Posted by: Kiddo February 24, 2014
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This is a good question.
The name Bharat came from Bharat Varsa mentioned in Vishnu Puran. Bharat Varsa would include the countries you have mentioned above, south of Himalaya and North of Indian Ocean (Vishnu Purana (2.3.1) )
However the name Bharat has been used in India's constitution as a synonym to India. Hence, in present context, Bharat name was derived from Bharat Varsa and is smaller than Bharat Varsa.
That means it is perfectly okay for Indians to call it Bharat and mean the present India. What I think is not historically correct is to claim that many things that India says came from India. It actually came from Bharat Varsa. Things like binary number system (hence the number 0), civilization (Indus Valley civilization), astrology etc, they all came from Bharat varsa, not India. That's like crediting Turkey for things Ottoman Empire did.
The name Bharat came from Bharat Varsa mentioned in Vishnu Puran. Bharat Varsa would include the countries you have mentioned above, south of Himalaya and North of Indian Ocean (Vishnu Purana (2.3.1) )
However the name Bharat has been used in India's constitution as a synonym to India. Hence, in present context, Bharat name was derived from Bharat Varsa and is smaller than Bharat Varsa.
That means it is perfectly okay for Indians to call it Bharat and mean the present India. What I think is not historically correct is to claim that many things that India says came from India. It actually came from Bharat Varsa. Things like binary number system (hence the number 0), civilization (Indus Valley civilization), astrology etc, they all came from Bharat varsa, not India. That's like crediting Turkey for things Ottoman Empire did.