Question

How do shared beliefs and common bonds give rise to a sense of collective belonging among the masses? Explain.

Answer 1

Common bonds that give rise to common belonging are :

(i)  Experiences  of  common  struggles  (against  colonialism,  against  oppression,  against poverty caused by a colonial rule).

(ii)  Through symbols: like certain figures and wages becoming the identity of a nation.

Examples: Statue of Liberty USA, the Storming of Bastille — French Revolution. India’s symbol was ‘Bharat Mata’.

(iii) Through folklore, songs, legends and stories. Nationalists collected songs, for example; Rabindranath Tagore and Natesa Sastri of Madras. Sastri wrote a four-volume book on folk stories of Southern India.

(iv) Through reinterpretation of history. The British had portrayed Indians as backward, primitive and incapable of governing themselves. By rediscovering the past, India’s greatness — its cultural progress in mathematics, literature, religion and culture, imbibed a sense of pride among the Indians.

(v)  Last but not the least, Gandhiji used this sense of collective belonging by channelizing it in the National Movement. He tried to forge a sense of unity among the different social groups in India.

Answer 2

• Nationalism spreads when people begin to believe that they all are part of same nation.
• To develop feeling of nationalism in people, many things were developed.
• History, folklore and songs, popular prints, all played part in making nationalism.
• Symbol of Bharat Mata was created by Abanindranath Tahoe.
• In madras, Natesa sastri published a massive four volume collection of Tamil folk tales, the folklore of southern India.