Sir,
We all have heard of India and are satisfied with the current name India. But, that is not the case with the Indian leaders. Following the British exodus in 1947, the new Hindu leaders called India as “Union of India.” It was not enough. In 1950, with the newly written constitution in hand, these leaders proclaimed to the world and to their own subjects at large that India be renamed as Republic of India, and Bharat, respectively. It was not enough. In 1976, under the 42nd Amendment to the Indian Constitution, the Hindu leaders gave another unique name-Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic.
The unofficial India has always been unhappy with the above mentioned official names. A whole array of powerful names have been floating in the air Hindustan, Bharat Varash, Bharat Mata, Akhand Bharat etc.., are only glimpse at some pre-historic convoluted values of a proud but exclusive Hindu history. I think the chaos will continue until an acceptable Hindu designation for India is found.
One great American-Mark Twain, I guess, knew well in advance the Hindu dilemma for renaming India, During his visit to India, he offered numerous names to India in his book Following the Equator. For example: the land of thugs, the land of wonders, the land of surprises, the land of contradictions, the land of subtlety and superstition, the land of the suttee, the land of the unreinstatable widow, the land of multitudinous Gods.” Mark Twain discovered India as “the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of famine and pestilence. .the country of a hundred nations and hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great grandmother of tradition, whose yesteryears bear date with the mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nations.”
If this all sounds too much for you to swallow, Mark Twain didn’t find it easy either, especially considering what he wrote about the Hindus, “they are the most interesting people in the world. Their character and their history, their customs and their religion, confront you with riddles at every turn-riddles which area trifle more perplexing after they are explained than they were before.”
You see, it shouldn’t be too difficult to understand why renaming India appropriately is almost impossible. Had he been alive today, Mark Twain probably would have renamed post-British Hindu India as Republic of the Thugs. G.B Singh
Augusta, GA
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 28, 1992
