'When it comes to country names, you have what other countries call you, and the name you call the country in your own language'
At the G20 Summit in Delhi, Prime Minister Modi of India sat behind a name plate inscribed with the word Bharat. That's the Hindi name for India. Did this mean that the country of over 1.4 billion people was about to change its name? Donnacha Ó Beacháin is Professor of Politics at the School of Law and Government at DCU and he joined the Today With Claire Byrne show on RTÉ Radio 1 to look at the history of nation naming and changing, (This piece includes excerpts from the conversation which have been edited for length and clarity - you can hear the discussion in full above).
Ó Beacháin says Modi's move left many scratching their heads. "It's in the constitution already, the name Bharat. The reference is to 'India, that is Bharat' and of course, we have something similar in our own constitution, where we talk about Eire, or in the English language, Ireland. Bharat is essentially the name for India in the Hindi language, and it's seen as a populist move on behalf of Modi, signalling to his electorate that he is genuflecting before a Hindu nationalist vision.
"There are many ways you can call the country that we know as India and picking this particular word is sending a signal. Of course, his BJP party have made much of their resentment of colonial rule and the name India was popularised under British rule to describe the territory now known as India. Even though, of course, it wasn't the English who came up with the name. It goes back to the Greeks, in reference to the river Indus."
From France 24, why India could change its name to Bharat
"Another name change which occurred in that part of the world saw East Pakistan becoming Bangladesh. Pakistan and India parted ways as British rule crumbled in the late 1940s. Within Pakistan itself, there were differences because of culture and language, and indeed distance. There was a war of independence on the part of East Pakistan. And of course, with a new country, like a new birth of an individual, you have to devise some kind of a name. They came up with "Bangladesh", which simply means, "The land of Bengal."
Ó Beacháin explains that a lot of name changes relate back to decolonisation and counties asking people in the outside world to call them what they call themselves. "When it comes to country names, you have exonyms and endonyms. Exonyms are what other countries call you, and endonyms are the name that you call the country in your own language.
"Thailand was a good example. That name change was requested by the king of Siam in 1939. You had Persia asking to be called Iran from the 1930s. There are a litany of those kinds of cases, and many are intimately linked to the decolonisation process. They can be a little bit odd sometimes for people who have got used to calling a country a particular name. A more recent example is Turkey, which has asked the world since last year to call it Türkiye. That is what it's called in the Turkish language.
From BBC, why is Turkey rebranding as Türkiye
"It would be like if the Germans asked us to no longer call their country Germany, but to call it Deutschland. But it's difficult, because the Turkish alphabet is different from the one that we use. We don't have the particular letter, "U," with the two dots. So it's unlikely that in the near future people will stop booking holidays to Turkey and start calling it Turkiye."
So, what makes for a successful name change? "There's no hard and fast rule", says Ó Beacháin. "One of the factors is how easy the new name is, and whether it differs radically from what its replacing. I've lived in countries in different parts of the world which have undergone name changes. The simplest rule is that if the name is more complicated than the original, it's unlikely to take off. If it's one that is difficult to pronounce or seems foreign to the speaker, it's also difficult to catch on. Usually, naming a place is all about ownership and possession. So if the name reflects the sentiments of the people asked to use it, then it also has a chance of taking root."
Then, there's the post-Soviet sphere where names are very contentious. "It's not only a big part of decolonisation, says Ó Beacháin, "it's also derussification and decommunisation all taking place at the same time. The most recent example, and the one that perhaps your listeners will be most familiar with, is how very rapidly broadcasters such as RTE and BBC as well as individuals, changed their spelling and pronunciation of major cities in Ukraine, from Russian transliterations such as Kiev and Lvov and Harkov, to the Ukrainian transliteration, Kyiv, Lviv, Harkiv.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Today With Claire Byrne, Donnacha Ó'Beacháin from DCU on the Kyiv vs Kiev debate
"That was an expression of solidarity, of course, with Ukraine. Ukrainians had been asking for this for a long time, but it happened very suddenly and that's another important point to demonstrate. Often these name changes are essentially dictated by politics. There were several cases in Ukraine over the years, even before the recent war with Russia. Dnipro of course was Dnipropetrovsk, named after a prominent communist."
One of my favorite ones is Donetsk, which was only named Donetsk in 1961. Before that, it was Stalino, named after Joseph Stalin. Before that, it was named Yuzovka, which was after a Welsh man called John Hughes, who was a miner who established the city of Donetsk in the 19th century."
Our own country, points out Ó Beacháin, is a textbook example of what's in a name. "This is what happens when you have a decolonisation process and a new state is born. In fact, what we called the state was a subject of acrimony with the British government, which they were willing to take to war. The Irish Republic was declared and was fighting for independence. The British said that if you continue to call it that and don't compromise on that issue, we will resume hostilities. That's why you came up with this term, the Irish Free State, which of course, then became Ireland in 1937."
This is what happens when you have a decolonisation process and a new state is born
"It's often mistakenly assumed that the name of the country sometimes is the Republic of Ireland, but that's not the legal name of the state. We've been known in the past to return things like extradition warrants, which have the Republic of Ireland on them rather than Ireland.
"It's often mistakenly assumed that the name of the country is the Republic of Ireland, but that's not the legal name of the state. We've been known in the past to return documents like extradition warrants, which have the Republic of Ireland on them rather than Ireland."
"You think of also the place names in Ireland that changed after independence. Things like Queenstown becoming Cobh and Kingstown becoming Dun Laoghaire. Laois and Offaly were Kings County and Queens County. Those kinds of things are replicated throughout the world, as they also went through a similar process to distance themselves from the old regime."
