Can You Recognize a Country Named "BHARAT"?

I don't know why but a few days back I created a poll on Lumeos App with the question, "Have you ever heard about a country called Bharat?

The poll concluded today. I was shocked to note that out of 652 respondents, only 21% people answered it in affirmative. At least 61% of them (398 people) clearly stated that they don't know any such country.

Bhārat: a more popular and a native name for India

Historically India has had several names from Aaryavarta to Bharatvarsh with various variations like Bharatam, Bharat, Hind, Al-Hind, Hindustan etc. Of these, Bharat, India, and Hindustan ("Hind" in short) are still in popular use. For political leaders in India, to end their speech with the salutation "Jai Hind" (meaning 'victory to the Hind') is still a customary.

Indicating the popular names of this country, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote in his famous book "Discovery of India" published in 1946:

Often, as I wandered from meeting to meeting, I spoke to my audiences of this India of ours, of Hindustan and of Bharata, the old Sanskrit name derived from the mythical founders of the race.

Bharat is considered as native name. The name Bharat has historical, cultural as well as spiritual significance.

The country with two official names

Indian constitution's opening Article 1 states:

India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states

This clearly gives both names "India" as well as "Bharat" equal status to be a short name for the "Republic of India" or "Bharat Ganrajya".

India has 1 official language as Hindi and 22 scheduled languages. In almost all these languages, the name of the country is Bharat (except Tamil where calling "Indhiya" is more common). In Urdu both Bharat and Hindustan are used.

Unfortunately, not many people outside Bharat are aware of the name Bharat for this country. In fact, for Western people, pronouncing Eastern names were always difficult. So they twisted original names as per their own convenience.

The name of the river called Sindhu became Hindu and then Indus. And then the name of the country became India!

Today, I've reset location in my Profile from India to Bhārat

Even today, world recognize this country with the name India only. But it can't be equated with the significance that the word Bharat conveys.

The results of my poll on Lumeous was an eye opener to me. So henceforth, I've decided to highlight the country's name as Bharat wherever possible. Starting today, I've changed my blog's profile location from India to Bhārat. Although I could have stated it as "India / Bharat"; I'd rather like to use the name that seems more significant to me.