How Did a Variety of Cultural Processes Play an Important Role in Developing a Sense of Nationalism in India? Explain With Examples.

The cultural processes helped in creating a sense of collective belongingness in India:

• Nationalism is a belief that all are a part of the same nation which binds the people together and make different communities, regions and language groups united.
• This came through the united struggles like the different Non-Cooperation Movements, Civil Disobedience movements, the wars like 1857, history, fiction, folklores, folk songs, prints, icons and symbols etc. all these helped in unifying the Indians and inspired a feeling of nationalism in them.
• The image of India was first visualized as Bharat Mata by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and also a hymn ‘Vande Mataram’ was written by him in 1870s. This hymn was later included in his novel Anandmath and sung in the swadeshi movement in Bengal. The image of Bharat Mata was portrayed as calm, composed, divine and spiritual which acquired different forms in different years by different artists. This image of India developed the ideas of nationalism in India.
• The Indian folklores were revived and the folk tales were recorded and sung by bards which gave a true picture of the traditional Indian culture and tells how it was ruined by the Britishers.
• A tricolor swadeshi flag, using red, green and yellow was designed during the swadeshi movement in Bengal which had 8 lotuses for the representation of the 8 provinces and a crescent moon for symbolizing the Hindus and the Muslims.
• A tricolor Swaraj flag was designed by Gandhiji in the year 1921 using the colours red, green and white. A spinning wheel was in the Centre of the flag which represented the Gandhian ideal of selfhelp.