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its true that India doesn't make any sense as a name for India. it is, as you said, a name of conquest, and there is the added problem that the Indus River (from whence the name derives) isn't in India at all. its in Pakistan, India's nemesis.

it was ultimately India's decision to go with India as a name. at the time of the partition, Pakistan assumed that India would have no desire to keep the name its conquerers called it, and indeed India is still officially referred to in Hindia as Bharat (i assume Hindustan is offensive to non-Hindus and Aryavarta is offensive to non-Aryans). but India chose to be referred to as India by the outside world mostly because of the subcontinental dominance that the name implies. in the average Westerner's mind, Pakistand, Bangladesh, and even Nepal and Bhutan are all part of the "Indian subcontinent." Pakistan was understandably upset. interestingly, Pakistan's name doesn't make too much sense either. it means "land of the pure" but the name is actually and acronym for Punjab, Afghanistan (northwest provinces), Kashmir, balochiSTAN, with the I added for pronunciation. it makes more sense now that you don't have to explain the absence of a B for Bengal, but Pakistan still doesn't include all of Kashmir, Balochistan, Punjab, or Afghanistan.

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14y ago

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