One Country, Many Names: ‘India, That is Bharat’

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An image which shows Article 1 (1) from the constitution of India. Image: Public domain
India is known by many names - Jambudweepa, Al-Hind, Hindustan, Tenjiku, Aryavarta, and Bharat. One country, many names.

Jai Hind! This was the battle cry that Nehru, like several other political leaders, used after his speeches. Before India achieved Independence, the names Hindustan, Bharat, Hind, and India coexisted in the sub-continent. In his book, Discovery of India, published in 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote:

Often, as I wandered from meeting to meeting, I spoke to my audience of this India of ours, of Hindustan and of Bharata, the old Sanskrit name derived from the mythical founder of the race.

Four years after this excerpt from Jawaharlal Nehru was published, the authors of the Indian Constitution were faced with the big question of their times – what name do they give this newly independent nation of South Asia?

The opening article of the Constitution states simply: India, that is Bharat, shall be the Union of States. The reason behind this double-name has to do with history and the present.



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