Bharat should not be translated, else it will lose its identity and respect, says RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

Bhagwat said that ‘Bharat’ should not be translated as otherwise it would lose its identity and along with it the respect it enjoys in the world. While India is ‘Bharat’, Bhagwat said, “It should be kept as such when we talk, write or speak about it, whether in public or personal spaces.” He said that the identity of Bharat is respected “because it is Bharat”.

“Bharat is a proper noun. It should not be translated. ‘India is Bharat’. That is true. But Bharat is Bharat. That is why, while talking, writing and speaking, be it personal or public, we should keep Bharat as Bharat,” he said.

Speaking at the ‘Gyan Sabha’, a national education conference organised by the RSS-linked Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas in Kochi, Bhagwat said that ‘Bharatiya’ education teaches sacrifice and living for others. “The purpose of our education and our outlook about it is unique and any education according to that would benefit not only me, but also my family and the entire world,” he said. As a result, ‘Viksit or Vishwa Guru Bharat’ will never be the cause of a war nor will it ever oppress or exploit anyone, he said.

“… many kings came and went… Why do we remember Lord Ram?… dharma of living for everyone, connecting your development with that of everyone else… teaching this dharma is Bharatiya Shiksha. Education which teaches only selfishness is not Bharatiya Shiksha,” he also said.

“We all have to become Bharat in an attempt to bring Bharatiyata to education. It is then that Indianness will truly come to education,” he said.

Bhagwat said, “Those who do not know spirituality give incomplete knowledge of it. Struggle for existence, survival of the fittest…we have to have a contract, then only we can go together…This is not so here. In our scheme of things, irrespective of whether there is a contract or not, the world is your responsibility because the entire world has made you. This point of view should be imparted through education.” Bharat, Bhagwat said, was an embodiment of precisely this approach of interconnectedness and unity.