YouTubers Gaurav Taneja And Dhruv Rathee Engage In War Of Words Over 'Bharat' Vs 'India

Spiritual guru Jagadish Vasudev recently shared his views on the India vs Bharat debate. He reshared a post from October 2023, that announced the NCERT Committee’s initial recommendation of replacing India with Bharat in the books. He urged people to use Bharat in their daily parlance instead of India, which he associated with British rule. He also wrote that the word “India” has “no meaning”. The founder of the Isha Foundation concluded, “Younger generations must know that Bharat existed long before India was born”. This post got over 1.5 million views since it was shared on June 18.

In response to Jagadish Vasudev’s comment, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee commented, “Can you stop your anti-India agenda, Mr. Jagadish Vasudev? Everyone knows that both India and Bharat are written in our constitution but just for politics, you are playing this dirty game of divide and rule.”

YouTuber Gaurav Taneja shared a screenshot of Dhruv Rathee’s comment and wrote, “Why can’t different opinions exist on the internet? Why do some foreigners want to control all content on the internet.” Dhruv Rathee, who is Indian, is often deemed a “foreigner” by his detractors. Previously, Dhruv Rathee, who is from Rohtak in Haryana, has clarified that he is Indian while his wife is German.

In response, Dhruv Rathee chided Gaurav Taneja for his falling YouTube engagement and wrote, “No controversy can save your dying career, Gaurav, not even exploiting your kids for drama. You gotta make valuable content for that. Let me suggest my YouTube Blueprint course if you need help. Good luck :)”

Amid this back and forth on X about the India vs Bharat debate, NCERT made its stance clear. On Monday, June 17, NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani told PTI that both India and Bharat will be used interchangeably in NCERT books, as is the case with the constitution. He said, “Wherever it suits we will use India, wherever it suits we will use Bharat. We have no aversion to either India or Bharat.” He added, “You can see both being used in our textbooks already and that will continue in new textbooks. This is a useless debate.”