Nationalism in India

Question 1

Why growth of nationalism in the colonies is linked to an anti-colonial movement

Answer 1

1. The sense of being oppressed under colonialism provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together.
2. People began discovering their unity in the process of their struggle with colonialism.
3. The movements of freedom struggle were joined by the masses to free themselves from foreign exploitation. Thus, the growth of nationalism in the colonies is linked to anti-colonial movements.

Question 2

How did first world war generate nationalism in India?

Answer 2

1. The war created a new economic and political situation. It led to a huge increase in the defense expenditure, which was financed by war loans and increasing taxes: customs duties
   were raised and income tax introduced.
2. Through the war years prices increased doubling between 2013 and 1918- leading to extreme hardship for the common people.
3. Villagers were called upon to supply soldiers, and the forced recruitment in rural areas caused widespread anger.
4. In 1918-19 and 1920-21, crops failed in many parts of India which resulted in acute shortages of food.
5. Also, there was an influenza epidemic. 12 to 13 million people perished as a result of famines and epidemic. The hardships of people did not end after the war. Thus, they united under leaders to find a new way of struggle.

Question 3

When did Mahatma Gandhi return to India?

Answer 3

January 1915

Question 4

Examine the interpretation of satyagraha as advocated by Gandhiji.

Answer 4

1. The idea of satyagraha emphasized the power of
   truth and the need to search for truth.
2. It suggested that if the cause was true, if the struggle was against injustice, then physical force was
   not necessary to fight the oppressor.
3. Without seeking vengeance or being aggressive, a satyagrahi could win the battle through nonviolence. This could be done by appealing to the conscience of the oppressor.
4. People – including the oppressors – had to be persuaded to see the truth, instead of being forced to accept truth through the use of violence.
5. By this struggle, truth was bound to ultimately
   triumph. Mahatma Gandhi believed that this dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians.

Question 5

What did Mahatma Gandhi do after arriving in India?

Answer 5

After arriving in India, Mahatma Gandhi successfully organized satyagraha movements in various places:
1. In 1916 he travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle against the oppressive plantation system.
2. Then in 1917, he organised a satyagraha
to support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat. Affected by crop failure and a plague epidemic, the peasants of Kheda could not pay the revenue, and were demanding that revenue collection be
relaxed.
3. In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to organise a satyagraha movement amongst cotton mill workers.

Question 6

Why Indians were outraged by the Rowlatt Act?

Answer 6

1. The Rowlatt Act was hurriedly passed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite the united opposition of the Indian members.
2. It gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.
3. This was an unjust and oppressive law for Indians. Thus, Indians were outraged by the Rowlatt Act.

Question 7

How was the Rowlatt Act linked to the Jallianwalla Bagh tragedy?

Answer 7

1. Rowlatt Act (1919). This Act had been hurriedly passed through the Imperial Legislative Council despite the united opposition of the Indian members. It
   gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities, and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.
2. Mahatma Gandhi wanted non-violent civil disobedience against such unjust laws, which would start with a hartal on 6 April. Rallies were organised in various cities, workers went on strike in railway workshops, and shops closed down.
3. Alarmed by the popular upsurge, and scared that lines of communication such as the railways
   and telegraph would be disrupted, the British administration decided to clamp down on nationalists. Local leaders were picked up from Amritsar, and Mahatma Gandhi was barred from entering Delhi.
4. On 10 April, the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession, provoking widespread attacks on banks, post offices and railway stations. Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.
5. On 13 April the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh incident took place. On that day a large crowd gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwalla Bagh. Some came to protest against the government’s new repressive
   measures. Others had come to attend the annual Baisakhi fair. Being from outside the city, many villagers were unaware of the martial law that had been imposed. Dyer entered the area, blocked the exit
   points, and opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds

Question 8

Write a newspaper report on: The Jallianwala Bagh massacre

Answer 8

1. On 13th April 1919, the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh incident took place in the enclosed ground of Jallianwala Bagh. A large crowd gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh.
2. Some people were present to protest against the British government’s repressive measures while others were there to attend the annual Baishakhi Fair.
3. Being from outside the city, many villagers were unaware of the martial law that had been imposed.
4. Suddenly, a British military officer, General Dyer came, blocked the exit points from the Bagh and opened fire upon the innocent citizens.
5. Hundreds of innocent people including women and children were killed and wounded due to firing by the British soldiers.

Question 9

What was the reaction to the Jalliawalabagh incident? or Why did mahatma Gandhi call off the satyagraha movement?

Answer 9

1. As the news of Jallianwalla Bagh spread, crowds took to the streets in many north Indian towns. There were strikes, clashes with the police and attacks on government buildings.
2. The government responded with brutal repression, seeking to humiliate and terrorise people: satyagrahis were forced to rub their noses on the ground,
   crawl on the streets, and do salaam (salute) to all sahibs; people were flogged and villages (around Gujranwala in Punjab, now in Pakistan) were bombed.
3. Seeing violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off
   the movement

Question 10

How and why did Mahatma Gandhi bring Hindus and Muslims together for the non-cooperation movement? (I dont know the actual question)

Answer 10

1. Mahatma Gandhi now felt the need to launch a more broad-based movement in India. But he was certain that no such movement could be organised without
   bringing the Hindus and Muslims closer together.
2. One way of doing this, he felt, was to take up the Khilafat issue. The First World War had ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey. And there were rumours
   that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the Ottoman emperor – the spiritual head of the Islamic world (the Khalifa).
3. To defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers, a Khilafat Committee was formed in Bombay in March 1919. A young generation of Muslim leaders like the brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, began discussing with Mahatma Gandhi about the possibility of a united
   mass action on the issue.
4. Gandhiji saw this as an opportunity to bring Muslims under the umbrella of a unified national movement.
5. At the Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, he convinced other leaders of the need to start a non-cooperation movement in
   support of Khilafat as well as for swaraj

Question 11

What was the title of Mahatma Gandhi’s famous book and what were its contents?

Answer 11

In his famous book Hind Swaraj (1909) Mahatma Gandhi declared that British rule was established in India with the cooperation of Indians, and had survived only because of this cooperation. If Indians
refused to cooperate, British rule in India would collapse within a year, and swaraj would come.

Question 12

What were Mahatma Gandhi’s propositions for the movement?

Answer 12

1. Gandhiji proposed that the movement should unfold in stages.
2. It should begin with the surrender of titles that the government awarded, and a boycott of civil services, army, police, courts and legislative councils, schools, and foreign goods.
3. In case the government used repression, a full civil disobedience campaign would be launched.

Question 13

Examine the role of middle class in the Non-cooperation movement.

Answer 13

1. The movement started with middle-class participation in the cities. Thousands of students left government-controlled schools and colleges, headmasters and teachers resigned, and lawyers gave up their legal practices.
2. The council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras.
3. Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed, and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires.
4. The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, its value dropping from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore. In many places merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade.
5. As the boycott movement spread, and people began discarding imported clothes and wearing only Indian ones, production of Indian textile mills and handlooms went up.

Question 14

Why did the non-cooperation movement in the cities slow down?

Answer 14

1. Khadi cloth was often more expensive than mass produced mill cloth and poor people could not afford to buy it.
2. For the movement to be successful, alternative Indian institutions had to be set up so that they could be used in place of the British ones.
3. These were slow to come up. So students and teachers began trickling back to government schools and lawyers joined back work in government courts.

Question 15

What was the aim of non-cooperation movement?

Answer 15

Swaraj

Question 16

Examine the role of peasants in the non-cooperation movement.

Answer 16

Complaints:
- Talukdars and landlords who demanded from
peasants exorbitantly high rents and a variety of other cesses.
- Peasants had to do begar and work at landlords’ farms without any payment.
- As tenants they had no security of tenure, being regularly evicted so that they could acquire no right over the leased land

Demands:

• The peasant movement demanded reduction of revenue
• Abolition of begar
• Social boycott of oppressive landlords

Methods:

• In many places nai – dhobi bandhs were organised by panchayats to deprive landlords of the services of even barbers and washermen
• Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and a few others
• The houses of talukdars and merchants were attacked, bazaars were looted, and grain hoards were taken over

Question 17

Examine the role of tribal in the non-cooperation movement.

Answer 17

Complaints:

• The colonial government had closed large forest areas, preventing people from entering the forests to graze their cattle, or to collect fuelwood and fruits.
• Their livelihoods affected but they felt that their traditional rights were being denied.
• The government began forcing them to contribute begar for road building.

Demands:

• Permission to enter forests for cattle grazing, collecting firewood, etc.
• Providing them with proper livelihood and no denial of rights.
• Abolition of begar.

Methods:

• Alluri Sitaram Raju persuaded people to wear khadi and give up drinking.
• He asserted that India could be liberated only by the use of force not non-violence
• The Gudem rebels attacked police stations, attempted to kill British officials and carried on guerillla warfare for achieving swaraj.

Question 18

Why did the rebels proclaim that Alluri Sitaram Raju was incarnation of God?

Answer 18

Alluri Sitaram Raju claimed that he had a variety of special powers: he could make correct astrological predictions and heal people, and he could survive
even bullet shots. Captivated by Raju, the rebels proclaimed that he was an incarnation of God.

Question 19

What happened to Alluri Sitaram Raju after the guerrilla warfare?

Answer 19

Raju was captured and executed in 1924, and over time became a folk hero.

Question 20

“The plantation workers in Assam had their own understanding of Mahatma Gandhi and the notion of Swaraj”. Support the statement with arguments.

Answer 20

1. For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out of the confined space in which they were enclosed.
2. Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859 plantation workers were not permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission.
3. Swaraj meant retaining a link with the village from which they had come.
4. When they heard of the Non-cooperation Movement, thousands of workers defied the authorities, left the plantations and headed home.
5. They believed that Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own village but they were caught by the police and brutally beaten up.

Question 21

How did these movements during non-cooperation merge into one movement under Gandhiji’s leadershop?

Answer 21

• The visions of these movements were not defined by the Congress programme. They interpreted the term swaraj in their own ways, imagining it to be a time when all suffering and all troubles would be over.
• Yet, when the tribals chanted Gandhiji’s name and raised slogans demanding ‘Swatantra Bharat’, they were also emotionally relating to an all-India agitation. - - When they acted in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, or linked their movement to that of the Congress,
  they were identifying with a movement which went beyond the limits of their immediate locality

Question 22

Why did Mahatma Gandhi call off the non-cooperation movement?

Answer 22

• At Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur, a peaceful demonstration in a bazaar turned into a violent clash with the police. Hearing of the incident, Mahatma Gandhi called a halt to the Non-Cooperation Movement.
• He felt the movement was turning violent in many places and satyagrahis needed to be properly trained
  before they would be ready for mass struggles.
• Within the Congress, some leaders were by now tired of mass struggles and wanted to participate in elections to the provincial councils that had been set
  up by the Government of India Act of 1919

Question 23

From what year till what year did the Non-cooperation movement last?

Answer 23

1920-1922

Question 24

By whom and why was the Swaraj party formed?

Answer 24

C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj party within the Congress to argue for a return to council policies.

Question 25

Who pressed for a more radical mass agitation and for full independence?

Answer 25

Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose

Question 26

What were the two factors which shaped the Indian politics during the late 1920s?

Answer 26

1. Effect of worldwide economic depression

2. Simon Commission

Question 27

List all the different social groups which joined the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921. Then choose any three and write about their hopes and struggles to show why they joined the movement.

Answer 27

The different social groups that joined the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921 were the urban middle class comprising lawyers, students, teachers and headmasters, peasants, tribals
and workers.
→ The middle class joined the movement because the boycott of foreign goods would make the sale of their textiles and handlooms go up.
→ The peasants took part in the movement because they hoped they would be saved from the oppressive landlords, high taxes taken by the colonial government.
→ Plantation workers took part in the agitation hoping they would get the right to move freely in and outside the plantations and get land in their own villages.

Question 28

Write a newspaper report on: The Simon Commission

Answer 28

1. The Simon Commission was constituted by the Tory Government in Britain, under Sir John Simon. The objective of the Commission was to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest some constitutional changes.
2. But nationalists in India opposed the Commission because it had not a single Indian member.
3. Therefore, when the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, it was greeted with the slogan “Go Back Simon”. All parties, including Congress and the Muslim league, participated in the demonstrations.

Question 29

What did Lord Erwin offer Indians after the failure of Simon Commision?

Answer 29

A vague offer of ‘dominion status’ for India in an unspecified future, and a Round Table Conference to discuss future constitution. This did not satisfy future Congress leaders

Question 30

The radicals within the Congress led by ______ & _____ became more assertive after the vague offer of dominion status.

Answer 30

Jawaharlal Nehru & Subhas Chandra Bose

Question 31

What was the importance of the Lahore congress?

Answer 31

In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India

Question 32

Which date was selected as the fake independence day?

Answer 32

26th Jan, 1930

Question 33

Discuss the Salt March to make clear why it was an effective symbol of resistance against
colonialism.

Answer 33

1. Mahatma Gandhi found in salt a powerful symbol that could unite the nation.
2. On 31 January 1930, he sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands. Some of these were of general interest; others were specific demands of different classes, from industrialists to peasants.
3. The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax. Salt was something consumed by the rich and the poor alike, and it was one of the most essential items of food.
   The tax on salt and the government monopoly over its production, Mahatma Gandhi declared, revealed the most oppressive face of British rule.
4. Mahatma Gandhi’s letter was, in a way, an ultimatum. If the demands were not fulfilled by 11 March, the letter stated, the Congress would launch a civil disobedience campaign.
5. Irwin was unwilling to negotiate. So Mahatma Gandhi started his famous salt march from Gandhiji’s ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi. On 6 April he reached Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water.

Question 34

What were the people asked to do during the Civil Disobedience movement? or How was this movement different from the Non-Cooperation Movement?

Answer 34

• People were now asked not only to refuse cooperation with the British, as they had done in 1921-22, but also to break colonial laws.
• Thousands in different parts of the country broke
  the salt law, manufactured salt and demonstrated in front of government salt factories.
• As the movement spread:
  (foreign cloth was boycotted), and
  (liquor shops were picketed).
  (Peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes),
  (village officials resigned), and
  (in many places forest people violated forest laws – going into Reserved Forests to collect wood and graze cattle)

Question 35

How did the British respond to the Civil Disobedience movement? or Why did Mahatma Gandhi call off the Civil Disobedience movement?

Answer 35

Worried by the developments, the colonial government began arresting the Congress leaders one by one. This led to violent clashes in many palaces:
1. When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of
Mahatma Gandhi, was arrested in April 1930, angry crowds demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar, facing armoured cars and police firing. Many were killed.
2. A month later, when Mahatma Gandhi himself was arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked
police posts, municipal buildings, lawcourts and railway stations – all structures that symbolised British rule. A frightened government responded with a policy of brutal repression.
3. Peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten, and about 100,000 people were arrested.

Mahatma Gandhi once again decided to call off
the movement and entered into a pact with Irwin on 5 March 1931

Question 36

Examine the role of rich peasants during the Civil Disobedience movement.

Answer 36

Complaints:

• Being producers of commercial crops, they were very hard hit by the trade depression and falling prices. As their cash income disappeared, they found it impossible to pay the government’s revenue demand.
• And the refusal of the government to reduce the revenue demand led to widespread resentment.

Methods:
These rich peasants became enthusiastic supporters of the Civil Disobedience Movement, organising their communities, and at times forcing reluctant members,
to participate in the boycott programmes.

Interpretation of Swaraj:
For them the fight for swaraj was a struggle against high revenues.

Limitation:
But they were deeply disappointed when the movement was called off in 1931 without the revenue rates being revised. So when the movement was restarted in 1932, many of them refused to participate

Question 37

Examine the role of poor peasants during the Civil Disobedience movement.

Answer 37

Complaints:
- The poorer peasantry were not just interested in the lowering of the revenue demand. Many of them were small tenants cultivating land they had rented from landlords.
- As the Depression continued and cash incomes dwindled, the small tenants found it difficult to pay
their rent.

Methods:
They joined a variety of radical movements, often led by Socialists and Communists.

Interpretation of Swaraj:
They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlord to be remitted.

Limitation:
Apprehensive of raising issues that might upset
the rich peasants and landlords, the Congress was unwilling to support ‘no rent’ campaigns in most places. So the relationship between the poor peasants and the Congress remained uncertain.

Question 38

Examine the role of business class during the Civil Disobedience movement.

Answer 38

Complaints:

• During the First World War, Indian merchants and industrialists had made huge profits and become
  powerful.
• Keen on expanding their business, they now reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities.
• They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods, and a rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports.

Methods:
- To organise business interests, they formed the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920 and the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927.
- Led by prominent industrialists like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G. D. Birla, the industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian economy, and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when
it was first launched.
- They gave financial assistance and refused to buy or sell imported goods

Interpretation of Swaraj:
Most businessmen came to see swaraj
as a time when colonial restrictions on business would no longer exist and trade and industry would flourish without constraints.

Limitation:
- But after the failure of the Round Table Conference, business groups were no longer uniformly enthusiastic. - They were apprehensive of the spread of militant activities, and worried about prolonged disruption of business, as well as of the growing influence of
socialism amongst the younger members of the Congress.

Question 39

Examine the role of industrial working class during the Civil Disobedience movement.

Answer 39

Complaints:
Complaints against low wages and poor working conditions.

Methods:
- Adopting some of the ideas of the Gandhian programme, like boycott of foreign goods, as part of their own movements against low wages and
poor working conditions.
- There were strikes by railway workers in 1930 and dockworkers in 1932.
- In 1930 thousands of workers in Chotanagpur tin mines wore Gandhi caps and participated in protest
rallies and boycott campaigns

Interpretation of Swaraj:
For them swaraj meant higher wages and better working conditions.

Limitation:
- But the Congress was reluctant to
include workers’ demands as part of its programme of struggle.
- It felt that this would alienate industrialists and divide the anti-imperial forces.

Question 40

Examine the role of women during the Civil Disobedience movement.

Answer 40

Complaints:

• During Gandhiji’s salt march, thousands of women came out of their homes to listen to him.
• They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt, and picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops.

Methods:
Many went to jail. In urban areas these women were from high-caste families; in rural areas they came from rich peasant households

Interpretation of swaraj:
Moved by Gandhiji’s call, they began to see service to the nation as a sacred duty of women.

Limitation:

• Gandhiji was convinced that it was the duty of women to look after home and hearth, be good mothers and good wives.
• The Congress was reluctant to allow women to hold any position of authority within the organisation.

Question 41

Which year was non-cooperation and Khilafat movement launched?

Answer 41

January 1921

Question 42

Why did political leaders differ sharply over the question of separate electorates?

Answer 42

Congress saw separate electorates as the seed of divide and rule which could make the national movement weak. By this the British could rule over India as long they wish to rule.
So, political leaders differed sharply over the question of separate electorates because of
differences in opinion.

1. Many dalit leaders were keen on a different political solution to the problems of the community. They began organising themselves, demanding a separate electorate that would choose dalit members for legislative councils. They believed political empowerment would resolve the problems of their social disabilities. Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at the second
   Round Table Conference by demanding separate electorates for dalits.
2. Gandhiji believed that separate electorates for dalits would slow down the process of their integration into society.
3. After the decline of the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat Movement, many Muslim leaders and intellectuals expressed their concern about the status of Muslims as a minority within India. They feared that the culture and identity of minorities would be submerged under the
   domination of Hindu majority. In 1930, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, the President of the Muslim league, re-stated the importance of separate electorates for the Muslims as an important safeguard for their minority political interests.

Question 43

Why was Dalit participation in the Civil Disobedience movement limited?

Answer 43

1. Dalits began organising themselves, demanding reserved seats in educational institutions, and a separate electorate that would choose dalit members for legislative councils. Political empowerment, they
   believed, would resolve the problems of their social disabilities.
2. Dalit participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement was therefore limited, particularly in the Maharashtra and Nagpur region where their organisation was quite strong.
3. Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, clashed with Mahatma Gandhi at the second Round Table Conference by demanding separate electorates for dalits.
4. When the British government conceded Ambedkar’s demand, Gandhiji began a fast unto death. He believed that separate electorates for dalits would slow down the process of their integration into society.
5. Ambedkar ultimately accepted Gandhiji’s position and the result was the Poona Pact of September 1932.
   It gave the Depressed Classes (later to be known as the Schedule Castes) reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils, but they were to be voted in by the general electorate

Question 44

Differentiate between the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience Movement

Answer 44

Non-Cooperation | Civil Disobedience

1. Aim:
   Achieving Swaraj | Achieving Purna Swaraj
2. Methods:
   - Refusal to cooperate with the British
   - Refusal to cooperate with the British and breaking colonial laws
3. Participation:
   - Wide section of people participated
   - Wide section of people participated including women and children
4. Leadership:
   - No common leader, different groups had different leaders
   - Led by Mahatma Gandhi and Indian National Congress
5. Success:
   - People fought in their own ways, only the educated understood Gandhiji’s non-violent ideas.
   - It was successful on Gandhiji’s lines, satyagraha was practiced among all sections with courage and determination.

Question 45

Examine the role of fiction and images in creating a sense of collective belonging among Indians.

Answer 45

• It was in the twentieth century, with the growth of nationalism, that the identity of India came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata.
• The image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. In the 1870s he wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ as a hymn to the motherland. Later it was included in his novel Anandamath and widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal.
• Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of
  Bharat Mata. Devotion to this mother figure came
  to be seen as evidence of one’s nationalism

Question 46

Examine the role of folklore in creating a sense of collective belonging among Indians.

Answer 46

• 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 one’s national identity and restore a sense of pride in one’s past.
• In Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore himself began collecting ballads, nursery rhymes and myths, and led the movement for folk revival. In Madras, Natesa Sastri published a massive four-volume collection of Tamil folk tales, The Folklore of Southern India.

Question 47

Examine the role of icons and symbols in creating a sense of collective belonging among Indians.

Answer 47

• During the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolour 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.
• By 1921, Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag. It was again a tricolour (red, green and white) and had a spinning wheel in the centre, representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help.
• [Could also be a point as roles of flags] Carrying the flag, holding it aloft, during marches became a symbol of defiance.

Question 48

Examine the role of reinterpretation of history in creating a sense of collective belonging among Indians.

Answer 48

• 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 thought about differently. 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 had flourished.
• This glorious time, in their view, was followed by a history of decline, when India was colonised. These
  nationalist histories 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.