esteem resulting in low self respect or more a question of blind aping and forgetting our moorings! Time will only tell...but yes, the future lies in Bharat!
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