This Post Is Recently Updated on Oct 30, 2023 @ 0:05 am by TBB Desk
Searching for ‘Bharat’ in Google Maps now displays “Country in South Asia” along with a digital representation of the Indian flag, mirroring the result for a search with ‘India’. This holds true whether Google Maps is accessed in Hindi or English. Both ‘India’ and ‘Bharat’ are acknowledged as a “Country in South Asia”, offering users the flexibility to use either term to view the official map of India.
In the Hindi interface of Google Maps, ‘भारत’ is displayed, while in the English interface, ‘India’ is used. However, the textual description remains consistent across both languages. This adaptation by Google comes amidst a gradual shift by the central government towards using ‘Bharat’ instead of ‘India’ in official correspondence, reflecting a proactive approach by Google.
The inclusive terminology is not confined to Google Maps but extends across various Google services like Search, Translator, and News, where users can interchangeably use ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’ to obtain similar results. Although there hasn’t been an official statement from Google regarding this change, a cursory search showcases the apparent modifications made behind the scenes.
In a related development, a recent proposal from the railway ministry to the Union Cabinet notably replaced ‘India’ with ‘Bharat’ throughout its content, marking a significant shift in official nomenclature.
Notably, for users in India, a close observation reveals a preference by Google for using ‘भारत’ over ‘इंडिया’ in the Hindi language interface. Moreover, English to Hindi translations consistently render ‘India’ as ‘भारत’, with Google Translate also providing alternative Hindi terms for ‘India’ such as ‘हिंदुस्तान’ and ‘भारतवर्ष’.
