Opposition politicians, on the other hand, questioned the consideration of a possible name change. The Indian name is recognized internationally and has become a brand, they say. The director of the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation in India, Adrian Haack, also said: “However, when the state was founded, a conscious decision was made to use the Indian name, because this name is defined internationally – this argument is increasingly valid today, which is why critics have questioned proportionality of the project.”

In addition, several opposition parties recently banded together to form a coalition called INDIA (short for Indian National Inclusive Development Alliance) to position themselves against the ruling party. Modi has been Prime Minister of India since 2014. A new parliament will be elected in the spring of 2024. Modi is expected to seek re-election. Observers suspect that the use of the word “Bharat” in the official letter is primarily aimed at local audiences.

India is not the first country

Elias Marini Schäfer of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in India also emphasized that not only the current ruling Hindu nationalist party, but also the previously dominant Congress Party have renamed the city. The former Bangalore has been officially called Bangaluru since 2014. “British colonial history should be banned from using the city’s name,” says Marini Schäfer. “Now this is being tried by the BJP for the first time on an international level.”

If India does change its name in the future, it won’t be the first country to do so to move on from its colonial past. Today’s Sri Lanka was formerly called Ceylon – and Thailand used to be called Siam.

Other countries also have other reasons for the name change: Turkey, for example, submitted a name change to the United Nations last year to be called Türkiye in English instead of Turkish – partly because “Turk” means turkey in English. And Czechia chose English-speaking and less complicated Czechia over the Czech Republic in 2016.