India, Bharat, Hindustan

India, Bharat, Hindustan

Brownie’s latest largesse is three kittens who look very similar to one another. They are so cute that I am sure someone will come to adopt them. That is why I didn’t name them. But now that Modiji has decided to rename India as Bharat, I have decided to name Brownie’s offerings as Bharat, India, and Hindustan.

Who is Bharat, who is India, who is Hindustan among them? I don’t know and I don’t want to know. Each one of them will be all of these. When I call India, all three will come running. Same when I call Bharat or Hindustan. This is the new Vedanta. Tatvam Asi.

Will Modiji’s India change for the better with a new name? He renamed a lot of things and places. Direct Benefits Transfer became Jan Dhan; Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan became Swachh Bharat; Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana was rebaptised as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana; Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme became Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana; Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission was transmogrified into Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation… Did anything change really more than the names? When India becomes Bharat, what will change?

Maybe, a lot. We can never be sure with a man like Modiji on the throne. He is our new Tughlaq. The name Bharat can be as beneficial to India as Modiji’s earlier experiment of demonetisation. You never know. Quite a lot of Modiji’s enemies were sent to the netherworld with that one genius stroke. Now Bharat may decimate a million other enemies of the nation.

Rechristening is one of Modiji’s favourite hobbies anyway. Mughalsarai became Pundit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya railway station. Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Mughal Garden became Amrit Udyan and Delhi University’s Mughal Garden changed into Gautam Buddha Centenary Garden. A lot of places have got new names now. Allahabad = Prayagraj. Faizabad district = Ayodhya. Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium = Arun Jaitley Stadium. North Maharashtra University = Kavayitri Bahinabai Chaudhary North Maharashtra University. Allahabad State University = Prof. Rajendra Singh (Rajju Bhaiya) University. Sardar Patel Stadium = Narendra Modi Stadium.

These are just a few samples. A lot more names were changed. What actually changed for the citizens? Shakespeare would ask: ‘What’s in a name?’

There’s a lot in a name. Modiji knows that. I know it too though I don’t possess even a fraction of Modiji’s brains. I named an aggressive cat that used to come in the darkness of nights to attack my pets as Modiji because that cat reminded me of Modiji rather terrifyingly. There’s much in a name including terror. [By the way, now the Modiji in my feline world has vanished. Those who are too aggressive don’t last long.]

Brownie’s new kittens are Modiji’s gifts. They all resemble him without any hint of difference, not even subtlest ones. Some aggressors are like that: they plant their seeds too deep.

I will keep these kittens with me now. Bharat, India, Hindustan. They are powerful symbols for me now. Names matter a lot.

PS. This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon

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