Describing the word "India" as a "slave name" that was given to the country by British rulers, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut on Tuesday urged the nation to restore its original name "Bharat".
She took to the micro-blogging platform "KOO" and said that India can only rise if it is rooted in its ancient spirituality and wisdom.
"World will look up to us and we will emerge as a world leader if we go higher in urban growth but not be cheap copy of western world and remain deeply rooted in (the ancient scriptures of) Vedas, Geeta and Yoga, can we please change this slave name India back to Bharat", she wrote.
"[The] British gave us slave name India... which literally means east of Indus River… What kind of a name is this? So rudimentary…", she wrote.
Explaining the meaning and significance of "Bharat", Kangana said: "It is made of three Sanskrit words BH (bhav), Ra (rag), ta (tal). Yes, that's who we were before we were enslaved, the most culturally and aesthetically evolved civilisation. Every name has a vibration and [the] British knew this they not only gave new names to places but even to people and important monuments. We must regain our lost glory, let's start with the name Bharat".
Since getting banned from Twitter in May for "spreading hate" with her tweets about West Bengal state elections, Ranaut has taken to an Indian-made micro-blogging app called Koo and Instagram to voice her concerns about different issues.