This is a small and hidden signal but it does not go unnoticed. On Saturday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the G20 in New Delhi behind a plaque declaring his country identified as… “Bharat”. A new official sign of a potential future name change for the country? In the last few weeks, these rumors have grown. A few days ago, an invitation to the G20 Summit dinner was extended to the leaders in the name of “President Bharat”. And according to television channel News18, lawmakers from the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are preparing to present to Parliament later this month a special resolution aimed at prioritizing official calls for the term. Bharat to designate the country.

According to the country’s constitution, India and Bharat are the two official names. “India is Bharat,” he said. But India, a term imposed by the British, refers to the colonial past, while Bharat refers to ancient Hindu texts. In the “Mahabharata”, a Sanskrit epic of Hindu mythology, the son of King Dushyant and Shakuntala is called “Bharat” and the kingdom he inherited is called “Bharatvarsha”.

Selection in the viewfinder

Prime Minister Narendra Modi generally uses the word Bharat to refer to the country he leads. His government sought to remove symbols of British colonialism that still existed in the country’s urban landscape, political institutions and history books. BJP members have campaigned against the use of the word “India”. “India is eager to support its distinctiveness, its civilizational excellence. And to assert itself in the international arena, against China”, estimates in Parisian Arundhati Virmani, historian of colonial and contemporary India at EHESS.

But the term Bharat also has electoral significance, as the next legislative elections will be held in spring 2024. “The ruling party is struggling. Changing the name of the country could be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gamble,” the judge entered Parisian Jean-Joseph Boillot, researcher at Iris and specialist in India. “The party that supports Modi knows that they can no longer rely on his promises of growth, so they are trying to find votes by returning to Hindu culture,” he said. pers Narendra Subramanian, professor of political science at McGill University in Canada.

The appearance of the word Bharat during diplomatic missions also occurred a few days after the formation of an opposition coalition called INDIA (Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance). “Of course we can call ourselves the Alliance for Responsible Improvement, Harmony and Progress for the Future (BHARAT). So maybe the ruling party can stop this stupid game by changing its name,” one of the architects of this coalition, Congress party leader Shashi Tharoor, reacted on Wednesday on X.