India is a fascinating country. Dear me, did I just unknowingly drop an inadvertent brick? Should I have said Bharat is a fascinating country? Or, to hedge my bets and err or the side of caution, should I have said India, that is Bharat, is a fascinating country? Keep both sides happy? Damned if I do and damned if I don’t. That seems to be the predicament in which I find myself. As do many others who are trying to figure out what this India and Bharat palaver is all about.
How did this controversy over our beloved nation’s nomenclature erupt suddenly out of the blue? If media reports are anything to go by, and that is a big ‘if,’ it all apparently started with an innocuous invitation for dinner. The moot point is that the invitation, which was from our President, no less, to the visiting Heads of State and VIPs attending the G20 Summit in New Delhi, was issued by and captioned ‘The President of Bharat.’ This set the cat among the pigeons. I should mention, in passing, that the official logo unit of the G20 Summit incorporates both the names of Bharat, calligraphed in the traditional Devanagari script and India, capitalized in English. An even-handed approach ensuring both terms co-exist harmoniously side by side, as blessed by the Constitution. Pitchforking Bharat to the forefront, almost seamlessly (some may even say slyly) via the Presidential dinner invite was clearly the brainchild of the Government without drawing ostentatious attention to itself. That did not quite work as it stood out like a sore thumb. The Cassandras, read the Opposition parties, spotted it quickly enough and all hell broke loose.
I have no wish to go into the alleged chicanery of the Government in bringing Bharat into the spotlight in this fashion, nor do I have any interest in expounding upon the inconsistencies involved in the argument adduced by those who smell a big, fat bandicoot behind this move, claiming that it is to divert attention away from the Opposition’s political combo, the collective I.N.D.I.A, which appears to be gaining some traction. Keeping Adani off the headlines was also casually thrown into the mix. On balance, whatever the motive, the Government appears to be perfectly within its rights to employ the term Bharat, which has been enshrined in the Constitution.
Patriotic songs in the vernacular including the National Anthem, extol the virtues of Bharat and not India. That is such a no-brainer it does not even need to be explained. There are enough examples from the north of the Vindhyas to bolster this thought, both in classical and film music. Even in the more arcane world of Carnatic music from the South, a certain Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri composed a song called ‘Jayati Jayati Bharata Mata’ in the raga Khamas which was popularised back in the day during the 50s by Carnatic music’s then poster boy and genius, G.N. Balasubramaniam. One can hardly imagine anyone rendering this song as ‘Jayati Jayati India Mata,’ God forbid. Any more than you can chant ‘India Mata ki Jai.’ Other famous doyennes like Bharat Ratna (not India Ratna) M.S. Subbulakshmi and Padma Vibhushan D.K. Pattammal have rendered numerous songs on Bharat on either side of our Independence, particularly those composed by freedom fighter, social reformer and poet, Subramania Bharati. The name Bharati, incidentally, was an affectionate and respectful appellation, and he was often referred mononymously as simply Bharatiyar. His songs and poems moved millions. At least, they did in south Bharat.
Proponents of the more elaborate use of the term Bharat also point to various cities in India having been named differently with nary a whimper raised. Madras and Chennai, Bombay and Mumbai, Calcutta and Kolkata, Trivandrum and Thiruvananthapuram are frequently cited. This trend is not confined to India alone. There are many similar examples on the global map. As is his wont, if we are to ‘credit’ the Prime Minister with this move, he has given no indication that there is a concerted effort to amend the name of the country officially, which will also most likely involve a constitutional amendment, to be approved by Parliament. A headache he can do without. Then again, he is known to play his cards close to his chest. The Opposition’s quandary is that it can only criticise the Government for its real or imagined motive behind the move, and not for freely using the name Bharat. Astute intellectuals opposed to the idea, who have committed their thoughts on the subject to print, need to be mindful that they do not paint themselves into a corner from which it might prove problematic to wriggle out, the ruling party ever ready to pounce and brand them as unpatriotic.
Where Hindustan that is Bharat that is India fits into all this, I do not know, but should be fit for another hornet’s nest of a punch-up. I have little doubt some learned historian has explained all this in considerable detail. For now, we should be grateful the discussion has been confined to just two names.
While fanatic followers of the Indian cricket team often chant ‘Indiaaaa, India,’ in unison on cricket fields around the world, when our fans decided to take a leaf out the English cricket groupies’ brand ‘Barmy Army,’ our patriots hit upon the idea of calling themselves ‘Bharat Army,’ the name boldly emblazoned on the tricolour. The two terms, India and Bharat have coexisted harmoniously and interchangeably. One might add here that some famous Indian cricketers like Gavaskar and Sehwag have weighed in behind the Idea of Bharat. M.S. Dhoni could not be reached for a comment as he was enjoying Alcaraz’s brilliance at the U.S. Open followed by a round of golf with President Donald Trump! (Is there more in this unusual pairing than meets the eye?) The Bharat vs India debate is a capacious bandwagon onto which everyone can jump. Trust our politicians, irrespective of party affiliation, to put a vicious spin on the whole issue allowing the matter to literally spin out of control.
The political pot, always simmering, boiled over last week when actor-turned-politician, Tamil Nadu’s DMK Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s son Udayanidhi, likened our core Hindu philosophy, Sanatana Dharma, to rampant diseases like dengue, malaria and the corona virus, asking for its eradication – the Dharma that is, not the diseases. As the terms ‘eradicate’ and ‘disease’ are by way of being joined at the hip, it was an unfortunate choice of words by the young scion. Having reflected on his outpourings and deciding he had to go the whole hog, he has now called the BJP ‘a poisonous snake.’ Expect more fireworks. Simply put, Udayanidhi’s intemperate remarks have got him into hot water, landed him right in the soup. Or to put it in terms that he is more likely to be familiar with, dunked him in some hot and spicy rasam. However, he and his paterfamilias are digging their heels in and refusing to budge from their stated position. Reverting to the old ruse of claiming he has been misunderstood and is being quoted out of context. Poor lamb.
To add fuel to the fire, senior DMK functionary, A. Raja, no stranger to controversy himself, went one better and gave it as his considered opinion that Sanatana Dharma is as bad, if not worse than AIDS and leprosy. One wonders what drives these motormouths to utter such arrant nonsense. It was at best politically inept and maladroit, possibly politically suicidal – something the I.N.D.I.A collective, of which the DMK is an important cog, needed like a hole in the head. It is hardly surprising that other major constituents of I.N.D.I.A are rapidly distancing themselves from this fracas. To add to the confusion, any number of scholars and Indologists are expansively and contrarily holding forth on the real meaning of Sanatana Dharma. Net result? Nobody is any the wiser.
As if all this were not enough to keep us fully occupied and entertained, enter stage left One Nation, One Election (‘but you can call me ONOE.’) Pursued by a bear or not, I cannot be sure. The aim is to hold Assembly and Central elections in one fell swoop, and be done with it. The Prime Minister, in his usual way, came up with a googly while his opponents were expecting the ball to go straight on. It was announced, taking everyone aback, that a special session of Parliament has been called later this month, agenda unspecified. Our speculation factory then went on overdrive, particularly by the print and electronic media. Topping the bill was the ONOE issue (with the Women’s Reservation Bill and possibly the Uniform Civil Code to follow), which has been informally talked about for some years now, and irate members of the Opposition went to town writing reams about the unsuitability and unworkability of the scheme.
The silver-tongued, articulate Congress MP, Shashi Tharoor led the anti-ONOE brigade, writing columns on the subject. That said, he has been unstinting in his plaudits for those in the Government who burned the midnight oil to achieve a favourable outcome at the G20 Summit. Tharoor’s party leader, Rahul Gandhi, revels in taking pot shots at his homeland from a safe distance outside the country, and not for the first time. Others followed suit, presumably in a bid to pre-empt and thwart any such attempt by the ruling party. One assumes Rahul Gandhi will soon return to resume his I.N.D.I.A Jodo Yatra. And we still haven’t a clue what these special sessions are all about. Spewing fire and brimstone was the order of the day, which has been doused somewhat by the enormous optics offered by the G20 Summit (Yippee, the Delhi Declaration happened, Putin and Xi notwithstanding).
Clearly, the main talking point from the Opposition has been to establish that the ONOE policy is impractical and will result in a huge waste of national resources, which runs counter to the Government’s USP on the subject, viz., achieving economies of scale being the primary selling point. It is worth reflecting here that till 1967, both State and General elections were conducted simultaneously. The point appears to have been lost somewhere in the dense thicket of mass verbiage. So what are we dealing with here? A special session of Parliament in the offing, for which no one even remotely knows the agenda. But everyone is happy to fly kites, play guessing games and shoot in the dark and hope some stray bullet will hit the target. Right now, everyone is shooting blanks. We can only hope that the Opposition members participate in a lively discussion, if at all ONOE is placed on the agenda, and not stage a walk-out in a huff because the PM is not addressing the House on Manipur.
Whatever be the outcome of all these issues that constantly keep us on our toes, I daresay there will be many more to come. We in India, that is Bharat, will never lack for something to talk and write about. With State and General Elections just around the corner, our cups of joy should be overflowing. I rather feel like S.T. Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, For he on honey-dew hath fed /And drunk the milk of Paradise. That is a bit of a stretch but put it down to poetic license.
Bring them on, I say. I am all ready and agog in front of my television set, my favourite dailies rustling by my side, and a large tub of popcorn or spicy snacks to keep my gastric juices flowing smoothly. It is going to be one heck of a ride, folks. Lie back and enjoy it.
Suresh's Corner 