It will be noticed that the name ‘Bharatbarsha’ was famous since ancient times. On the other hand, the name ‘India’ is a name imposed by the overseas British who came to trade in the subcontinent. But strangely thousands of years of Bharatbarsha began to become ‘India’ in just a few years. The first article of the Indian Constitution says “India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states.” Swamiji explained Bharat as Punyabhumi. Sri Aurobindo also described Bharat as the motherland. That Bharat gradually became just a unified form of so many states!
In 1971, philosopher Milan Hubble, while observing the situation in his homeland, said, “The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was.” Using the word ‘India’ instead of ‘Bharat’ is also an attempt to forget our culture. The idea of Bharat is not a political concept but a cultural concept. Changing the name ‘Bharatbarsha’ with ‘India’, which has a culture of thousands of years, can be said to be an attempt to forget the glorious history and culture.
Bharat is the only country that has maintained its respect in the world despite being attacked by foreign powers for more than 2,000 years. Therefore, all foreign powers have been forced to be defeated at some point. The cunning British rulers did realize that it was not possible to subjugate our citizens for a long time. That’s why they cleverly introduced Macaulay Minutes. The aim was to create a group or class among us who will be Indians in blood, caste, but will be British in their thought and ideology.
Swami Vivekananda repeatedly said that the education system should be man-made. But foreigners started an education system to make clerks. The education system will result in only clerks and they will make money. The education of the development of four entities – body, mind, intellect and soul, which was in the Bharatiya education system, was abolished from this British education system. If we read the history of our freedom struggle, we will see an Indian class who thought that the British rule of bharat was beneficial for us.
They were the product of the education system introduced by Thomas Babington Macaulay. These so-called highly educated people were proud to call themselves ‘Indians’. These Indians were blind imitators of the British who had subjugated the country for hundreds of years, tortured the inhabitants of the country unspeakably. If the British had said that the sun rises to the west, they might not have hesitated to say so either. Swamiji, in his swadesh mantra, mentions these reasons as the main cause for long subjugation of Bharat. He said, “O India ! With this mere echoing of others, with this base imitation of others, with this dependence on others, this slavish weakness, this vile detestable cruelty — wouldst thou, with these provisions only, scale the highest pinnacle of civilisation and greatness?”
It is worth mentioning that by India, we mean the small land gained as a result of the fragmented independence that we gained on August 15, 1947. But it is not our holy land, which we proudly say Punya Bhaumi Bharatbarsha.
We can understand from their writings or speeches how revered India is in the eyes of intellectuals. If we read the poems and songs written by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore we will be able to see how patriotic he was. Through the lines of poetry, he has shown that Bharatbhoomi has always been a holy land for him. Talking about this Bharat, in a letter to his mother Netaji wrote that, Bharat is a place of great affection for God. India is the land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and of spirituality. Swami Vivekananda described our motherland as Punya Bhumi Bharat. On the other hand, in the Mantra of Vande Mataram, Bankim Chandra compared Bharat to Goddess Durga.
Bharat implies an undivided part of our country whose geographical expanse was very wide in ancient times and it included among others present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mayanmar, Thailand. The idea of Bharat is as old as Sanatan Bharatiya civilization as it duly got place and described in ancient Bharatiya scriptures.
Our Scriptures say “Gangge Ca Yamune Chaiva Godaavari Sarasvati ; Narmade Sindhu Kaaveri Jale-asmin Sannidhim Kuru.” The Indus River in this mantra is in today’s Pakistan, which was earlier in Bharat. The famous Takshashila University, where students from all over the world come to study, also became part of Pakistan during the partition of Bharat. One of the main Shakti Peethas from 52 of Shakti Peetha, the temple of Hinglaj Mata is now located in Pakistan. But can we forget pilgrimage sites like Kailash, Manas Sarovar, Hinglaj, Takshashila, Dhakeshwari? Can we imagine Bharat without the birthplace of Rabindranath, Chaitanyadev, Pranabananda, Jagdish Chandra, Baghajatin?
We say in our national anthems – Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Marathas, Dravidians, Utkals, Bengal. So by Bharat, we mean the entire land that was once ours and will be ours in the future. Sri Aurobindo said, ” I can clearly visualize that Bharat Mata is enthroned again at the seat of Vishwaguru after its reunification” Even today, foreign powers want to destroy Bharat completely by distorting its history and culture. But this prophecy of Sri Aurobindo cannot be allowed to be false.
If we look carefully, we will see that using the word ‘India’ instead of Bharat leaves out a large part of our motherland. ‘Bharatbarsha’ is associated with thousands of years of glorious history and culture. To use the word India instead of Bharat is to hurt our pride. If we use the word ‘India’ for a long time, then after a few hundred years, the real history of Bharat will be forgotten. So the word ‘India’ cannot be used as a translation of ‘Bharat’.
At last it will be said that, to stop the attempts of anti bharat forces we have to be feeling proud as Bharatiya.
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