The Washington Post-Indias ruling Hindu nationalists push Bharat as countrys name
September 5, 2023 3 min 538 words
印度政府在即将主持G20峰会时，在宴会邀请上选择将主办国命名为“Bharat”，而非“印度”，引发了争议。这个选择反映了莫迪总理领导下的印度教民族主义政党的政治动向。虽然一些民族主义者认为“Bharat”已经是“印度”的替代名称，但莫迪的批评者指出，印度是一个穆斯林人口超过中东任何国家的多元国家，而BJP使用“Bharat”试图唤起一个完全属于印度教的过去感。 这一举动与印度右翼的历史修正主义倾向相吻合。BJP一直致力于抹去源自殖民统治的一些名称，以及与穆斯林文化有关的名称。这一变化可能是对两个月前以“INDIA”为名的联合反对党联盟的回应，该联盟旨在挑战莫迪及其执政党在明年春季的全国选举中。 这个决定引发了激烈反应，有报道称BJP可能会通过国会决议正式更名。但是，改变城市和国家的正式名称一直具有政治敏感性。 总之，这一决定反映了印度政治和文化身份的复杂性，以及BJP与其对手之间的政治竞争。在这种情况下，重新命名国家或城市的行动需要仔细权衡历史、文化和政治因素，以避免引发分歧和争议。
2023-09-05T16:06:34.710Z
As New Delhi gears up to host the Group of 20 leaders this week, the government’s pointed word choice on the summit dinner invitations stirred controversy and conversation Tuesday about what the country is, and should be, called.
On the invitations, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a deliberate choice in naming the banquet’s host nation: The “pleasure of the [leaders’] company” was requested not by the “President of India,” but the “President of Bharat.”
The same day, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra shared an image of an official card referencing the visit of “the Prime Minister of Bharat Shri Narendra Modi” to Indonesia for the “20th ASEAN-India Summit” on Sept. 7.
Both used the ancient term “Bharat,” a Sanskrit and Hindi word long interchangeable with India. In its first article, the constitution of India declares “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
The term has taken on fraught political valence in recent years as the preferred nomenclature of Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). While some nationalists argue that it is already an accepted alternative to “India,” which bears some colonial baggage, Modi’s critics have noted that the BJP uses “Bharat” to evoke the sense of an exclusively Hindu past in a country that’s home to more Muslims than any nation in the Middle East.
The invitations were met by strong reaction both from within and outside the right-wing party.
“Another blow to the slavery mentality,” Uttarakhand Chief Minister and BJP member Pushkar Singh Dhami wrote on the social media platform X, referring to the party’s idea that the name “India” is tied to colonialism and slavery.
Prominent BJP politician Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote on X: “REPUBLIC OF BHARAT — happy and proud that our civilisation is marching ahead boldly towards AMRIT KAAL,” using a term meaning “auspicious period” that Modi evokes to describe the nation’s resurgence under his rule.
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The move aligns with a larger revisionist impulse of the Indian right. The BJP has pushed to erase some names that originated from colonial rule — and increasingly, those that have been associated with Muslim heritage. Officials changed the name of the northern Indian city Allahabad, named by Muslim Mughal rulers centuries ago, to the Sanskrit word Prayagraj, which officials argued was the original name.
The move, some opposition politicians suggest, is a dig at a coalition of more than two dozen opposition parties that gathered two months ago under the name INDIA — which stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance — to challenge Modi and his ruling party at next spring’s national elections.
“I don’t know why they are making this change,” said Communist Party of India leader Sitaram Yechury to the Press Trust of India. “We just don’t know why they hate ‘India’ so much.”
Some local outlets have reported speculation that the BJP may propose to change the name officially through a Parliament resolution. Outlook India reported out a model-driven estimate of around 1.7 million U.S. dollars for the costs the nation would bear to officially change its name.