05-14-2005, 06:19 AM
These days when sensible state governments of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have renamed their state capital, one wonders when would the national government show enough guts and change the name of India to Bharata....which had been mentioned even in Bhagavada Gita. Since the ages from vedic period and historical period..our country has always been referred to as Bharata.
"India" is a misnomer and a racist name given by Britishers and also used by other European colonizers during 17-18th centuries which was a colonial age when Europeans where ever they went, used the terms Indians (by Brits in Americas, West Indies and Bharata/India), Indios (by Spanish/Portugese Colonizers in South America).
'Indian/Indios' had been used to denote the inferiority of the natives or so called aboriginals to justify their slavery and colonization of the occupied territories as well as to connote racist supremacy over the natives.
Even today in both North and South America the name Indians or Indios denote uncivilized or backward people. Often Indians/Indios is used degradingly to show racist supremacy.
We have been free for over 50 years and we still carry on with the racist and degrading nametags given to us by colonizers to justify their occupation.
How long are we going to endure the symbols/nametags of colonial period which only indicates our slave "brown saheb" mentality?
We have adopted English which is a defacto mother tongue of India. We are absolute nuts over a slothful and corrupt colonial sport - cricket (whose cost to the nation in terms of loss of productivity will run in to billions of $$$ since independence). So much so that we don't even win a single bronze medal in any other sport in the Olympics.
It seems that long periods of colonization of our country have permanently effected the psyche of our country men.
"India" is a misnomer and a racist name given by Britishers and also used by other European colonizers during 17-18th centuries which was a colonial age when Europeans where ever they went, used the terms Indians (by Brits in Americas, West Indies and Bharata/India), Indios (by Spanish/Portugese Colonizers in South America).
'Indian/Indios' had been used to denote the inferiority of the natives or so called aboriginals to justify their slavery and colonization of the occupied territories as well as to connote racist supremacy over the natives.
Even today in both North and South America the name Indians or Indios denote uncivilized or backward people. Often Indians/Indios is used degradingly to show racist supremacy.
We have been free for over 50 years and we still carry on with the racist and degrading nametags given to us by colonizers to justify their occupation.
How long are we going to endure the symbols/nametags of colonial period which only indicates our slave "brown saheb" mentality?
We have adopted English which is a defacto mother tongue of India. We are absolute nuts over a slothful and corrupt colonial sport - cricket (whose cost to the nation in terms of loss of productivity will run in to billions of $$$ since independence). So much so that we don't even win a single bronze medal in any other sport in the Olympics.
It seems that long periods of colonization of our country have permanently effected the psyche of our country men.