How did the sense of collective belonging came to Indians during the national movement? Explain with example
Answers
i. The sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience of united struggles. But there were also a variety of cultural processes through which nationalism captured peoples imagination. History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all played a part in the making of nationalism.
ii. The identity of the nation is most often symbolized in a figure or image like the Bharat Mata. This helps create an image with which people can identify the nation.
iii. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote Vande Mataram in 1870s as a hymn to the motherland. Later it was widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal. Moved by the Swadeshi movement, Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata In this painting Bharat Mata is portrayed as an ascetic figure; she is calm, composed, divine and spiritual.
iv. Ideas of nationalism also developed through a movement to revive Indian folklore. In late nineteenth-century India, nationalists began recording folk tales sung by bards and they toured villages to gather folk songs and legends. These tales, they believed, gave a true picture of traditional culture that had been corrupted and damaged by outside forces. It was essential to preserve this folk tradition in order to discover ones national identity and restore a sense of pride in ones past.
v. As the national movement developed, nationalist leaders became more and more aware of such icons and symbols in unifying people and inspiring in them a feeling of nationalism. During the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolor flag (red, green and yellow) was designed. It had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British India, and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims.
vi. By 1921, Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag. It was again a tricolor (red, green and white) and had a spinning wheel in the centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help. Carrying the flag, holding it aloft, during marches became a symbol of defiance.
Another means of creating a feeling of nationalism was through reinterpretation of history. By the end of the nineteenth century many Indians began feeling that to instill a sense of pride in the nation; Indian history had to be reinterpreted. They wrote about the glorious developments in ancient times when art and architecture, science and mathematics, religion and culture, law and philosophy, crafts and trade had flourished. These nationalist histories urged the readers to take pride in Indias great achievements in the past and struggle to change the miserable conditions of life under British rule.