Hindustan vs Bharat

Hindustan or Bharat. Which is the real name and which should be adopted?

The republic of India has two principal short in both official and popular English usage, each of which is historically significant, India and Bharat. These two names are equally official short names recognized by the Constitution of India. A third name Hindustan is used as an alternative name for the region comprising of most of the common nations of the subcontinent when Indians speak among themselves.

The name India was derived from the name Indus, which originates from the old Persian word Hindu, which was historical local appellation for the Indus river. Now who gave the word called Indus and India?

The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi which translates “the people of Indus”, Indus being the river here. Nowhere there was a mention of the word “HINDU” in terms of religion.  There is no mention of Hinduism in any Veda or an epic like Mahabharata and Ramayana. Hinduism is not mentioned in the Ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece or Rome ever, until Christianity overtook the Roman Empire. The reason for all this is simple, there was no system of religions in the ancient era ever, Judaism was the first monotheistic religion which spread in a particular region, and Zoroastrianism even though established before Moses could officially coin the Judaism for Hebrews didn’t come into a stronger existence till a long time.   

A religion consists of a holy text and a founder in a broader sense. Founder of Buddhism is Siddhartha Gautama, founder for Jainism is Mahavira, Moses being the main founder of Judaism, Jesus the founder of Christianity along with Paul Apostle, who improvised his message, Muhammad for Islam, Zoroaster for Zoroastrianism, Laozi for Taoism, Confucius for Confucianism etc. Have you ever heard about the founder of Hinduism?

The word Hinduism was formally coined by the British, Dutch and French when they came to India. The word Hindu, as in a religion, was coined by the Persians and Arabs who came to India in the medieval historic times. So why was there no word being called for these religious groups in the ancient era when the great empires of Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia ruled? Because there was no organized religions in those days, given the facts Vedas and many more religious texts existed but none of them had commandments the way Jews had.  These were written by great scholars who claimed to have had the contact with the GODS. Who were these gods and why were there so many gods recognized at time? Ancient Aliens and many other Conspiracy theories suggest them as the Ancient Aliens. These were not the gods like what Islam, Christianity, and Sikhism etc. talk about. These were more like the Justice League or an Avengers of Ancient times.  Who knows if one of the god was a mortal from a planet Krypton.

Despite having so many gods no one can tell the name of a religion followed in Ancient Egypt. Only gods lived and appeared among men. The ancient world was not divided by the religions of today which moreover exist for political and communist reasons. Religion, Dharma was a word which meant duties. There was no Catholic church spreading the fear of god and enslaving people's mind in the name of a holy text. The ancient era was lot different from our imaginations, it was a free world with no casteism at all.

“Let’s think it logically. There was polytheism even in the ancient Greece, ancient Rome and ancient Egypt. Is it a coincidence that the humans of that time period, between the 7^th century BC to 8^th century BC in every empire and civilization, let it be the Greece civilization,  the Roman civilization, the Mesopotamians, Sumerians, Babylonians, ancient Egyptians and Ancient India claimed to have contact with gods who also lived among us and taught us.

Have you ever heard of a religion practiced in the ancient Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia or even ancient Egypt? No. They did not have a system of religion but only claimed to live among gods. So why has Hinduism been confined as a religion? Simple reason is because India has saved its traditions, cultures and beliefs even today, the Hindu Gods are still worshipped unlike the Greek or Egyptian gods. And when the outsiders came to this land they gave the term “Hinduism”;  Let us consider a hypothetical situation - If Roman gods were still worshipped today in Italy and surrounding regions and if someone was to invade in, than even the culture and gods of that land would have been likely to get a religious term. But right now there exists no Roman religion.”

– An excerpt from the book “ Originality of the Origins” ( which is a non-existent book being written by the writer of this blog).  

“And as for Hinduism being the oldest religion in the world, it’s false. As Sadhguru pointed it out, Hinduism was never a religion until the westerners came and termed it. A religion has a holy text book and a god with defined beliefs, which Hinduism is not. Hindustan was the term for a land stretching from the Sindhu Ghati to the Indian Ocean. Then there were many kingdoms into this continent of Hindustan. It can be compared to the present the day Europe.”

-         An excerpt from the book “Originality of Origin” ( which is a non-existent book being written by the writer of this blog).

And that is the reason why Ancient Greeks, ancient Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Akkadians never mentioned a religion called Hinduism in India despite having trade with India. So concluding that Hinduism is the oldest religion in the World is false.

Sindh was the name of the river, people living nearby were called Siddhis than over a period of time the word Hindustan was coined by the Persians, an alternative word for India for this particular region. So when Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and his party the Muslim League, insisted on calling the modern day Republic of India as ‘Hindustan’ to signify it a Hindu nation is nothing wrong, but speaking in the sense of a religion Hinduism, yes it is absolutely wrong.

Hindu does not mean people from a religion, associating it with the Muslims of Islam, Christians of Christianity or Buddhist of Buddhism is also meaningless. It should be connected and associated in the way Greeks of Greece, Arabs of Arabia, or Americans of America is done. As there is no religion called America or American there is no religion Hindu or Hinduism. Hindustan has always been a country of the seekers and not believers according to the Sadhguru who does not believe in personal god. Hindustan was a land which can be compared to the continent of Europe, even though it is connected to Asia but there was a cultural difference varying from west to east and some sort of cultural unity too among the European nations. Hindustan was much like a continent in itself with many different languages, kingdoms, food and culture but still unified some cultural identity thread for a long time.

People have always been free to practice any faith and worship any god in this land, it was always secular. So saying Hindu in itself is a secular belief is true as every god even Jesus is considered as an avatar and accepted by everyone. Allah can be associated with the Ishwar in it, but the point is that India will always remain a secular country.

After all this we can conclude that the word Hindu came from the Persians and India from the Greeks. So what is the real identity of this nation? The real identity is Bharat, because that is the name given by the countrymen. Bharat, a secular land, a land of spirituality and the seekers instead of a  land of Religions and Casts. It can also be coined a land of Gods, but better to keep religion out of it.

Religion should exist, and it is very important, but we must understand the deep connection to it. We shouldn’t overlook it by its appearance as said by Ram Puniyani. I discourage a religion for which is setup for the political bases and agendas, not the practice, though we should keep scraping out the outdated methods being followed in the name of divine, like Superstitions.

( Note- the word Secular which was mentioned above doesn’t hold any political meaning, but the very meaning itself. Spirituality not to be mixed and misunderstood as a religion).

According to me we can only reclaim our lost glory which we had in the ancient times is when we start identifying ourselves as Bharatiya and not Indians, though it is same, but why should we identify ourselves by the name given by the outsiders who know not even a bit of this sacred land.

 Were Hindus always Casteist

 Dr. Subramanian speech on Hindustan