India To Bharat Flip - Will IITs And IIMs Become BITs And BIMs?

The upcoming five-day special parliamentary session scheduled for September 18, 2023, might open up the floodgates for a massive political debate. After Congress pointed out the phrase ‘President of Bharat’ in the masthead of a dinner invite from the President’s office sent to G20 summit delegates, instead of the usual ‘President of India’, there have been whispers in the social media about the renaming of ‘India’ as ‘Bharat.’

In fact, many reports have been suggesting that the Government has already begun using the name 'Bharat' in official documents, heralding a shift from ‘India’. However, there has been no official confirmation. Let’s take a sneak peek into this name game that we might get into.

What’s In A Name?

The debate over India versus Bharat isn’t new. We have been there and done that. Our Constitution makers had heavily debated on this topic. The matter was extensively discussed on September 17, 1949, and it was agreed that both the names shall be retained. Thus, the first line of Article 1 of our Constitution reads as follows: ‘India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.’

This means that if the Central Government seeks to do away with ‘India’ and only keep ‘Bharat’, there will be a need for a Constitutional Amendment. If the Amendment Act is passed, the Government would be required to make changes in at least 10 places in the Constitution. But will this be the only ‘change’ that the Central Government will have to make? We hardly think so. At least the netizens seem to be divided on this move. Here's what they have to say:

Is there even a legal need for any resolution for name change? The Constitution already says India, that is Bharat...
— Kajal K Iyer (@Kajal_Iyer) September 5, 2023

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Tectonic Shift From India To Bharat And The Gigantic Tsunami That May Follow

The nudge to change the country’s name from India to Bharat may have stemmed from socio-political pressure, however, its consequences will pan across domains. For example, social media is already talking about the identity crisis for websites using .in for their names.

Secondly, what about our educational institutions? Will IITs and IIMs turn into BITs and BIMs? Will other research institutes such as ISRO, AIIMS, and IISc be renamed? Will changing the names of these institutes impact their brand image, especially at the global level?

We are not even going close to talking about the name of our central bank - Reserve Bank of….. Wait! We have this name on our currency as well, right? Let’s not go there for now.

All we can do for now is wait for the much-anticipated session of the Parliament while the G20 Summit takes place and its delegates get done with the formal dinners hosted by the President of…….Bharat.

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Shreeya Thakur

Sr. Associate Content Writer at Unstop

I am a biotechnologist-turned-content writer and try to add an element of science in my writings wherever possible. Apart from writing, I like to cook, read and travel.

Updated On: 7 Sep'23, 11:27 AM IST