September 7, 2023

"I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with India, which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries."

Said Shashi Tharoor of the opposition Congress party, quoted in "India or Bharat? Invites fuel speculation that the country could change its name" (CNBC)("Invites" refers to an invitation to a dinner reception at the G20 summit that came from the "President of Bharat").

60 comments:

Bob Boyd said...

I propose New India.

rehajm said...

I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with India, which has incalculable brand value built up over centuries

Two names creates brand confusion. If there's built up brand value in 'India' may I suggest selling the name to another nation interested in improving its global image? Maybe send the dog and pony show to the taliban in Afghanistan first...

re Pete said...

"Some of these people don't know which road to take"

Enigma said...

I suppose that ends my plan to call North American natives "American Bharats."

The Cleveland Bharats baseball team and Washington Red-Bharats could not be reached for comment?

Shucks.

rhhardin said...

Indian means native American.

Leland said...

Next thing you know, they'll change the name of Bombay.

gahrie said...

Currently the United Kingdom is headed by someone of Indian heritage, and two of the Republican candidates for president are Indian-Americans. India is making huge strides on a shoestring budget in space. Today there are a billion cellphones in use in India, and India exports food.

Kudos to the world's largest democracy.

Kate said...

Would Native Americans be called Bharatians?

gahrie said...

The two names are used interchangeably in India already.

gahrie said...

Holland or The Netherlands?

gilbar said...

I thought we were supposed to call it Native America?
Or, our we supposed to call it Indigenous Peoples? It's ALL SO CONFUSING!!

seriously, if they DO change the name of the subcontinent to Bharat..
Can we go back to calling Our indians, indians?

effinayright said...

Just as we still call Deutschland "Germany", and Oesterreich "Austria", we can still call Bharat "India".

tommyesq said...

I love that the branding statement came from "X, formerly known as Twitter."

WK said...

Borat?

tim in vermont said...

Bharat is Hindi for "Fuck you Britain."

It seems as though countries are getting sick of being pushed around by the West. Look what we just did to Pakistan, threatened dire consequences if they didn't jail the most popular politician in the country. Forced them to act like a banana republic, well, like all of the other banana republics we run.

BRICS has become about lowering the status of the G20, neither Putin nor Xi will attend the G20, let it be a vassals club where the US can gather leaders together to give orders, and these name changes, like that of Turkiye, are part of the status lowering of the English language.

rrsafety said...

I'll call it India either way.

Limited blogger said...

Will West Indies then need to be renamed?

Leland said...

From the nation's constitution:

PART I
THE UNION AND ITS TERRITORY
1. Name and territory of the Union. — (1) India, that is Bharat, shall be
a Union of States.


Is it changing the name or using the name that is in the document that established the government?

Dave Begley said...

Rebranding.

We should change our name: The Disunited States of America.

Original Mike said...

I have to buy another globe?

PM said...

A national name change in a nation of 1.4 billion people.
Print shops rejoice.

Kevin said...

For $10 million Joe Biden will start using the new name.

Yancey Ward said...

Just call it 7-11.

Rich said...

Why not rename it to Twitter since that name is now free and comes with instant brand recognition?

Temujin said...

What do we then call people from that land? Bharatians?

Our young people, who are not taught geography anyway, won't notice the difference until some friends suggest they go to that Bharatian restaurant everyone is talking about, and they reply that they prefer Indian food.

BTW, I'm considering changing my brand to Jam Jalthouse.

Rich said...

Well done to Bharat for landing on the moon.

Next achievement to unlock is water that comes out of the tap that they can drink, an electricity supply that doesn’t need ‘load shedding’ and a functional healthcare and education system.

Readering said...

I miss Formosa, Ceylon, Burma and Siam.

LakeLevel said...

gahrie said...
"Holland or The Netherlands?"

It's The Dutch Republic.

Static Ping said...

Ah, a Persia/Iran situation.

It is their country and they can call it what they want. It is just a matter of how much short to medium term confusion they are willing to tolerate.

Old and slow said...

Blogger gahrie said...
Holland or The Netherlands?

One is a subset of the other. Though colloquially they are often used interchangeably.

Buckwheathikes said...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12491549/Girl-gang-raped-burned-alive-sex-attack-India.html

Yeah, that's some brand they got going there.

Robert Marshall said...

Here's the good news, at least:

If it happens, at least we'll no longer have to wonder whether the "Indian" referred to in conversation is of the "dot" or "feather" crowd.

n.n said...

Indian, you say. The misinformation... nay, disinformation of ambiguous labels... and colors.

Ralph L said...

Someone needs to point out the "RAT" at the end.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

You may as well rename it Comic Book Fart. "India" may have colonialist associations but it's incredibly rich with historical and cultural associations.

Not to mention that India, as even the idea of a nation, didn't exist until the palefaces showed up.

mesquito said...

We call Norge “Norway” Suomi “Finland” and Deutchland “Germany”. That’s our right as speakers, of, you know, a language. Why that doesn’t apply to Bombay and Burma is a mystery.

Patrick said...

Hardly anyone remembers Upper Volta these days.

gspencer said...

Countries have brands?

Like Brussels sprouts, or Peking Duck?

Bob Boyd said...

The country formerly known as India.

tcrosse said...

What happens to Indiana?

Rabel said...

I'm all for it if only because it would put an end to that annoying "with a dot/with a feather" thing.

cassandra lite said...

If it changes its name to Bharat, then its citizens become Bharatis, and we no longer have to clarify, when referring to Indians, "dot, not feather."

rsbsail said...

Meh....names of places change all the time. Look at Constantinople. The Ottomans conquered it in 1453, but the Turks didn't get around to changing the name until after WW1.

Kevin said...

The Ottomans conquered it in 1453, but the Turks didn't get around to changing the name until after WW1.

How important could it have been?

Oso Negro said...

I think we can call them "Bharats"

RMc said...

"Limeyland Southeast".

mikee said...

Rebranding worked for the communists in Peking, demanding the world kowtow & change all references to the Party-desired Beijing. India did that with Chennai, previously called Madras in a slight to the actual city by the East India Company. Ceylon is now Sri Lanka. French Indochina is now Vietnam (and didn't that take some effort to accomplish!). Zimbabwe and other post colonial African nations do this name change all the time. So why not the same flex for the entire subcontinent of Bharat?

Lucien said...

Can’t they just change pronouns like normal people and leave the name alone?

Narr said...

Regardless of any change of name, millions of untouchables will still call it home.

India is taken from the Indus, not as I assumed out of "Hindu."

rhhardin said...

Crayola will be free to bring back Indian Red.

rhhardin said...

They're changing Germany to Deutschland to better match local pronunciation.

Narr said...

"Peking," under the transliteration system of a lunatic, was meant to be pronounced "Bey-jing."

So that was more a correction than a change.

Narayanan said...

what is not being reported is anti-Modi parties banded together to form INDIA

Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance
‘INDIA’, which stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, comprises 26 opposition parties so far.

=>>>>> psyops

chickelit said...

If Western Civilization can handle a switch from Hellas to Greece, it can handle a switch from India to Bharat.

Lokeish Umak said...

Being an Indian, I support India to Bharat as it was previously.

The Crack Emcee said...

Fascists originally changed the name of India for spiritual reasons. But nothing like that happens here.

Nope, we talk about politics all day, and just let the spiritual stuff ride,...

Rocco said...

Narr said...
"India is taken from the Indus, not as I assumed out of 'Hindu'."

The word "Hindu" originates from the Indus river, too. And the name Indus itself comes from the Sanskrit word "Sindhu", which simply means "river".

That is similar to the situation in Western Europe where the names of the Rhine and Rhone rivers are suspected to derive from a word in a pre-Indo-European language that simply means "flow".

Rocco said...

They should change their name to the Commanders. Or the Guardians.

Rocco said...

rhhardin said...
"They're changing Germany to Deutschland to better match local pronunciation."

It's easier to pronounce in Turkish or Arabic?

Narr said...

Thanks Rocco, I should have known that.

Rhine, Rhone, Run.