India's government replaces 'India' with ancient name 'Bharat' in dinner invitation to G20 guests
India's government replaces 'India' with ancient name 'Bharat' in dinner invitation to G20 guests
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has replaced the name India with a Sanskrit word in dinner invitations sent to guests attending this week’s Group of 20 summit, in a move that reflects his Hindu nationalist party’s efforts to eliminate what it sees as colonial-era names.
Disputes over “India” versus “Bharat” have gained ground since opposition parties in July announced a new alliance — called INDIA — to unseat Modi and defeat his party ahead of national elections in 2024. The acronym stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. Since then, some officials in Modi’s party have demanded that the country be called Bharat instead of India.
Ahh. Ok.
So the push for “Bharat” is kinda-sorta like the Indian (heh, fuck you, Modi) spin on MAGA, at least in intent.
The reason they did this is because they are rattled by the fact that the opposition political parties have united and decided to name their alliance as I.N.D.I.A. (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance).
BJP is rattled by the fact that the opposition is using patriotic rhethoric which they are unable to criticise.
Sure, I don't mind calling Germany Deutschland when I'm over there to be respectful, and if a German gave me an invitation written 'Deutschland' I wouldn't think much of it, except as a bit of native speak.
Sanskrit is not quite the national language though, like Latin to Europe.
This is a good opportunity to mention a pet-peeve of mine:
- The various term variations "Germany" derive from the name Germanic tribes.
- The various term variations "Alemania" derive from the name Alemanic tribes.
- The various term variations "Deutsch" or "Teutsch" do not derrive from the name Teutonic tribes.
This last one is an etymological false friend. "Deutsch" derives from thiutisk (þeudisk) and in the Western Franconian and Germanic tongues it meant "our people". It's derived from the Indo-European term thiuda (Þiuda).
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You know, comments like this are why I loved reddit in its prime. It hasn't really been like that for years so I'm thrilled to see it here on Lemmy.
More random tidbits on niche topics in the comments of somewhat related posts, please!
This is the Hindu nationalists being Hindu nationalists, they wanted to change it back for a while now.
I don't think this has got anything to do with Hindu nationalism.
Indian constitution already mentions "India, that is Bharat".
India was already known by its two other names, Bharat and Hindustan.
No, it's Hindu nationalism, congress didn't care about it, and like you said it has 2 other names.
But the BJP specifically (their name literally starts with Bharat) wants to push towards the ancient traditional sanskrit version of Hindu culture.
As a secular Hindu, this is moronic nationalism.
I'll just drop this here. The whole thing is pretty dumb. They probably did this cause the opposition parties fromed an alliance called the INDIA Alliance.
Aladeen.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
NEW DELHI (AP) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has replaced the name India with a Sanskrit word in dinner invitations sent to guests attending this week’s Group of 20 summit, in a move that reflects his Hindu nationalist party’s efforts to eliminate what it sees as colonial-era names.
Bharat is an ancient Sanskrit word which many historians believe dates back to early Hindu texts.
“Another blow to slavery mentality,” the top elected official of Uttarakhand state, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Dhami, who is a leader of Modi’s governing party, shared the dinner invitation sent to G20 guests in his post.
Modi’s party has long tried to erase names related to India’s Mughal and colonial past.
Last year, the government also renamed a colonial-era avenue in the heart of New Delhi that is used for ceremonial military parades.
The original article contains 433 words, the summary contains 144 words. Saved 67%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Hey! Thanks for taking my advice and making the change! Looks great :)
British colonialism gave these people too much power. Would have been 50 different countries over there, if it was not for the british, yet they act as if it wasn't handed to them.
Whogivesashitwhogivesafuck