<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his opening address to the G20 summit Saturday with his country nameplate labelled "Bharat" -- an ancient Sanskrit word -- in the biggest signal yet of&nbsp; a potential official change.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The gesture came days after invitations to the summit dinner were sent out in&nbsp; the name of the "President of Bharat", prompting rumours that official usage&nbsp; of the country's English name would be scrapped.</div><div><br></div><div>Modi himself typically refers to India as "Bharat", a word steeped in Hindu&nbsp; religious symbolism and dating back to scripture: in the Mahabharata, King&nbsp; Dushyant and Shakuntala's son was named "Bharat" and the kingdom he inherited&nbsp; came to be known as "Bharatvarsha".</div><div><br></div><div>Hindus are the overwhelming majority of India's 1.4 billion population but&nbsp; many religious minorities, in particular its more than 200 million Muslims,&nbsp; fear that Modi wants to remould India as a Hindu nation.</div><div><br></div><div>Zakia Soman, the co-founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, a rights&nbsp; group, said the potential name change reeked of yet more "polarising&nbsp; politics" by the government.</div><div><br></div><div>"It takes away from the real issues and real problems faced by the people of&nbsp; the country," she told AFP.</div><div><br></div><div>"We've always been India and 'Bharat' both. By insisting only on 'Bharat',&nbsp; they are trivialising our heritage and legacy."</div><div><br></div><div>&nbsp;'India, that is Bharat'&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>India and Bharat are both official names for the country under its&nbsp; constitution, in which Article 1 opens with the phrase: "India, that is&nbsp; Bharat."</div><div><br></div><div>But members of Modi's Hindu nationalist party have campaigned against using&nbsp; the better-known moniker, which has roots in Western antiquity and was&nbsp; imposed during the British conquest.</div><div><br></div><div>Modi's government has worked to remove any lingering symbols of British rule&nbsp; -- and Muslim heritage -- from the country's urban landscape, political&nbsp; institutions and history books since coming to power in 2014.</div><div><br></div><div>The northern city of Allahabad -- named by Mughal ruler Akbar centuries ago - - was changed to the Sanskrit word Prayagraj in 2018.</div><div><br></div><div>Earlier this week, foreign minister S. Jaishankar seemed to support the idea&nbsp; of shedding the name India.</div><div><br></div><div>"Bharat" he said, had "a meaning and understanding and a connotation that&nbsp; comes with it and that is reflected in our Constitution as well," the&nbsp; Hindustan Times quoted him as saying on Wednesday.</div><div><br></div><div>Rumours of the plan were enough to spark a mix of anger from opposition&nbsp; lawmakers and enthusiastic support from other quarters.</div><div><br></div><div>"I hope the government will not be so foolish as to completely dispense with&nbsp; 'India'," Shashi Tharoor of the opposition Congress party said on X, formerly&nbsp; known as Twitter.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Former Test cricketer Virender Sehwag urged India's cricket board to use&nbsp; "Bharat" on team uniforms, writing: "India is a name given by the British&nbsp; (and) it has been long overdue to get our original name 'Bharat' back." - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>