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Indian nationalism is an instance ofcivic nationalism.[1] It is inclusive of all of the people of India,despite theirdiverse ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Indian nationalism can trace roots to pre-colonial India, but was fully developed during theIndian independence movement which campaigned against nearly two centuries ofBritish rule. Indian nationalism quickly rose to popularity in India through these united anti-colonial coalitions and movements. Independence movement figures likeMahatma Gandhi,Subhas Chandra Bose, andJawaharlal Nehru spearheaded the Indian nationalist movement, with theIndian National Congress playing a major role.
India'sindependence in 1947 was coupled withseparation from Muslim-majority Pakistan, with that nation being carved out of British India'snorthwestern andeastern regions. Afterwards, Prime Minister Nehru and his successors continued to campaign on Indian nationalism in the face of border wars with bothChina andPakistan, with the latter clashing several timesover the Kashmir border region. After theIndo-Pakistani war of 1971 and theBangladesh Liberation War, which resulted in East Pakistan's independence, Indian nationalism reached its post-independence peak. However by the 1980s, religious tensions reached aboiling point, the Indian National Congress lost its political dominance and becamemore authoritarian, and Indian nationalism sluggishly collapsed in the following decades.[2] Despite its decline and the rise ofreligious nationalism, Indian nationalism and its historic figures continue to strongly influence thepolitics of India and reflect an opposition to the sectarian strands ofHindu nationalism andMuslim nationalism.[3][4][5][6]
India was first unified as a single state underMaurya Empire in 3rd century BC. Much of India has also been unified by later empires, such as theDelhi Sultanate,Mughal Empire[7] andMaratha Empire in the early modern era.[8]
India's concept of nationhood is based not merely on territorial extent of its sovereignty. Nationalistic sentiments and expression encompass India'sancient history[9] as the birthplace of theIndus Valley civilisation, as well as four major world religions –Hinduism,Buddhism,Jainism andSikhism. Indian nationalists see India stretching along these lines across the Indian subcontinent.[citation needed]Mahatma Gandhi argued that the presence of ancient Hindu pilgrimage centres in the corners of India indicated an older consciousness of Indian unity.[10]
India today celebrates many kings and queens for combating foreign invasion and domination,[11] such asShivaji of theMaratha Empire, RaniLaxmibai ofJhansi,Kittur Chennamma,Maharana Pratap ofRajputana,Prithviraj Chauhan andTipu Sultan. The kings ofAncient India, such asChandragupta Maurya of the Maurya Empire and his successorAshoka of theMagadha Empire, are also remembered for their military genius, notable conquests and remarkablereligious tolerance.
The Mughal emperorAkbar was known to have a policy of religious tolerance and syncretism.[11][12]
The consolidation of theBritish East India Company'srule in the Indian subcontinent during the late 18th century brought about socio-economic changes which led to the rise of an Indianmiddle class and steadily eroded pre-colonial socio-religious institutions and barriers.[13]
The emerging economic and financial power of Indian business-owners and merchants and the professional class brought them increasingly into conflict with the British authorities. A rising political consciousness among the native Indian social elite (including lawyers, doctors, university graduates, government officials and similar groups) spawned an Indian identity[14][15] and fed a growing nationalist sentiment in India in the last decades of the nineteenth century.[16] The creation in 1885 of theIndian National Congress in India by the political reformerA.O. Hume intensified the process by providing an important platform from which demands could be made for political liberalisation, increased autonomy, and social reform.[17]
Congress leaders preferred dialogue and debate with the Raj administration to press their political demands. Unlike these moderates or loyalists, who opposed violence, the nationalist movement grew increasingly strong, radical, and militant in Bengal and Punjab, with smaller yet notable movements emerging in Maharashtra, Madras, and other parts of southern India.[17]
India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the equator.
— Winston Churchill (1931),[1]
From the British perspective, the creation of a unified India began with and was only made possible by their conquest of the subcontinent ignoring that much of India had previously been unified under domestic powers likeMaurya Empire,Delhi Sultanate andMughal Empire.[19] With their introduction of theAryan Invasion Theory, proposing that most modern Indians (Indo-Aryans) descend from ancient invaders, it was implied that their presence in India was no more unnatural than that of the Hindus and the Muslims.[20] As the rulers of India, they had an ambiguous view of Indian nationalism, envisioning a process of yielding greater autonomy to the colony while depending on it for theirglobal dominance.[21]
British sports such ascricket becamepart of the nationalist movement over time, with victories against the British by unified Indian teams offering a nonviolent means to push for independence.[22] The nationalist movement also found other ways toadopt elements of British culture while opposing British rule.[23]
Giuseppe Mazzini and other figures associated with the 19th-centuryunification of Italy were greatly admired by many early Indian nationalists.[24]Sri Aurobindo described the nationalist sentiment of his time as the "sweet harmony between the new ideal of Mazzini and the old ideal ofSannyasa".[25]
B. R. Ambedkar, a major figure in the postcolonial drafting of the modernIndian Constitution, took note of the historical challenges of nation-building in several other societies.[26] He was influenced by his education atColumbia University in the United States.[27][28]
By the early 20th century,Pan-Asianism became part of anticolonial discourse within the nationalist movement.[30]
Due to the manner in which British India grew to annex and administer territories beyond the traditional frontier of India, certain groups like the Arabs and Burmese once professed some support for being included within Indian nationalism before developing their own local nationalisms.[31]
The controversial1905 partition of Bengal, dividing the region along religious lines, escalated the growing unrest, stimulating radical nationalist sentiments and becoming a driving force for Indian revolutionaries.[33]
Mahatma Gandhi pioneered the art ofSatyagraha, typified with a strict adherence toahimsa (non-violence), andcivil disobedience. This permitted common individuals to engage the British in revolution, without employing violence or other distasteful means. Gandhi's equally strict adherence to democracy, religious and ethnic equality and brotherhood, as well as activist rejection of caste-based discrimination anduntouchability united people across these demographic lines for the first time in India's history. The masses participated in India's independence struggle for the first time, and the membership of the Congress grew over tens of millions by the 1930s. In addition, Gandhi's victories in theChamparan andKheda Satyagraha in 1918–19, gave confidence to a rising younger generation of Indian nationalists that India could gain independence from British rule.
National leaders likePandit Jawaharlal Nehru,Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose,Maulana Azad,Chakravarti Rajagopalachari,Rajendra Prasad, theLal Bal Pal trio, andKhan Abdul Gaffar Khan brought together generations of Indians across regions and demographics, and provided a strong leadership base giving the country political direction.
In 1947,Lord Mountbatten came to India to discuss the eventual outcome of the British departure. At one point, he offered a plan toNehru to make the various regions of India autonomous provinces, which Nehru strongly rejected;[34] Lakshman Menon, grandson of Nehru's principal adviserV. P. Menon, referred to the plan as "Plan Balkan" (in reference toBalkanisation).[35]
Upon independence on 15 August of that year, India maintained formal links with the dissolving British Empire through itsCommonwealth membership andDominion status.[36] The latter was abandoned in 1950, an anniversary now celebrated asRepublic Day.[37]
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Indian nationalism is as much a diverse blend of nationalistic sentiments as its people areethnically and religiously diverse. Thus the most influential undercurrents are more than justIndian in nature. The most controversial and emotionally charged fibre in the fabric of Indian nationalism is religion. Religion forms a major, and in many cases, the central element of Indian life. Religious nationalisms are often dependent on mutual opposition.[38] Ethnic communities are diverse in terms of linguistics, social traditions and history across India.[39]
An important influence upon Hindu consciousness arises from the time ofIslamic empires in India. Entering the 20th century, Hindus formed over 75% of the population and thus unsurprisingly the backbone and platform of the nationalist movement. Modern Hindu thinking desired to unite Hindu society across the boundaries ofcaste, linguistic groups and ethnicity. In 1925,K.B. Hedgewar founded theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) inNagpur, as aright-wingHindutvaparamilitary organisation.[41]
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar coined the termHindutva for his ideology that described India as aHindu Rashtra, or a Hindu nation. This ideology has become the cornerstone of the political and religious agendas of modern Hindu nationalist bodies like theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and theVishwa Hindu Parishad (BJP), both of whom are closely associated with the RSS. The RSS leads theSangh Parivar, a collective of Hindutva.[42] These particular demands are based upon ending laws that Hindu nationalists consider to be special treatment offered to different religions.[43]
In 1906–1907, theAll-India Muslim League was founded, created due to the suspicion of Muslim intellectuals and religious leaders with theIndian National Congress, which was perceived as dominated by Hindu membership and opinions. However,Mahatma Gandhi's leadership attracted a wide array of Muslims to the independence struggle and the Congress Party. TheAligarh Muslim University and theJamia Millia Islamia stand apart – the former helped form the Muslim league, while the JMI was founded to promote Muslim education and consciousness upon nationalistic and Gandhian values and thought.
While prominent Muslims likeAllama Iqbal,Muhammad Ali Jinnah andLiaquat Ali Khan embraced the notion that Hindus and Muslims were distinct nations, other major leaders likeMukhtar Ahmed Ansari,Maulana Azad and most ofDeobandi clerics strongly backed the leadership ofMahatma Gandhi and the Indian independence struggle, opposing any notion ofMuslim nationalism and separatism. The Muslim school of Indian nationalism failed to attract Muslim masses and theIslamic nationalistMuslim League enjoyed extensive popular political support. Thestate of Pakistan was ultimately formed following thePartition of India.
Indian nationalists led byMohandas Karamchand Gandhi andJawaharlal Nehru wanted to make what was then British India, as well as the 562 princely states under British paramountcy, into a single secular, democratic state.[45] TheAll India Azad Muslim Conference, which represented nationalist Muslims, gathered in Delhi in April 1940 to voice its support for anindependent and united India.[46] The British Government, however, sidelined the 'All India' organisation from the independence process and came to see Jinnah, who advocated separatism, as the sole representative of Indian Muslims.[47] This was viewed with dismay by many Indian nationalists, who viewed Jinnah's ideology as damaging and unnecessarily divisive.[48]
In an interview withLeonard Mosley, Nehru said that he and his fellow Congressmen were "tired" after the independence movement, so were not ready to further drag on the matter for years with Jinnah's Muslim League, and that, anyway, they "expected that partition would be temporary, that Pakistan would come back to us."[50] Gandhi also thought that the Partition would be undone.[51]V.P. Menon, who had an important role in the transfer of power in 1947, quotes another major Congress politician,Abul Kalam Azad, who said that "the division is only of the map of the country and not in the hearts of the people, and I am sure it is going to be a short-lived partition."[52]Acharya Kripalani, President of the Congress during the days of Partition, stated that making India "a strong, happy, democratic and socialist state" would ensure that "such an India can win back the seceding children to its lap... for the freedom we have achieved cannot be complete without the unity of India."[53] Yet another leader of the Congress,Sarojini Naidu, said that she did not consider India's flag to be India's because "India is divided" and that "this is merely a temporary geographical separation. There is no spirit of separation in the heart of India."[54]
Giving a more general assessment,Paul Brass says that "many speakers in theConstituent Assembly expressed the belief that theunity of India would be ultimately restored."[55]
TheKhalistan movement is aseparatist movement seeking to create a homeland forSikhs by establishing an ethno-religioussovereign state called Khalistan[A] (lit. 'land of theKhalsa') in thePunjab region.[57] The proposed boundaries of Khalistan vary between different groups; some suggest the entirety of the Sikh-majority Indian state ofPunjab, while larger claims includePakistani Punjab and other parts ofNorth India such asChandigarh,Haryana, andHimachal Pradesh.[58]
The call for a separate Sikh state began during the 1930s, whenBritish rule in India was nearing its end.[59] In 1940, the first explicit call for Khalistan was made in a pamphlet titled "Khalistan".[60][61] In the 1940s, a demand for a Sikh country called 'Sikhistan' arose.[62] With financial and political support from theSikh diaspora, the movement flourished in the Indian state of Punjab – which has aSikh-majority population – continuing through the 1970s and 1980s, and reaching its zenith in the late 1980s. The Sikh separatist leaderJagjit Singh Chohan said that during his talks withZulfikar Ali Bhutto, the latter affirmed his support for the Khalistan movement in retaliation for the1971 Indo-Pakistan war, which resulted in the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan.[63]
After independence,Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel helped complete thepolitical integration of India. In 2014, his birthday was declaredNational Unity Day,[64] and in 2018, he was commemorated in his native Gujarat with theStatue of Unity.[65]
Along with dealing with the princely states, reorganising the states on linguistic boundaries was a central question in deciding the nature of the new nation. The government initially hesitated to support such a move, fearing it would lead toseparatism, but eventually acquiesced with theStates Reorganisation Act, 1956.[66]
In these initial decades, theHindi language was proposed by some as anational language, and was deliberatelySanskritised to distinguish it from theUrdu spoken in the newly separate Pakistan. Some of the strong advocates of Hindi associated it with Hindu nationalism through the slogan "Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan".[67]Hindi cinema (popularly known as Bollywood) played a role in offering a vision of a unified India, with films celebrating military valour in border conflicts.[68]
Economic liberalisation in the1990s greatly changed India, with a greater amount ofglobalisation andtransnationalism taking hold in the popular culture.[69]
For the75th Anniversary of Indian Independence in 2022, theHar Ghar Tiranga campaign was launched, encouraging every household to display the Indian flag.[70]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The call for a Sikh homeland was first made in the 1930s, addressed to the quickly dissolving empire.
However, the term Khalistan was first coined by Dr V.S. Bhatti to denote an independent Sikh state in March 1940. Dr Bhatti made the case for a separate Sikh state in a pamphlet entitled 'Khalistan' in response to the Muslim League's Lahore Resolution.
Around the same time, a pamphlet of about forty pages, entitled 'Khalistan', and authored by medical doctor, V.S. Bhatti, also appeared.
Media related toIndian nationalism at Wikimedia Commons