Editor’s Note: Akanksha Singh is a Mumbai-based author whose work has appeared within the BBC, The Independent, South China Morning Post and quite a few different publications. The views expressed on this commentary are her personal. Read more opinion at CNN.

Mumbai
CNN
 — 

India has modified the names of lots of its cities and cities through the years. The port metropolis and one-time capital Calcutta became Kolkata in 2001. The title of India’s monetary capital Bombay, was modified to Mumbai in 1996. That identical yr, Madras was renamed Chennai. Over the years, even some roads, railway stations and markets have been renamed. The concept, we Indians have been advised every time, was to permit the nation to make a clear break as soon as and for all with its colonial previous.

Now, essentially the most dramatic rebranding of all could also be within the offing.

Earlier this month, India hosted the G20 gathering of the world’s richest nations. A dinner invitation from Indian President Droupadi Murmu described her because the “President of Bharat,” prompting rampant hypothesis in political and journalistic circles {that a} formal title change may very well be within the nation’s future.

As the inaugural G20 periods obtained underway, suspicions heightened: The nameplate at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s seat figuring out the nation he represented learn “Bharat” as an alternative of “India.” Indian officers, in the meantime, wore badges with the phrases “Bharat Official.”

Those clues dropped on the G20 may need been a protracted run-up to a grand unveiling.

Various media outlets are reporting that the Modi authorities could put ahead a decision during a special session of India’s parliament this week to formally change the nation’s title to Bharat, though no agenda has been formally introduced. On Tuesday, Modi proposed a new name for the previous parliament constructing itself, suggesting it’s referred to as Samvidhan Sadan going ahead.

The query on the minds of many individuals who observe occasions in India, is why any title change could be wanted. Bharat, which implies “India” in Hindi, is already one of many nation’s two official names. In truth, Article 1 of the nation’s constitution, reads: “India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states.”

What appears patently clear to me is that this proposed rebranding has nothing to do with stamping out the vestiges of a reviled colonial previous. The objective, which has been on the forefront of the Modi authorities’s agenda, is to erase each side of Indian historical past that doesn’t feed its right-wing Hindu ideology.

Indeed, the state objective of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) authorities is to make India a “Hindu rashtra (nation).” A reputation change to “Bharat” could be, initially, about Hindu nationalism. It’s a chance to double down on India’s Hindu id, even within the title by which it’s referred to as. Wiping away the vestiges of British rule, is now not the principle objective, if certainly it ever was.

Since coming to energy in 2014, Modi has made life more and more troublesome for India’s 200 million Muslims, the nation’s largest minority group, (they make up about 14% of the inhabitants) which faces discrimination find work and in getting an schooling, and who more and more are targets of communal violence.

Since his reelection in 2019, circumstances for India’s Muslims have solely worsened, as the federal government ramps up insurance policies that critics say try and divest Muslims of their rights and seeks to disenfranchise them.

Against that backdrop, the title modifications being carried out by the Modi authorities could seem a relatively small slight, however erasure is one more insult to an already beleaguered neighborhood. Indeed, lately, a number of cities and cities whose names mirror the Muslim empires that dominated the Indian subcontinent centuries in the past have been renamed by BJP governments.

In 2018, the northern metropolis of Allahabad, based by Mughal emperor Akbar, was modified to Prayagraj. A close-by historic railway trade, Mughalsarai Junction was renamed Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction, honoring a twentieth century Hindu nationalist chief, after being scrubbed of the title Mughalsarai. The checklist of title modifications is lengthy and rising.

The resolution by Modi’s transfer to sign the title change on the G20 was curious. For months earlier than the beginning of the occasion, officers planning the occasion had been referring to the host nation as “India.” Perhaps the thought was to area check the brand new title on the G20, the place the world could be watching, to gauge what worldwide response could be, and to smell out attainable public disapproval inside India.

In truth, there was appreciable opposition to altering India’s title. During a current European tour to fulfill with politicians and distinguished members of the Indian diaspora, opposition chief Rahul Gandhi called the proposition of a reputation change “absurd.”

Even if Modi proposes renaming the nation as Bharat, some specialists say altering India’s title would require a constitutional amendment and due to this fact two-thirds assist of each homes of parliament — a heavy carry, for the reason that opposition could be unlikely to assist it. The debate is a dwell one, nevertheless: Some disagree, saying that no modification to the structure could be wanted to alter India’s title.

If the measure have been to succeed, there would a worth to pay, as there all the time is for these sorts of sweeping, symbolic modifications. According to some, this specific title change might value tens of millions of dollars. Landmarks must be re-inscribed, maps redrawn, books reprinted.

And within the occasion that this title change goes via, there’s the query of how it’s to be put into place and the way far officers plan to take the title change. Does the RBI – the Reserve Bank of India – grow to be the RBB? Do the nation’s Indian Institutes of Technology grow to be BITs? Has any of this even been thought via?

It’s an unlimited expenditure of capital in what’s the world’s fifth largest economy, which has the world’s largest population, however a per capita income that’s one-quarter that of China’s.

What else may Modi do with these funds to enhance the lives of the folks of India (or Bharat, in the event you should)? And the place else may he direct the nation’s focus and energies? For starters India is  roiling with rampant ethnic violence. I’ve not heard Modi deal with the alarming spiral of violence in the northeastern state of Manipur, from the place a very horrific sexual assault captured on video continues to shock the conscience of the nation.

Here are some issues I’d deal with in Modi’s footwear: Several activists, poets, attorneys, journalists, teachers, and musicians are still in jail below a draconian “anti-terror” regulation that the federal government workout routines at its personal will, with out accountability or any indication of a timeline. I feel that the world’s largest democracy may work towards dwelling as much as the title and free or on the very least, correctly prosecute these activists who’ve been imprisoned.

I may also search for methods to handle the nation’s staggeringly high unemployment charges. And maybe the federal government might search for methods to handle the plight of ladies, spiritual minorities and caste-based minorities stay unsafe, whereas its  human rights document is getting worse all the time.

There are some hopeful indicators. The United Nations and humanitarian groups have condemned New Delhi’s actions towards the Muslim minority, though BJP has repeatedly pushed again towards criticisms, stating considerably duplicitously that it “respects all religions.”

Encouragingly, earlier this yr, amid the headlong rush to rename India’s cities and villages, the Supreme Court rejected a petition to rename huge numbers of historic websites, saying that the proposal went towards the precept of secularism enshrined within the Constitution.

“We are secular and supposed to protect the Constitution. You are concerned about the past and dig it up to place its burden on the present,” the court ruling said.

Very a lot so. And it’s a message Modi and his political companions ought to heed.