Is the world’s most populous country ‘India’ or ‘Bharat’?

Q: In hosting an international economic summit in New Delhi last week, government sent out invitations from the “President of Bharat” and stirred up a controversy over whether the country should be called India or Bharat. Where is this nation that is now considered the world’s most populous?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Both names India and Bharat appear in the nation’s constitution. The ruling Hindu nationalist party says India is a foreign name and a remnant of colonial rule. The words India, Hindu and Hindi all have a common root in Sindhu, an ancient Sanskrit name for a ...

A. Mountain

B. Plain

C. River

D. Valley

Q: The name Bharat can be traced to the Bharatas, a tribe of Indo-Aryan people who migrated into what is now India/Bharat about 1500 BCE. They crossed the Hindu Kush, which is what type of geographic entity?

A. Desert

B. Mountains

C. Sea

D. River delta

Q: Critics say the government uses the name Bharat to evoke the sense of an exclusively Hindu past in a country that’s home to more Muslims than any nation in the Middle East. Which nation has more Muslims than any other?

A. Bangladesh

B. India/Bharat.

C. Indonesia

D. Pakistan

Q: India/Bharat surpassed China this year to become the world’s most populous nation, according to estimates by the United Nations. Which nation is geographically larger?

A. China

B. India/Bharat


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