The Constituent Assembly that came together in 1946 discussed the name of the country. The majority was in favour of calling the country with its original name, Bharat. H V Kamath in his interventions used the name Bharatvarsha. He said in the course of the debates: "It is well known that when these outrages were committed in East Bengal and many other parts of India, when men were massacred, women were humiliated and childrend were burnt in fire and oil no leader of the Muslim League raised his little finger nor did even one Muslim League leader go into those parts and did what Pandit Nehru did in Bihar. Is this the way in which we are going to build up a strong united India? Is this the spirit that is going to animate us in future? Only yesterday I read a statement from the head of the Muslim League where he mentioned Pakistan and Muslim India. I expected that at least after the division of India into Pakistan and India or Bharatvarsha on a communal basis the hatchet had been buried fathoms deep. But the same spirit is abroad and that spirit has not been stilled. People thought of Pakistan and the rest of India........"
In another intervention Professor Shibban Lal Saksena said: "t cow slaughter should be prohibited in Bharatvarsh by law."
In another debate Kamath recalled the favourite song of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The first line, recited by Kamath was as follows:
Subh sukh chain ki barsha, barse Bharat bhag hai jaga
R V Dhulekar in the course of a debate reminded everyone that in Bharatvarsha the cow was held sacred and not eaten.
Ananthaswamy Aiyyangar pleaded that the name of the country in Article 1 should be Bharat, Bharatvarsha, Hindustan as alternatives to India.
Loknath Misra argued that the name be changed to Bharatvarsha
Shibban Lal Saksena proposed that the name of the Union of States should be just Bharat; the national flag and other symbols should be of Bharat and not of India. He also proposed that the national anthem should be Vande Mataram.
Seth Govind Das asserted that he was all for calling the country by the name Bharat but he was willing to listen to concede to Mr. Nehru, because Nehru was quite touchy when he did not have his way.
Dr. Ambedkar agreed that there was a long historical tradition which alluded to the entire land by the name 'Bharat'. But he also said that there was no reason to go so much into history to justify the name since the name Bharat was quite commonly used by people. Ambedkar suggested that a way out could be to have the phrase 'India that is Bharat' in the constitution.
K M Munshi said that he noticed that the phrase India that is Bharat could be seen as quite inelegant.
Brajeshwar Prasad from Bihar said that the word should only be Bharat. 'Bharat is one integral unit', he reminded everyone.
Hasrat Mohani said that the phrase India that is Bharat should be retained. But, that it should not be addressed as a Union of States but as a Union of Republics.
R K Sidhwa said that the phrase India that is Bharat smacked of subordination to the English speaking elite. He said that if there is so much concern with the word India then the phrase in the Constitution can be something like: Bharat known as India also in some foreign countries. Sidhwa said, we should call our country Bharat and nothing else.
Seth Govind Das assured the members that the word Bharat occurred in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharat and also in the Vishnupuran. The Brahma Puran too mentions the name of the entire country as Bharat. He pointed out that even Hiuen Tsang used the term Bharat for the country.
Kallur Subba Rao added that the Rig Veda too refers to Bharat and talks about the land of Bharat. He said that even the Vayu Purana mentions the geographical spread of the country of Bharat. He suggested that Pakistan could be told to call itself Hindustan since the river Sindh flowed through Pakistan.
B M Gupte from Mumbai supported Subba Rao's views that the name of the country needed to be Bharat.
Dr. Ambedkar said that he agreed that the name of the land should be Bharat.
Ram Sahai too approved of Ambedkar's suggestion to call the land Bharat. Ram Sahai also pointed out that all of the religious literature used the word Bharat and not India or Hindustan.
Kamalapati Tripathi in a very long speech said that the word 'Bharat' evokes positivity of the kind which is missing from the word 'India'. Bharat is the name associated with a sacred land while India is merely a word for the land that was exploited by invaders. He also reminded that the word Bharat is used daily by those who take ‘sankalp’. He said that people routinely mention the Jambudwipa, Bharatvarsha, Bharatkhande, Aryavartay etc. Even Kalidas identified the land by the name ‘Bharat’. He also wondered why some members of the CA had an attachment to the name ‘India’ which was the name used by foreigners who came to rob the land and enslave the people.
When even after this long discussion the draft of the Constitution ignored the word ‘Bharat’, B Das said, please use the phrase, India that is Bharat. T T Krishnamachari retorted, we shall only use the word India since we who are drafting the Constitution are used to it.
Mohammad Tahir representing Bihar said that by introducing the phrase ‘India that is Bharat’ the aesthetic quality of the sentence had been reduced. Mohammad Tahir also complained that in India there was no place for Muslims anywhere. He said that Ambedkar had created a hodge podge of a constitution in which inelegant phrases like India that is Bharat were used. ….
A popular print showing Shakuntala with Bharat.
