Bobby Ghosh, Columnist

India By Any Other Name Would Still Be India

The history of national rebranding suggests that the world won’t be switching to Bharat anytime soon.

September 7, 2023 at 6:23 PM UTC

Bobby Ghosh is a senior editor in the digital weekend team. Previously, he was a columnist at Bloomberg Opinion, where he wrote mostly about international affairs and culture.

Bharatis or Indians? Both.
Photographer: Prakash Singh/Bloomberg

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As the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi gets underway, there’s some confusion over how the host would like to be addressed: Is Narendra Modi the leader of India, or of Bharat? Although both names are in the constitution under which he governs, convention favors the former. On the eve of the gathering, however, his government indicated it would prefer the latter.