You better change yourself, not your name!
Thomas Mathew Joys
One of the most common reasons a country changes its name is newly acquired independence. When borders are changed, sometimes due to a country splitting or two countries joining, the terms of the relevant areas can change. “For example, Czechoslovakia got its name from the aggregation of the Czech and Slovak peoples in 1918. It peacefully dissolved into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic in 1993”.
I do not understand why Rahul Gandhi did “Bharat Jodo” March across Indian states, but his followers oppose the name change from India to Bharat.
This is not to those who believe that when the name of India is changed to Bharat, it is only the cost of the ink that appears on letters. It is to the naive who ask what happens to India now. India becomes Bharat not only on paper.
We will be forced to change Reserve Bank of India to Reserve Bank of Bharat as soon as possible in the currencies issued by the Reserve Bank. Another demonetization or demonetization is the biggest disaster that awaits us.
Thousands of official documents used by India’s 140 crore people on a daily basis, including passports, Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, Driving Licenses, and identity cards, will soon need to be updated. This change will have to be made possible in crores of government documents.
Airports officially named India must be renamed in lakhs of places, including government and semi-government institutions. This change will have to be made in the textbooks, reference books, and historical documents of the growing new generation. This change will have to be implemented in systems, including Indian embassies in foreign countries. Similarly, in thousands and tens of thousands of places, this change has to be demonstrated directly and indirectly in subjects. Not that name change is impossible.
This name change will be another calamity that can be inflicted on us, who are reeling under the misrule of any government, recovering from the devastation of COVID and the impact of demonetization. Just think about it. Madras Mail is still running through Cochin, though Chennai and Kochi are in papers, and passengers remain the same.
How many lakhs of crores will have to be spent from our tax money only for the two or three things mentioned above? Where will this money come from? What is the need for imposing heavy tax additionally on the people? India is not going to change anything because of this name change. The demand of some fanatic organization is to divide the people of India by using this name. This is just a copy of the divide-and-rule policy practiced by the British.
Some so-called celebrities are also claiming and arguing that the name India should be changed to Bharat. They are trying to spread the aftereffects of the communal poison injected from the veins to the mind and even to the country’s soul. It is to them who ask if a name change is trivial.
India is my country. Without any caste or creed, we are proud to say that we are Indians. But when you say Bharateeyan impeccably, it demands some other meaning. If you insist on it, the hidden agenda is clear.
On the contrary, if it is inevitable to change the country’s name, let the government educate the people about its needs and the unbearable cost involved in the change. Let the people or the elected representatives decide for the change, quite democratically.
India is a good name that has created an excellent image globally through decades.
Neither the people’s condition nor its poverty be swept away by such reforms. If any government is so conscientious in spending billions of rupees unnecessarily, please spend the money on homeless people and provide clean toilets to at least one per ten people inside the country, that is stinking!
I prefer the stuff inside the dress to get intact than changing the name of the dress!
People who do wrong are good at justifying. So, express your thoughts as Chanakya said. Try to pretend like an idiot if you are sure you won’t win! It may be synonymous with my quintessential view on the topic.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial position of The Indian Eye
