The Supreme Court recently received a Public Interest Litigation which has sought for the country’s name to be changed from India to its authentic name ‘Bharat’. The main aim behind this PIL as the petitioner argues, is to help the country get over its colonial past.
It was further argued that the current name of the country as ‘India’ shows that it is symbolic of English rulers and is a symbol of slavery and the relic of British Raj. Further, if the name was changed it would instill a sense of pride in our nationality. The said PIL urges for an amendment to Article 1 of the Constitution of India. Article 1 currently states as “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States” and the petitioner hopes to change it to “Bharat/ Hindustan is a Union of States.”
It is further elucidated that since the names of various states have been changed, that now the time is ripe to recognize the country by its original and authentic name and that this change in name will instill pride in the minds of the citizens for generations to come. This is not the first time that the SC has recieved such a petitionIn 2016, the then CJI Justice TS Thakur led bench had rejected a similar plea.
During the earlier plea, the SC has slammed the petitioner, reminding him that PILs were meant for defending rights of the poor, and CJI Justice Thakur had lashed out saying that “You think we have nothing else to do.” The son of Kapil Hingorani, Advocate Amit Hingorani who is known as the ‘Mother of PILs’ had lamented that PILs are no longer being used for the purpose they were conceived as for securing rights and justice for marginalized and underprivileged. He stated that PILs have now been hijacked by ‘middle-class interests.’
