New Delhi: At present, the discussion of changing the name of the country is the loudest in the country. This discussion was fueled by the invitation letter of President Draupadi Murmu. In fact, in the invitation letters sent by Rashtrapati Bhavan to the leaders of the country for the dinner to be held on September 9 for the G-20 Summit, the commonly used word 'President of India' has been changed. This time the word President of India has been used in the invitation letter. Now the whole controversy is on this. At the same time, there is speculation that the name of INDIA can be changed to Bharat in the special session of the Parliament. Opposition members expressed displeasure over this and some leaders said that the ruling party I.N.D.I.A. Concerned about the alliance. However, Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajya Sabha MP Harnath Singh Yadav said, the entire country is demanding that we should use the word 'Bharat' instead of 'India'. The word 'India' is a slang given to us by the British. The word 'India' is the symbol of our culture. I want our Constitution to be changed and the word 'India' to be added to it.
How can the name of the country be changed?
Here you also need to know what is the process of changing the name of the country. Amidst this discussion, we asked former General Secretary of Lok Sabha, constitutional expert, and senior advocate PDT Achari, what is its process. According to Achari, if the government wants to amend the Constitution and change 'India that is Bharat Shall be Union of States' to only India, then Articles 1 and 52 of the Constitution provide for the President of India, Vice President of India, Chief Justice of India. Designations like the Attorney General of India indicate his office.
There is no mention of INDIA in the Hindi translation of the Constitution:-
However, in the official Hindi translation of the Constitution, these designations have been mentioned only as President of India, Vice President of India, Chief Justice of India, etc. That means, if you read the Constitution in the Hindi language, there is no mention of India in it, there is only India. If the government wants to recognize only India in this, then as per the prescribed procedure, it will have to change the Constitution and declare that INDIA will be called Bharat.
Consent of 50 percent of states is required:-
There are many articles like Article 3 and 239AA, in which the consent of the states is not necessary for change. But there is a clear mention of those articles in the Constitution in which for amendment it is necessary to be passed by a two-thirds majority of both the houses of the Parliament separately. For the majority, a clear majority of the total strength of the House i.e. more than half and a two-third majority of the members present is necessary to pass the bill. Thereafter, the consent of more than half i.e. more than 50 percent of the total states is required.
How was the official name of the country decided?
According to Article 1 of the Indian Constitution, 'India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of Territories.' Article 1 has been previously discussed in the Constituent Assembly and private member bills have also been introduced in 2012 and 2014. The Constituent Assembly extensively debated Article 1 of the then-draft Constitution. Let us tell you that Constituent Assembly member H.V. Kamath started the debate on 18 September 1949 and proposed an amendment to Article 1, in which India or Hind was kept as the primary name of the country and the English language was used. India was proposed as the name.
The same parliamentary record shows that Kamath had emphasized that many suggestions had been made to give a proper name to the Republic of India and he highlighted the major suggestions of Bharat, Hindustan, Hind, and Bharatbhoomi or Bharatvarsh. He said that those who claim India or Bharatvarsha or Bharatbhoomi base their stand on the fact that it is the most ancient name of this land. Kamath explained in detail about the origin of the name Bharat, but Ambedkar interrupted him and asked whether it was necessary to find out all this. To this, Kamath replied that it was not Ambedkar's job to control the functioning of the House. Due to the same discussion, Seth Govind Das opposed the words in Article 1 and said that 'India' is not a beautiful word for the name of a country. He suggested that 'India should be known as India even in foreign countries.' Das explained in detail that the word India is not found in our ancient books. Its use started when the Greeks came to India. Citing Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmins, and Mahabharata, he said that we find mention of the name Bharat in them. He also quoted a Chinese traveler named Hiuen-Tsang and referred to this country as India in his travel book. His idea was that we should give our country a name that is by our history and our culture. He raised the slogan of 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and turned towards the fight for our freedom under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.
Another proponent of the name Bharat was Kallur Subba Rao, who said that he wholeheartedly supports the name Bharat, which is ancient. He said that the name Bharat is in Rigveda (Rig 3, 4, 23.4). He is quoted in parliamentary records as saying, 'The name India comes from Sindhu (Indus River) and now we can call Pakistan Hindustan because the Indus River is there.' Sindh has become Hind. As in Sanskrit Sa is pronounced as Ha. The Greeks pronounced Hind as Ind. Thereafter, it is good and appropriate that we refer to India as Bharat. Let us tell you that BM Gupte, Ram Sahay, Kamlapati Tripathi, and Hargovind Pant were other Constituent Assembly members who strongly supported naming India as Bharat. Another member Kamlapati Tripathi said, 'If those words were necessary in the proposal presented before us, then it would have been more appropriate to use the word 'Bharat i.e. India'.' When Kamath's amendment was put to vote, all arguments fell. The assembly was divided by raising hands. 38 votes were cast in favor of India and 51 in favor of 'Bharat i.e. India'. The proposed amendment was defeated and 'India, that is Bharat' remained intact.
In 2012, Congress introduced a bill to name 'India':-
On 9 August 2012, Congress Rajya Sabha member Shantaram Naik introduced a private bill in the Rajya Sabha. He proposed three changes:
1) In place of the word 'India' in the Preamble of the Constitution, the word 'Bharat' should be substituted.
2) The phrase 'India, that is Bharat' should be replaced by a single word 'Bharat'.
3) Wherever the word 'India' appears in the Constitution, the word 'Bharat' should be placed there.
It was said about the reasons for this bill that INDIA reflects a regional concept, while 'India' is a symbol of much more than just regions. When we appreciate our country, we say 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and not 'India Ki Jai.' There are many grounds for changing this. This name also creates a feeling of patriotism and fills enthusiasm in the people of this country. In this connection; "Where the golden sparrows make nests on every branch, that India is my country", is a popular phrase the song is relevant to.
In 2014, Yogi Adityanath also introduced a private member's bill in the Lok Sabha to replace the word 'India' with 'Hindustan' in the Constitution. Wherever the word India appears in the constitution, the word Hindustan was proposed in its place. His bill proposed to amend Article 1. Explaining the reasons for this bill, he said that the ancient and traditional names of our country are Bharat and Hindustan. Both these names were prevalent in the pre-British period. After the establishment of British rule, the British used the name 'India' which was prevalent in their own country. The makers of the constitution recognized the ancient name of the country 'Bharat' and gave it a proper place in the constitution. He had said that due to the popularity of the English name, the traditional name of our country 'Hindustan' has been abandoned. This bill should be an amendment to the constitution by changing the nomenclature of our country from 'India, that is Bharat' to 'Bharat, that is Hindustan'. In the bill brought by Yogi, it was said that the word India signifies the symbol of slavery and thus it deserves to be removed from our constitution.
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