In India, rumors of plans to abandon the official name of the country are actively discussed. Talk about this began after world leaders received an invitation to a state dinner in honor of the G20 summit, which is organized by “The President of Bharat”. The Guardian writes about it.
 
The G20 summit will be held in India as early as this weekend, September 9–10. It is also known that the Indian government has called a special session of parliament for later this month but has not yet announced its legislative program. TV station News18 said that, according to unnamed sources in the government, BJP lawmakers will introduce a special resolution to favor the name Bharat.

“Bharat” is a word derived from ancient Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit and is one of the country's two official names under its constitution. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself usually refers to the country as such.

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Rumors of this plan have been met with both skepticism and enthusiastic support. Members of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are in favor of switching to the name “Bharat,” seeing the move as removing traces of British influence and emphasizing Indian culture.

On the other hand, opposition forces such as Congress party spokesperson Shashi Tharoor have expressed apprehensions about dropping the name 'India' altogether. They stress the importance of retaining both names, as 'India' is widely recognized in the world.

The Narendra Modi government has long been actively pushing the process of removing traces of the British colonial era in India. This has manifested in not only the realm of names but also in reconstructing symbolic sites, changing the penal code, and removing Islamic place names introduced during the Mughal Empire. But renaming the country itself may be the most serious step.