How reinterpretation of history created a …

The sense of collective belonging came partly through the occurrence of united struggles. But there were also different forms in which cultural processes through which nationalism captured people’s imagination. History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all played a part in the making of nationalism.

In the twentieth century, with the growth of nationalism, the identity of India was visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata. This image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, and also in 1870, he wrote ‘Vande Mataram' as a hymn to the motherland.

Another means of creating the nationalism was through reinterpretation of history. When the British saw as Indians as backward and incapable of governing themselves, then Indians started looking back towards the history of India and started listing the achievements of India in response to the British. Indians started writing about the glorious development in ancient times when art and architecture, science and mathematics, religion and culture, law and philosophy, crafts and trade had flourished. These nationalist histories insisted the readers take pride in India's great achievements in the past and struggle to change the depressed conditions of life under British rule.