• Recently, a significant change has been made in the invitation letter sent by the President during the G-20 Summit by using "President of Bharat" in place of "President of India,"which has started a discussion about the naming of the country and its historical meaning.

Constitutionality:

• In Article-1 the two names are used interchangeably: "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States."

 Historical perspective:

Bharat

• The name Bharata was used for a group of people living in the north-west. This group is mentioned in the Rigveda (about 3500 years old). Later this word started being used for the country.
• According to Jainism, the country was named Bharat after the emperor 'Bharat', son of their first Tirthankar Rishabhdev.
• The first mention of 'Bharatvarsha' is found in Kharavela's Hathigumpha inscription.
• In the Mahabharata (3rd and 4th century BC), the idea of ​​'Bharatvarsha' as a geographical unit is visible.
• Bharat is mentioned in Vishnu Purana (400 BC) and Brahma Purana.

 Hindoostan:

• Hindustan is the Persian form of the Sanskrit word 'Sindhu'.
• The name 'Hindustan' is first found in the Naqsh-e-Rustam inscription of Sasanian ruler Shahpur I of Iran in 262 AD (3rd century).
• Mughal period historian Amir Khusro has addressed  Bharat as Hind and Isami as Hindustan.
• India
• Herodotus first used the name 'India' in the sixth-fifth century BC.
• The name India is derived from the word Indus, the name of a river flowing through the northwestern part of the subcontinent.
• The name 'India' started being used increasingly on British maps from the second half of the 18th century.

 Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court has twice rejected pleas to rename 'India' to 'Bharat', once in 2016 and then in 2020, reaffirming that "Bharat" and "India" both find mention in the Constitution.

Exam oriented Static facts