THE SENSE OF COLLECTIVE BELONGINGS

The Sense of Collective Belonging

nationalism in india

How did people belonging to differnt communtites, regions or language groups develop a sense of collection belonging?

1. Experience of united struggle.
2. A growing anger against the colonial government was thus bringing togther various groups and classes of indians together.

Creating a Feeling of Nationalism & the Sense of Collective Belonging

1. Figures or images

2. Hymn to motherland

3. Indian folklore

4. Icond & Symbols

5. Reinterpretation of history

figures and images

• Helped create an image with which people could identify the nation.
• Identity of India came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata.
• This image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
• Moved by the Swadeshi movement, Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata
• Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one's nationalism.

Bharat Mata

Hymn to the motherland:

• In the 1870s Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote ‘VANDE MATARAM’ as a hymn to the motherland.Later it was included in his novel Anandamath and was widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal.
• Later it was included in his novel Anandamath and was widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

Indian folklore~ A sense of pride in one’s glorious past:

• In the late nineteenth century India, nationalists began recording folk tales sung by bards, and they toured villages to gather folk songs and legends.
• To revive the folklore, Rabindranath Tagore himself collected ballads, nursery rhymes and myths, and led the movement for the folk revival.
• It was essential to preserve this folk tradition in order to discover one's national identity and restore a sense of pride in one's past.

Icons and symbols:

• Some icons and symbols were used for unifying the people and inspiring within them the feeling of nationalism as the national movement developed in the country.

• 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.

• The national flag also became a powerful symbol of nationalism. During the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal a tricolor flag(red, green and yellow) was designed with 8 lotuses representing 8 provinces of British India and crescent moon representing the Hindus and Muslims.

• Carrying the flag, holding it aloft, during marches became a symbol of defiance.

• This glorious time, in their view, was followed by a history of decline when India was colonized.
• These nationalist writers urged the readers to take pride in India’s great achievements in the past and struggle to change the miserable conditions of life under British rule.

Reinterpretation of History:

• The British saw Indians as backward and primitive, incapable of governing themselves... In response, Indians began looking into the past to discover India’s great achievements
• 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 flourished.

WARRIORS OF INDEPENDNCE

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by Rishona & Roshini