India Or Bharat: Hinduaisation Or Sanskritisation Of Everything Has Become The Sole Objective Of A Large Chunk Of People
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
9 September
2023
Jaise Baaqi Masle Ho Gaye Hon Tamaam
Ab Yahi Rah Gaya, Kya Rakkhein Vatan Ka Naam?
-Dr Navroze Kotwal
(As if all other issues don't exist any longer/
Now what remains is, renaming the country)
My
Bombay-based venerable friend and a famous dental surgeon Dr Navroze Kotwal's
aforementioned couplet encapsulates the whole charade of renaming the country
from India to Bharat.
There's
absolutely no sense of priority, responsibility and propriety. In the last nine
years, the current political dispensation has just changed the names of
'Muslim' cities to 'Hindu' ones and now India is going to be officially renamed
as Bharat. In fact, it has already become Bharat for the Sanatanis and
sycophants of this political outfit.
Roman poet
Ovid wrote, 'Stupidity always moves in an ascending order’. The idiocy of
changing the names of the cities has gathered momentum to change the character
of a nation by rechristening it.
The
million-dollar question is: What purpose will this renaming serve? Sycophantic
Hindus are of the opinion that the name Bharat is rooted in our culture,
heritage and ancient civilization.
The name
India was given by the Brits. This Hinduaisation or Sanskritisation of
everything has become the sole objective of a large chunk of people.
Years ago,
the legendary journalist and editor Frank Moraes, father of poet Dom Moraes,
wrote one of his perspicuous editorials that dealt with this name-changing
syndrome.
Mind you,
even during the Nehruvian era and during the Congress rule, there were elements
in the Parliament who were afflicted with this malady of nomenclature.
Rajshri
Purushottam Das Tandon, popularly known as UP Gandhi, also wanted India to be
officially called Bharat way back in the fifties. Frank Moraes wrote, "When
a name becomes the character and identity of a place and country, it must be
retained. This logic doesn't hold water that it was given by invaders and
attackers. So, it should be changed and the old name must be brought back.
Going by
this logic, can India part with everything that it (accidentally or
incidentally) got from the Brits? Was there a concrete concept of a country
before the English rule? To a few nationalists, the name India may remind them
of its colonial past. They're free to call India by its alternative names like
Bharat and Hindustan. A country can have multiple names. Sparring over a
specific name of the country smacks of political immaturity.
For a
nascent country like ours, it'll be a futile exercise to indulge in such petty
issues. " What Moraes wrote in 1959 is all the more relevant in Modi's
'new' India. All the important issues have been put on the back burner and an
insignificant issue like renaming the country as Bharat has become the be-all
and end-all for this government.
Jay Ho. Jay
Bharat!
----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism