India to become Bharat? How the renaming process works

Article 1 of the Constitution states "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States". In Hindi, the Constitution is called "Bharat ka Samvidhan". Article 1, in the Hindi iteration, reads "Bharata arthat India, rajyon ka sangha hoga".

A couple of official documents from President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the two were referred to as the President of Bharat and the Prime Minister of Bharat respectively, has sent the nation into a tizzy about a possible name change.

The Special Session of the Parliament, which is slated to begin September 18, has only added fuel to the fire that the ruling NDA government might make use of the opportunity to try and push the name change through.

While Union Minister Anurag Thakur has said that "there is no name change on the cards" since India has always been called Bharat, several experts have weighed in on the feasibility of a name change.

Here we take you through how the name change process works.

What the Constitution says

Article 1 of the Constitution clearly states "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States".

In Hindi, the nation's Constitution is called Bharat ka Samvidhan. Article 1, in the Hindi iteration, reads "Bharata arthat India, rajyon ka sangha hoga".

Both names, thus, are official and can be legally used, but are not interchangeable.

What the name change implies

The question arises about the steps that become necessary if the nation were to drop 'India' and just go with 'Bharat' as its official name.

Firstly, this would require a change in Article 1 of the Constitution. It would also include a massive legislative process where several laws where the word 'India' is present would have to be dropped.

Notably, the Centre has taken a step towards this already, introducing three bills in the last Parliament session in which the existing Indian Penal Code will be replaced with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023.

However, to the world, the nation still officially remains India. That is the name the country is listed as, on the member list of the United Nations. Even the G20, meetings for which are taking place across the nation, recognises it as 'India's G20 Presidency'.

Thus, in the event of an official name change, the country would also have to make an alteration in how it is addressed at a global stage.

What if the country were to be exclusively called Bharat

For the country to be exclusively called Bharat, an amendment would have to be made to Article 1 of the Constitution.

Article 368 of the Constitution outlines how changes to the Constitution can be made.

There are two ways - a simple majority amendment and a special majority amendment.

Some aspects of the Constitution like admitting a new state, or allocating seats for States and Union Territories (UTs) in the Rajya Sabha can be altered through a simple majority, where over 50 per cent of the members who are present and voting must support it.

To make changes to Article 1 of the Constitution, a special majority is needed, where two-thirds of the members present need to vote, and the motion for amendment has to be supported by at least 50 per cent of the total strength of the Houses.

Both Houses must give their approval, and if it fails in either House, the motion to amend Article 1 of the Constitution fails.

Once both Houses agree to the amendment, it goes to the President for approval, after which the Constitution stands amended.

The Ordinance route

The NDA government has recently ruffled feathers with the ordinance route, using it to effectively overturn a Supreme Court decision on the Delhi services row. However, in the case of a name change, Article 123, which gives the President ordinance-making powers, does not allow amendments to be made to the Constitution via this route.

India and Bharat have both been legally recognised terms for a long time now, but with the opposition recently unifying and calling itself I.N.D.I.A, the possible name change has taken on a political connotation, and if pulled off, would change the identity of the world's largest democracy internationally.