Tomichan Matheikal's blog

From India Today Name-changing is one of the hobbies of India’s present Prime Minister. I wrote about it a few days back too though rather facetiously: see India, Bharat, Hindustan . The latest issue of India Today has devoted page after page to the PM’s present rechristening. I wish to bring here a few interesting observations from some of those eminent writers in the weekly. 1. Shashi Tharoor Tharoor argues that “In English, and therefore internationally, our country was referred to as ‘India’; in Hindi and other Indian languages, ‘Bharat’ was our country’s name.” For example: We, the people of India / Bharat ke log . Or The President of India / Bharat ke Rashtrapati . Tharoor gives us an interesting parallel from Germany. “’Germany’ is Deutschland at home and to all who speak Deutsch (the language we refer to as ‘German’).” Tharoor dismantles the argument that India is a name given by the British colonialists. The “name India has nothing to do with British colonialism: it p...

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...