The use of the term “Bharat” instead of “India” in a dinner invitation issued on behalf of President Droupadi Murmu for the G20 Summit has sparked speculation about a possible name change for the country. While some reports suggest that the government may bring a resolution to change the country’s name officially to “Bharat” during a special Parliament session from September 18-22, constitutional experts, including PDT Achary, assert that this would require extensive amendments to the Constitution.
Achary, a former Lok Sabha Secretary General, emphasized that the Constitution does not recognize “Bharat” as the official name of the country, and changing it would entail several amendments to Article 1, which defines the federal structure of the nation and its name as “India, that is Bharat.” He pointed out that there is no established procedure for changing the Constitution through a parliamentary resolution, and such a process would be a monumental task.
While some officials argue that “Bharat” can be used interchangeably with “India” without changing the Constitution, Achary disagrees, stating that a country can have only one official name, and using multiple names would lead to confusion. He clarified that “Bharat” is a descriptive term and not the official name of the country.
In response to the use of “Bharat ke Rashtrapati” (President of Bharat), Achary noted that this is a linguistic translation into Hindi, which is constitutionally an official language of the Union, but the Constitution itself mentions only “India” as the official name of the country.
