Pakistan might change its name to India, if India changes its name.
It has been rumoured that India might change its name to Bharat, leaving the name up for grabs.
A state-issued invitation to the G20 summit this weekend, hosted by India, referred to the country in a different way, inviting world leaders to a state dinner hosted by the “president of Bharat”.
Meanwhile, prime minister, Narendra Modi, typically refers to India as Bharat, a word dating back to ancient Hindu scriptures written in Sanskrit, and one of two official names for the country under its constitution.
And the broadcaster News18 said unnamed government sources had told it that members of his Hindu nationalist ruling party, Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), who have previously campaigned against using the name India, which was imposed during the British conquest, would put forward a special resolution to give precedence to the name Bharat in the next session of parliament - so watch this space.
Now, nationalists in Pakistan have reportedly claimed they’ve got dibs on the name because it’s tied to the Indus region, so they might lay a claim on the name, India if it is derecognised at the UN.
But given the Indian government has not made any official statement on changing the name of the country, they might have to stick with Pakistan for a while yet.
Yes Indus is mostly in Pakistan
No there isn’t literally anyone who wants to change the name to India.
It would be like USA changing its name to USSR because the soviet union collapsed.
As funny as this is, I’m pretty sure it was an overhyped article because of the G20 invitation. I highly doubt Modi would willingly throw away all the clout from stuff like the Indian Ocean or Indian Plate just to appease some BJP people.
It would be more like Mexico claiming the name United States of America as Mexico’s official name is United States of Mexico, yet Mexico is only a small part of the country.