The idea, we Indians were told each time, was to allow the nation to make a clean break once and for all with its colonial past. The question on the minds of many people who follow events in India, is why any name change would be needed. It’s an opportunity to double down on India’s Hindu identity, even in the name by which it is called. The debate is a live one, however: Some disagree, saying that no amendment to the constitution would be needed to change India’s name. Do the country’s Indian Institutes of Technology become BITs?

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Persons: Akanksha Singh, Singh, Droupadi Murmu, Bharat, Narendra Modi’s, Bharat ”, Modi, It’s, Akbar, Deen Dayal, Modi’s, Rahul Gandhi, Reserve Bank of India –, I’ve, ” Encouragingly Organizations: BBC, Independent, South China Morning Post, CNN, Mumbai CNN, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Bharat, Reserve Bank of India, Institutes of Technology, India, United Nations Locations: Mumbai, South China, India, Calcutta, Kolkata, Bombay, Madras, Chennai, Allahabad, Manipur