Bharat, India and Hindustan

The River Sindhu was called Hindu by Persians because they pronounce S as H. Persians named the people living on the sides of the river as Hindus. Slowly this Persian word 'Hindu' migrated to Arabia by the 13th century and thereafter to Europe through Greece. Europeans dropped both S and H and called the river 'Indu' or later on 'Indus'. Then they added their own style of suffix –ian to Indu and formed Indian. Hindustan or India emerged as the alternative names of Bharat. Thus Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism or Indian and India became the popular word across the world. ‘Sindhu Ghati ki Sabhyata’ was translated as ‘The Indus Valley Civilisation’ in the early 1900s, when it was discovered by a British archaeologist named John Marshall. Since the term ‘India’ had become popular, Christopher Columbus set about on a journey to discover this famed land in 1492, but his ship docked in North America. He unknowingly called the island Indies and the people who lived there Red Indian. Later on, Europeans depersonalized the Indians and treated them unkindly, so did the British here. This way India or Hindustan is not the real name of our country.

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत ।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम्

O Bharat, whenever faith and values degenerate
And sin & evil rise, as a man I become incarnate.

Here Krishna addresses Arjun as Bharat: that is to say, a descendant from the Bharat race, as in Rigveda Bharat is mentioned as one of the main kingdoms of the Aryavarta. Bharat also originates from the epic Mahabharat, according to which Bharatvarsha was named after the legendary emperor Bharat, the son of King Dushyanta of Hastinapur and Queen Sakuntala. His Empire stretched from the sea on the south to the southern extremities of the Himalayas.

उत्तरं यत्समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् ।
वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।।

Now that we belong to the Bharat race, so Bharatvarsh is the real name of our country.