Is it India, Bharat or Hindustan? Even the Home Ministry doesn't seem to know, revealsu00a0RTI query

IS our country officially called India, Bharat or Hindustan? If you're a little unsure, take heart, for the Home Ministry doesn't know either.

RTI activist Manoranjan Roy realised this when he filed a query with the Union Home Ministry seeking to clear his doubts on the subject and was told that they had 'no information on the subject'.



"In English, the country is called India; it is referred to as Bharat in Hindi and in Urdu as Hindustan.
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If our country is called by so many different names, what is its original one? I filed the RTI query to find out exactly that," said Roy.

The reply (copy with MiD DAY), however, shocked Roy and he now plans to move court. "If a commoner changes his name, he has to go through a legal process.

However, here the government doesn't even know the official name of the country. I plan to file a PIL to find out if our country has an official name and a national language," he said.

Language too
In the same query, Roy also sought to know the national language of the country, to which the information officer replied that there was no mention of national languages in the Constitution.


RTI activist Manoranjan Roy

Roy was told that, according to Article 343 of the Indian Constitution, Hindi is the official language of the country.

"According to most experts, 14 languages have been categorised as official languages in the Constitution. Later, one more language was added to the list, taking the number to 15.
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The officials, however, seem to be unaware of this," said Roy.u00a0u00a0