Should Have Reclaimed The Name ‘Bharat’ When The British Left: Sadhguru

Spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev ‘Sadhguru’ on Monday batted for the use of the name ‘Bharat’ for India in daily parlance, saying it should have been reclaimed when the British left from the country.

Quoting an old post from ANI, which stated that NCERT had recommended replacing India with Bharat in all schools, the Isha Foundation head wrote on X: “We should have reclaimed the name ‘Bharat’ when the British left our shores.”

“A name will not do everything but it is important the country is named in a way that reverberates in everyone’s heart. Even though the Nation means everything to us, the word ‘India’ has no meaning. If we are unable or unwilling to change the name of the Nation officially, it is time we at least bring ‘Bharat’ into our daily parlance. Younger generations must know that Bharat existed long before India was born. Congratulations,” he further wrote.

In October 2023, the NCERT panel had suggested replacing the name “India” with “Bharat” in the textbooks, introducing “classical history”, instead of “ancient history”, in the curriculum, and including the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) in the syllabus for all subjects.

This had led to a row, with the Opposition reacting sharply to it. Karnataka Deputy CM and Congress leader Shivakumar had wondered why there was a Reserve Bank of India, Indian Administrative Services, and Indian Foreign Services, hinting that the word ‘Bharat’ was not used. “Why is the Republic of India written on an Indian passport,” he had asked.

Apart from the NCERT recommendation in October, the India-Bharat row, gained pace when Rashtrapati Bhawan sent out invitations for a G20 dinner on September 9 on behalf of ‘President of Bharat’.

Amid all this, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said that the connotation of the word ‘Bharat’ is reflected in the Constitution.

“India, that is Bharat, is there in the Constitution. Please, I would invite everybody to read it,” Jaishankar had said while speaking to news agency ANI.