It's an interesting question: which country do you belong to: India, Bharat or Hindustan, because each of these three popular names have, irrespective of their historical origin, a semantic meaning attached, so your choice indicates your own position and view of the country. Officially of course, India and Bharat are the two chosen names in the two official languages respectively, but Hindustan is widely used in popular usage as well. The difference between India and Bharat in today's times is of the kind Arvind Adiga demonstrates well in The White Tiger as the bright vs dark India, the India Shining vs the India of the poor and the forgotten. Hindustan maybe saare jahan se achha in many eyes, but it has the unmistakable majoritarian "hindu" flavor, not all in sync with the secular, varied flavor of this country. It is also the contrast of choice with Pakistan, by people on both sides of the border.
So for its divisive air Hindustan is not my favorite, and though there exists opinions such as this numerological view why India is a better choice, India vs Bharat is still an open bet.
The semantics of language are the most accentuating part of this contrast, the difference between English, Hindi and the dialectic. It is the difference in the way sections of our nation debate on national, social and cultural issues, from voting to reservation to homosexuality. The nation lives on despite this, among many such, differences, but identifying ourselves on either side of the divide is a disturbing idea.
Because the question still remains, by belonging to a shiny, pacy India, am I alienated from real Bharat?
So for its divisive air Hindustan is not my favorite, and though there exists opinions such as this numerological view why India is a better choice, India vs Bharat is still an open bet.
The semantics of language are the most accentuating part of this contrast, the difference between English, Hindi and the dialectic. It is the difference in the way sections of our nation debate on national, social and cultural issues, from voting to reservation to homosexuality. The nation lives on despite this, among many such, differences, but identifying ourselves on either side of the divide is a disturbing idea.
Because the question still remains, by belonging to a shiny, pacy India, am I alienated from real Bharat?
7 comments:
all 3 means same for me... but i use India more often than other two names
I like 'Hindustan'. I don't see the divisive air about it. VHP wouldn't use it, SIMI wouldn't use it.. Why? Because it has an air of integration of cultures about it: the air the fundamentalists don't like. I find it very much in sync with the secular, varied flavor of the country. :)
I've no issues against India or Bharat either. As Voice said, they are all the same.
Thoda sa vella time kya mila desh ko divide karne lagi :P
"Thoda sa vella time kya mila desh ko divide karne lagi :P" .. precisely my sentiments :D
I like Hindustan.
I use India.
I say Bharat(a varsh) when Im reading Sanskrit.
What does that make me?
Hindustan is divisive?!. Oh my god, pseudo-secular brainwashing in this country has reached levels I never imagined it would reach!.
Hey, and while we are at it,Bharat has its origins to the Hindu mythological ruler Bharata, so wouldn't that be divisive too? :). May be we should name ourselves secularistan- what say? ;).
P.S: You may wish to brush up your history on who actually composed the lines "saare jahan se achha hindustan hamara". May give a clue on whether the term Hindustan was ever considered divisive.
[anonymous]
I am not saying Hindustan is divisive, I am saying it has a divisive air to it, something that can be manipulated n broken into meaning something it absolutely does not mean. I like the name, less than the other two, but I like it. In any case its origin can be traced to the rives Indus and the indus valley civilization, also the roots of India. In addition, the language semtantic favors hindustan over the other two, more "mass" in feel. Still, it cringes me when someone breaks it down to hindu-sthan and harps on it, n then uses it as a contrast against pak-sthan. It is rhetoric, but then again, liking a name is individual choice, both nothing in concrete terms.
My question was something else, if, when we thought of ourselves, we felt us to be a citizen of India, Bharat, or hindustan, or whether we never even noticed a difference?
It's just a thought, nothing brainwashed about it.
hinustan just means a place of hindus onlywhere no sikh,muslim,or any other have or will have any place and respect.
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