Prime Minister’s seat labelled with India’s Hindi-language name "BHARAT" in G20 Meeting.
NEW DELHI - When Indian prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit on Saturday, he sat behind a country name placard that piqued the interest of many. |
The placard didn’t say “India,” the name that his country is known internationally. Instead it read “Bharat,” the Sansrkit or Hindi title of the country, fueling speculation that his government plans to phase out the country’s English designation altogether.
“PM Modi uses placard Bharat for G20 inaugural address,” ran a headline in the Times of India, one of the country’s largest English-language outlets, moments after.
%20(1).jpeg "G20 Official badge : \"Bharat\" branding | देश के नाम की पट्टी पर....") |
| Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes US President Joe Biden at the Bharat Mandapam on Saturday. |
Q. What is g20 ? | g20 summit kya hai ?
Q. “Is it an indication of new beginnings?”
Both India and Bharat are used officially in the nation of 1.4 billion people, which has more than 24 official languages. Bharat is also the Hindi word for India and is used interchangeably – both feature on Indian passports for example.
But the word was the center of a controversy this week after dinner invites for the G20 leaders’ summit referred to India as “Bharat,” fueling a political row and public debate over what the country should be called, its history and colonial legacy.
%20(2).jpeg "G20 Official badge : \"Bharat\" branding | देश के नाम की पट्टी पर....") |
| Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Bharat Mandapam on Saturday. |
Q. An ‘abuse’ or an ‘incalculable brand’?
The name India has been derived by ancient Western civilizations from the Sanskrit word for the Indus River 'Sindhu' and was later adapted by the British Empire..
“The word ‘India’ is an abuse given to us by the British, whereas the word ‘Bharat’ is a symbol of our culture,” Harnath Singh , a politician, told ANI.
%20(3).jpeg "G20 Official badge : \"Bharat\" branding | देश के नाम की पट्टी पर....") |
| Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud at the Bharat Mandapam on Saturday |
In an interview with ANI, India’s Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar said India “is Bharat.”
“It is there in the constitution. I would invite everybody to read it,” he said. “When you say Bharat,” it evokes a “sense, a meaning and a connotation.”
