Zhang Jiadong. Indian political discourse has entered the construction cycle of the Bharata narrative, and this feature has become more pronounced as the ** approaches. India** prefers to present itself as Bharata in international forums and to use India less frequently. India's national strength has risen and its self-confidence has strengthened, and it is a normal mentality to want to highlight the traditional political culture; However, India is quite unique. It is a big country, a potential pole of the future world, and a country with a very high level of domestic diversification. The potential impact and risks of the Indian Bharata narrative are much higher.
This rise of the Bharata complex in India has its own objective factors. Among the former colonial countries, India is one of the countries with relatively smooth democratic political practices. Since 1947, when India declared independence from nearly 200 years of colonial rule, there have been no military coups or constitutional crises. Now, India's economic development is also in the fast lane, with an average annual growth rate of around 7%. Of course, India's economic growth rate is still slower than that of East Asian economies such as China at a similar stage of development, but it is rare among major economies. All these have given India more self-confidence, including confidence in its own historical and cultural traditions. However, the strengthening of India's Bharata complex is more the result of a transformation of its national mindset. With the rise of India's sense of great power and Hindu nationalism, India's "de-Britishization" has accelerated, and the impulse to "exclude Muslims" has also risen.
The rising sense of great power is an important feature of India today. Great power is not only a manifestation of strength, but also a manifestation of strategic autonomy and identity independence. The pursuit of political and cultural independence is often a necessary link in a country's quest for great power status. By distinguishing itself from Western political and cultural narratives at its source, India seeks to break away from its identity as a "Western schoolboy" and thus portray India as a "world mentor". This is a manifestation of the political and cultural thinking of the multipolarization process promoted by India, which can be called the multipolarization and multi-source of democratic politics.
"De-Britishization" has been a long-standing undertaking of India since independence. After independence, India has been "de-Britishized", and changing or correcting its name is an important part of it. In January 1950, the "United Province" was officially renamed "Uttar Pradesh", which was full of "Indian style". On September 8, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally presided over the ceremony to rename the "King's Road", which was built in 1911 during the reign of King George V of the United Kingdom, which connects the ** House and the Gateway of India, as the "Avenue of Responsibility". The renaming of "india" to "Bharata" has become a long-standing political cause for some people in India. Some Indian political elites believe that "india" is a symbol of colonial slavery, the name given to India by the British colonialists, and must be changed. On June 3, 2020, India's Supreme Court rejected an application to change "india" to "bharata" or "hindustan."
The impulse to exclude Muslims is another important component of the Bharatana's narrative. Before British colonization, India was dominated by Muslim regimes. They changed many Indian place names to "Islamic" and became an important target for Hindu nationalists. In November 2018, Yogi Adianas, the chief minister of India's Uttar Pradesh, said that the city of Allahabad should be renamed Pragraji. It has also been suggested that Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat, should also be changed to a Hindu-style "Kanawati". Muslims are an important part of India's population, and it is not easy for India to change its name as it wishes. Britain is no longer the suzerainty of India, and now even the GDP has been surpassed by India, and some of the names left by the British colonial period have been changed.
It is not accidental or uncommon for India to construct a Bharata narrative. Japan and South Korea have the "Righteous Name Movement". Duterte, the former Philippines, also wanted to change the name of the country from "Philippines" to "Republic of Mahalika", believing that the current name of the country has colonial overtones. Turkey has changed its English name from Turkey to Türkiye because it "better reflects the culture, civilization and values of the Turkish nation" and has been officially approved by the United Nations. However, in the case of India specifically, its construction of the Bharatana's narrative may pose greater risks both at home and abroad.
Domestically, the Bharatanatic narrative can lead to and exacerbate the collision between the narrative of the monistic state and the pluralistic political reality. The BJP pushes the Bharata narrative and tries to build a so-called "united India" that monopolizes the interpretation of the Bharata concept and derives political benefits from it, but this is not accepted by the opposition parties. Twenty-six Indian political parties have formed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (India) to counter the Bharata concept. Banerjee, the leader of the grassroots Congress Party in West Bengal, who has long been in power in West Bengal, said, "We all call ourselves Bharata, but on the international stage, our country is called India, so why change suddenly?" India and Bharata are actually the names of India, representing India's international and national character respectively, which originally coexisted and went hand in hand. Having to replace one with the other could mean a change in India's openness and openness. ”
Internationally, there is also tension and even contradiction between Indian roots or Indian characteristics and the Western-dominated concept of democracy. India emphasizes that Indian democracy has different origins from Western democracy, and wants to match its identity as a great power and to transcend Western perceptions of ethnic and sectarian conflicts in order to counter Western attacks on India's domestic religious and ethnic issues. India's efforts are actually undermining the universality and integrity of the concept of democratic politics, and will also have an impact on the value alliance system that the West is trying to build. These will weaken the consensus of values between India and Western countries to a certain extent. (The author is a professor and director of the Center for South Asian Studies at Fudan University).