Wikipedia

India naming dispute

Name dispute between Pakistan and India

The India naming dispute in 1947 refers to the argument about using the name India during and after the division of British Raj. It was between the countries of Pakistan and the Republic of India.[1] This argument involved many important people, such as Lord Mountbatten, the last leader of British Raj, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League and a founder of Pakistan.[note 1] By 1947, the British Raj was going to be split into two new countries – Hindustan and Pakistan.[note 2][4] At first, Jinnah believed that Hindustan would not use the name India, since it did not have local roots there;[note 3] etymologically and historically, the name India meant the Indus Valley (modern-Pakistan).[5] He was also against the use of the name India by the new country, the Republic of India,[note 4] because it would cause confusion about history.[6] The disagreement had big effects on national identity and international recognition.[7][8]

India naming dispute
Viceroy of India: Lord and Lady Mountbatten meets Mr Mohammed Ali Jinnah, one of the founding fathers of Pakistan.
Duration1947 (1947) -
TypeNaming dispute
International conflict
ThemeThe name India
ParticipantsPakistan
Republic of India

Origin of the name

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See also: Names of Pakistan

The name India comes from the Ancient Greek word Ἰνδική (Indikē)[note 5] or Ἰνδία (Indía), which was changed into Latin as India.[9] In the past, the name meant the land of the Indus river. This river is now mostly in Pakistan and is the national river of the country.[10][11][12]

 
The name Hindūš (𐏃𐎡𐎯𐎢𐏁) in Old Persian cuneiform on the DNa inscription of Darius the Great (c. 490 BC). It refers to the lower Indus Valley (Sindh) in Ancient Pakistan.

The name India originally comes from the Sanskrit word Sindhu. Which is another name for the Indus River and the lower Indus basin (Sindh, Pakistan).[10][13] The Old Persian word for Síndhu became Hindu or Hindūš (𐏃𐎡𐎯𐎢𐏁) because the Arabs and the Persians spoke the letter /h/ instead of /s/.[14] Darius I took over Sindh around 516 BCE, and the Persian word Hinduš was used for the the lower Indus area in Ancient Pakistan.[15] Scylax of Caryanda had explored the Indus valley for the Persian emperor Darius I in about 515 BC.[16] Scylax took the Persian name Hinduš and used it in Greek.[17] Greeks pronounced this name as Indos or Indus. The terms Indos (Ἰνδός) for the Indus River and Indian are found in Hecataeus of Miletus and Herodotus's writings.[18] The loss of the /h/ sound in Hinduš was likely because of the Greek dialects spoken in Asia Minor and the word became Indos.[5][19] Hecataeus used the term "India" and "Indians" strictly for the people in Sindh (Ancient Pakistan) only.[20] Herodotus later used the term "Indian" for people in the lower Indus area (modern Pakistan) and all the people east of Persia, even though he did not know the land well.[18]

The general area of historic "India" within modern Pakistan. The Achaemenids called it Hindūš and the Indo-Sasanians called it Hend or Hind (Sindh), circa 400-425 CE.[21]

By the time of Alexander, Indía in Koine Greek meant the area beyond the Indus. Alexander's companions called India the Indus river basin, which is mainly in Pakistan. Later, Megasthenes included in India the areas beyond the Indus basin, including the Ganges basin.[22] When the British arrived in South Asia, they used the term India to refer to the whole subcontinent. This led to the confusion with the name "India," as it came to mean the British colony that included both Pakistan and the modern Republic of India.[23] After the partition, the modern Republic of India kept the colonial name that originally referred to what is now Pakistan (Indus Valley).[24][25][26]

History

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By 1947, the British Raj was going to be split into two new countries – Hindustan and Pakistan. Months before independence in August 1947, both Jinnah and the Muslim League were against the using the name India by Nehru's Hindustan. Jinnah was sure that Hindustan would not use the name India. Jinnah thought this because the name was not local to the area.[27][28] Etymologically and historically, India meant the Indus Valley, which is now Pakistan.[29] India was also a colonization term used by the British.[30] However, as independence came closer, it was clear that Hindustan was going to be named India.[8][31] Mountbatten became India's Governor-General, and Jinnah became Pakistan's Governor-General. Mountbatten sent an invitation to Jinnah, but Jinnah refused it.[1] The reason was that the invitation used India instead of Hindustan to refer to the new country.[7] Jinnah wrote to Louis Mountbatten, saying:[32]

“It is a pity that for some mysterious reason Hindustan has adopted the word ‘India’ which is certainly misleading and is intended to create confusion.”

— Muhammad Ali Jinnah

By the 20th century, it was well known that the word India came from the Indus River. Yet even if Mountbatten knew Jinnah’s argument made sense, he would never admit it. In a 1973 interview, Mountbatten admitted he did not get along well with Jinnah and even called Jinnah a "bastard" during the interview.[33] Jinnah strongly opposed the use of the name India by Hindustan because the name India, which had a long history, could cause confusion and mislead about history. The history of historic India,[note 6] the Indus Valley (Pakistan), could be mixed up with the history of the modern Republic of India. The name was a reminder of history and known around the world.[34][35]

 
British Raj in the year 1922.

Many maps printed in the Republic of India after 1947 called the new country Bharat – the Constitution of the Republic of India officially names the country Bharat.[36][37] Even today, many Hindu nationalists and Hindi speakers in India argue for the word Bharat to become the only official name of the country.[38] The word Bharat comes from ‘Bharatavarsha’ (the land of the Bharatas), with these Bharatas being one of the early Vedic groups who moved from the Indus Valley to the Ganges Plain between 1200 BCE to 800 BCE.[39] To many, Bharat would seem better since the term India was a colonial term. It also lacked a local background, as the term India historically referred to the Indus Valley in Pakistan.[40] Jinnah thought neither country would use the name India. He preferred the acronym Pakistan for his country and Hindustan (Land of the Hindus) for the Hindu-majority India.[4][3] Jinnah only found out months before independence that Mountbatten and Nehru were going to name Hindustan the "Republic of India". Jinnah, according to Mountbatten, "was absolutely furious when he found out that they (Nehru and the Congress Party) were going to call themselves India."[1] The use of the word also suggested a larger historic importance that Pakistan would never accept. It also went against history since India originally meant only the area near the Indus River and its tributaries. Thus, Historic India was mostly outside the modern Republic of India and mostly within Pakistan.[41][42] For this reason, Pakistan is often called by many the 'Real India' and Pakistanis the 'Real Indians'.[43][44]

Current situation

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Bharat–India controversy

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In 2023, the ruling party in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been trying to change India's name to Bharat. The BJP says the name "India" is a sign of colonial rule and is not a local name for the country.[30]

Bharat and India are both official names of the country. The BJP argues that the name "India" is a leftover from the colonial period. Naresh Bansal, a BJP member of parliament, said the name India is a symbol of "colonial rule" and "should be removed from the constitution." Bansal said in a parliamentary session:[24]

“The British changed Bharat’s name to India. Our country has been known by the name ‘Bharat’ for thousands of years…The name ‘India’ was given by the colonial Raj and is thus a symbol of slavery.”

Some cities and places in India that are linked to the Mughals and the colonial period have been renamed by the BJP. Critics say these new names are an attempt to erase the Mughals, who were Muslims and ruled the subcontinent for almost 300 years, from Indian history.[24]

Pakistan's reaction

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Indian media has reported that Pakistani local media claim Pakistan might try to claim the name India due to the Bharat-India controversy.[10][45] A post shared by the South Asia Index’s X handle went viral and was reported by several media outlets. It said:[46]

"Pakistan may lay claim to the name 'India' if India derecognizes it officially at the United Nation (UN) level".[47]

— Local Pakistani media

Nationalists in Pakistan have long argued that Pakistan has rights to the name since it refers to the Indus region in Pakistan.[48] Meanwhile, former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that the original name of the country was "definitely" Bharat and that it was the British who started calling it India.[49] Some Indian media have said that India using the name Bharat fulfills Pakistan's old wish since Pakistan has claimed this name since 1947.[50]

Notes

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  1. ↑ The political leaders and statespersons who participated in the success of the political movement, following the signing of the Pakistan Resolution, which led to the establishment and creation of independent Pakistan in August 1947, are all regarded as the Founders of Pakistan (Bāniyān-e-Pākistān). Muhammad Ali Jinnah is given the title Father of the Nation and is regarded as one of the most important figures.[2]
  2. ↑ Bharat is one of the two official names of the modern Republic of India. Hindustan is also an unofficial term used within the country. Hindustan here shouldn't be confused with the historical region of Hindostan, which was used by Muslim rulers for most of the Indian subcontinent. To Jinnah and the Hindu Mahasabha, Hindustan simply meant the "Land of the Hindus," as India was formed as a Hindu-majority nation.[3]
  3. ↑ It lacked indigenous pedigree. For Jinnah, 'Hindustan' adopting the name 'India' was “misleading and is intended to create confusion”.
  4. ↑ Referring to the modern nation of the Republic of India.
  5. ↑ cf. Megasthenes' work Indica.
  6. ↑ Historic India here means the Indus Valley (i.e., modern Pakistan). The name India originally only meant the lower Indus river basin. The term was later expanded by the British to be used as a name for their South Asian colony.

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Why Pakistan's founder Jinnah was opposed to the name India for the independent Indian nation". The Indian Express. 2023-09-06. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  2. ↑ Dani, Ahmad Hasan, ed. (1998). Founding fathers of Pakistan. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications. ISBN 9693508300.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Qalb-i-Abid, Massarrat Abid (2008). "Muslim League, Jinnah And The Hindu Mahasabha" (PDF). A Study in Speeches and Statements of Quaid-I-Azam. 45. Their leaders like Dr. Moonje were preaching the message that "as England is the land of the English, Germany that of the Germans, similarly, Hindustan is the land of the Hindus."
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Moore, R. J. (1983). "Jinnah and the Pakistan Demand". Modern Asian Studies. 17 (4): 529–561. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00011069. ISSN 0026-749X. JSTOR 312235.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Mukherjee, Bratindra Nath (2001). Nationhood and Statehood in India: A Historical Survey. Regency Publications. ISBN 978-81-87498-26-1. Apparently the same territory was referred to as Hi(n)du(sh) in the Naqsh‐i‐Rustam inscription of Darius I as one of the countries in his empire. The terms Hindu and India ('Indoi) indicate an original indigenous expression like Sindhu. The name Sindhu could have been pronounced by the Persians as Hindu (replacing s by h and dh by d) and the Greeks would have transformed the latter as Indo‐ (Indoi, Latin Indica, India) with h dropped...
  6. ↑ "It was Jinnah who objected to the name 'India': Shashi Tharoor amid G20 invite row". India Today. 2023-09-06. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Daniyal, Shoaib (2018-06-19). "Why Jinnah objected to the name 'India'". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Singh, Jaswant (2010-03-04). Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence. OUP India. ISBN 978-0-19-547927-0.
  9. ↑ Harris, J. (2012-05-07). Indography: Writing the "Indian" in Early Modern England. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-09076-8.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Sanujit. "Etymology of the Name India". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  11. ↑ Geoffray, Ally (2019-05-23). "Indus River". editions.covecollective.org. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  12. ↑ Eggermont, Pierre Herman Leonard (1975). Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan and the Siege of the Brahmin Town of Harmatelia. Peeters Publishers. ISBN 978-90-6186-037-2. Sindhu means a stream, a river, and in particular the Indus river, but likewise it denotes the territory of the lower Indus valley, or modern Sind. Therefore, the appellation Saindhavah, means "inhabitants of the lower Indus valley"... In this respect Sindhu is no tribal name at all. It denotes a geographical unit to which different tribes may belong.
  13. ↑ Mukherjee, Bratindra Nath (2001). Nationhood and Statehood in India: A Historical Survey. Regency Publications. ISBN 978-81-87498-26-1. In early Indian sources Sindhu denoted the mighty Indus river and also a territory on the lower Indus.
  14. ↑ Henning, Walter Bruno (1970). W. B. Henning Memorial Volume. Lund Humphries. ISBN 978-0-85331-255-0.
  15. ↑ Dandamaev, M. A. (1989). A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-09172-6. The new satrapy, which received the name of Hindush, extended from the centre to the lower part of the Indus Valley, in present-day Pakistan.
  16. ↑ "Scylax Of Caryanda | Persian Expedition, Circumnavigation, Exploration | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
  17. ↑ Mouton, Alice; Rutherford, Ian; Yakubovich, Ilya (2013-06-03). Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion Between Anatolia and the Aegean. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-25341-4.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Herodotus; Godley, A. D. (Alfred Denis) (1921–25). Herodotus. With an English translation by A.D. Godley. Robarts - University of Toronto. London Heinemann.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  19. ↑ Christidēs, Anastasios-Phoivos; Arapopoulou, Maria; Chritē, Maria (2007-01-11). A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83307-3. The early loss of aspiration is mainly a characteristic of Asia Minor (and also of the Aeolic and Doric of Asia Minor)... In Attica, however (and in some cases in Euboea, its colonies, and in the Ionic-speaking islands of the Aegean), the aspiration survived until later... During the second half of the fifth century BC, however, orthographic variation perhaps indicates that 'a change in the phonetic quality of [h] was taking place' too.
  20. ↑ Habib, Irfan (2005). India-studies in the History of an Idea. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. ISBN 978-81-215-1152-0. The term 'Indians' was used by Herodotus as a collective name for all the peoples living east of Persia. This was also a significant development over Hekataios, who had used this term in a strict sense for the groups dwelling in Sindh only
  21. ↑ Senior, R.C. (1991). "The Coinage of Sind from 250 AD up to the Arab Conquest" (PDF). Oriental Numismatic Society. 129 (June–July 1991): 3–4.
  22. ↑ Mukherjee, Bratindra Nath (2001). Nationhood and Statehood in India: A Historical Survey. Regency Publications. ISBN 978-81-87498-26-1.
  23. ↑ "When and how did Bharat became India?". The Times of India. 2023-09-05. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2024-07-03. During British colonial rule (approximately 1757-1947), the British referred to the Indian subcontinent as "India." This term was derived from the river Indus, which marked the western boundary of British India. The British colonial administration used "India" as the official name.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 "India or Bharat: What's behind the dispute over the country's name?". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  25. ↑ Habib, Irfan (2005). India-studies in the History of an Idea. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. ISBN 978-81-215-1152-0. The term 'Indians' was used by Herodotus as a collective name for all the peoples living east of Persia. This was also a significant development over Hekataios, who had used this term in a strict sense for the groups dwelling in Sindh only.
  26. ↑ "Pakistan May Exploit The Situation If India's Name Is Changed. Here's How". IndiaTimes. 2023-09-06. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  27. ↑ "Why was Muhammed Ali Jinnah opposed to the name India?". Firstpost. 2023-09-06. Retrieved 2024-08-11. Keay wrote that what convinced Jinnah neither side would use the name India emmed from its historical currency amongst outsiders, especially outsiders who had designs on the place.
  28. ↑ Daniyal, Shoaib (2018-06-19). "Why Jinnah objected to the name 'India'". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2024-08-11. The British had chosen India, a word with Greek roots, as the name of their empire in the subcontinent and this colonial origin of the name engendered some objections to its use in the Constituent Assembly.
  29. ↑ Sanujit. "Etymology of the Name India". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Tripathy, Diksha (2023-12-31). "India vs Bharat: A look at 2023's political controversy that stirred the dynamics of a nation's name". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  31. ↑ White-Spunner, Barney (2018). Partition: The Story of Indian Independence and the Creation of Pakistan in 1947. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4711-4803-3.
  32. ↑ "Why was Muhammed Ali Jinnah opposed to the name India?". Firstpost. 2023-09-06. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  33. ↑ "The late Lord Louis Mountbatten said he would not... - UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  34. ↑ Bharat, renaming India as (2023-09-05). "By renaming India as Bharat, BJP is following Jinnah once again after CAA: Shashi Tharoor". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  35. ↑ "It was Jinnah who objected to the name 'India': Shashi Tharoor amid G20 invite row". India Today. 2023-09-06. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  36. ↑ Feminist Review Collective, ed. (1995). Feminist politics - colonial/postcolonial worlds. Feminist review. London: Feminist Review. ISBN 978-0-415-12375-4.
  37. ↑ Mårtensson, Ulrika, ed. (2011). Fundamentalism in the modern world. International library of political studies. London ; New York: I.B. Tauris : distributed in the United States and Canada exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-84885-361-4. OCLC 745364092.
  38. ↑ Desk, Entertainment (2023-09-06). "Internet divided over India's potential name-change to 'Bharat'". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2024-06-19. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  39. ↑ Dutt, Romesh Chunder (2015-08-08). Maha-Bharata, Epic of the Bharatas. [Translated by Romesh Dutt. ]. Creative Media Partners, LLC. ISBN 978-1-298-56204-3.
  40. ↑ "India, that is Bharat: A short history of the nation's names, from the Rig Veda to the Constitution of India". The Indian Express. 2023-09-05. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  41. ↑ Jinnah, Mahomed Ali (1988). Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah: Some Rare Speeches and Statements, 1944-1947. Research Society of Pakistan, University of the Punjab. ISBN 978-969-425-072-4.
  42. ↑ Ahmed, Mukhtar (2014-10-15). Ancient Pakistan - An Archaeological History: Volume II: A Prelude to Civilization. Amazon. ISBN 978-1-4959-4130-6.
  43. ↑ Mahmood, Parvez (2019-05-25). "'We the people of Pakistan, irrespective of religion, are the true Indians'". ThePrint. Retrieved 2024-06-22.
  44. ↑ Khalid, Haroon (2018-09-06). "If Pakistan shuns the term 'Ancient India' in its history books, is it entirely to blame?". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2024-06-22.
  45. ↑ "Pakistan may take name 'India' if India officially changes name to 'Bharat' at UN: International media". Times of Islamabad. 2023-09-05. Archived from the original on 2024-06-19. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  46. ↑ Bharat, E. T. V. (2023-09-06). "'Pakistan may lay claim on name India': Social media post goes viral on India vs Bharat row". ETV Bharat News. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  47. ↑ Bharat, E. T. V. (2023-09-06). "'Pakistan may lay claim on name India': Social media post goes viral on India vs Bharat row". ETV Bharat News. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  48. ↑ ""Pakistan Will Claim India": Social Media Post Goes Viral Amid Name-Change Buzz". NDTV.com. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  49. ↑ "'Pakistan may lay claim on name 'India' if Modi govt derecognises it officially at UN'". The Week. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
  50. ↑ "Pakistan May Exploit The Situation If India's Name Is Changed. Here's How". IndiaTimes. 2023-09-06. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
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