After gaining independence from British rule, India was adopted as the official name of the country. With multiple languages, religions and tribes, the country has one of the largest populations in the world. Recently, there has been a buzz that India is going to be renamed Bharat.
Will India Be Renamed As Bharat?
During the five-day special session of Parliament beginning on September 18, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to introduce a resolution renaming India as “Bharat.” In fact, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted on X with “REPUBLIC OF BHARAT” and wrote that a happy civilisation towards “Amrit Kaal.” There have been speculations that the masthead of the dinner invite for the G20 summit from the president’s office as “President of Bharat.”
If these rumours are true, then India won’t be the first country to change its official name.
List Of Countries That Have Changed Its Official Name
1. Turkiye
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced changing the nation’s accepted name to Turkiye. According to his claim, the name “Turkiye” best encapsulates and conveys the nation’s culture, values, and civilisation.
2. Czechia
In order to make it easier for the nation to be named during sporting events, the Czech Republic changed its name to Czechia in April 2016. The decision to shorten the name and make it simpler to pronounce in each of the nation’s six official languages—English, Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic—took up to 20 years of deliberation.
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3. Eswatini
In April 2018, the king of Swaziland, an African nation, declared that Eswatini would replace Swaziland as the official name of the nation. According to accounts, the locals were not surprised by the shift because they had been utilising the term for some time. Swaziland is simply translated as Eswatini, the Land of the Swazis, in the regional tongue.
4. Netherlands
The administration of this nation chose to alter the name as a marketing strategy. As a result of the decision, all promotional activities would now refer to the Netherlands officially rather than Holland.
5. Republic of North Macedonia
The Republic of Macedonia recently changed its name to the Republic of North Macedonia, which took place in February 2019. According to accounts, the main motivation for this name change was to join NATO and set itself apart from its neighbour Greece, which also has a region called Macedonia.
6. Sri Lanka
According to records, the Portuguese called this country by that name when they first discovered it in 1505. It later joined the British Empire before gaining independence in 1948. However, the island’s government finally decided to alter the name, and all references to Ceylon were dropped from businesses and government entities that continued to use the previous name.
7. Ireland
Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State was established in 1922 with Dominion status. The stories state that a new constitution was enacted in 1937, and as a result, Ireland was given a new name and effectively became a republic with an elected non-executive president.
8. Republic of Cabo Verde
This island honoured its country’s official language by registering its name with the UN in 2013 with the full Portuguese spelling. According to the archives, the old name was a linguistic hybrid that retained the Portuguese term “Verde,” which indicates green, while using “cape” as the English equivalent of the Spanish word “Cabo.” However, not imitating other nations in this regard, Cabo Verde changed its name and became the Republic of Cabo Verde.
9. Thailand
According to accounts, Siam was renamed Thailand in 1939 before changing back to Siam between 1946 and 1948. However, Thailand was officially renamed the Kingdom of Thailand in 1948, and it has continued to use this name ever since.
10. Myanmar
In an effort to preserve the way it is spelt in the native language, the country’s main military administration decided to alter the name of the nation from Burma to Myanmar in 1989. According to accounts, not everyone agreed with the chosen course of action, which is why some regions of the world continue to refer to this Asian nation as Burma.
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Cover Image Courtesy: Canva