Birth of Indian Nationalism

The second half of the 19th century is a turning point in Indian history. Until then, Indians often identified themselves by religion, region, caste, or language – a Tamil, a Maratha, a Bengali, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Rajput, and so on. But from the mid-1800s onwards, a new idea began to spread – the idea that all Indians shared something bigger in common, that despite differences, they were tied together by their common suffering under foreign domination. This was the seed of national political consciousness, which would later grow into the organised Indian national movement.

Now, this nationalism did not appear out of thin air. It was both a response to colonial rule and also a result of the very policies introduced by the British.

• Response to British policies: People could see how foreign rulers were exploiting them. This naturally created resentment and the desire to resist.
• Result of British policies: Ironically, the very systems created by the British – like uniform administration, railways, telegraph, modern education, press, and printing – connected Indians in ways that made collective thinking possible. Without these, such a vast country with so many diversities could hardly have united.

So, in a way, the British lit both the fire of resentment and also created the channels through which that fire could spread.

🔑 Key Factors Behind National Consciousness

Let us now look at the major forces that awakened Indians to a sense of nationhood:

1. Foreign domination – The very fact that India was ruled by outsiders created patriotic feelings. People felt alienated under rulers who neither belonged to them nor cared for their interests.
2. Administrative and economic unification – Railways, postal services, and uniform laws brought different parts of India together, making people realise they were part of one large entity.
3. Western thought and education – English education introduced ideas of liberty, equality, and democracy. Indians began comparing their conditions with the West and asking: If others can have self-rule, why not us?
4. Socio-religious reform movements – Reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda, and others rejuvenated self-confidence in Indian society. They argued that India had a glorious past and could have a bright future too.
5. Role of press and literature – Newspapers, journals, novels, and pamphlets became tools to spread awareness.
6. Rediscovery of India’s past – Scholars and reformers highlighted India’s ancient achievements in science, philosophy, and art, which restored pride among Indians.
7. Racial discrimination – The arrogance and contempt shown by British officials towards Indians reminded people of their unequal status.
8. Reactionary regime of Lord Lytton and the Ilbert Bill controversy – Harsh policies like the Vernacular Press Act, high taxation, and racially biased laws exposed the unfair nature of colonial rule.

These factors together created the intellectual and emotional foundation of nationalism.

Let us look at these factors in greater detail:

⚔️ Consequence of Foreign Domination

The very foreign character of British rule itself was a constant reminder that India was enslaved. Over time, every section of society began to feel that its own interests were being harmed by imperialism. This is why the national movement eventually became anti-imperialist in character and brought together diverse groups.

Let us see how different classes responded:

🌾 Peasants

• They realised that a large part of their produce was snatched away as land revenue.
• The administration supported zamindars and landlords, leaving the peasant helpless.
  This naturally generated anger against the rulers who upheld such an exploitative system.

🧵 Artisans and Handicraftsmen

• They saw their traditional industries collapse because cheap British goods flooded the market.
• No efforts were made to rehabilitate them.
  Thus, they understood that the foreign government had destroyed their livelihoods.

👷 Workers (20th Century)

• Industrial workers in factories, plantations, and mines noticed that the government always sided with big capitalists, especially foreign ones.
• They felt that unemployment could only be solved if India had its own independent government that encouraged real industrialisation.

🎓 Educated Indians (Intelligentsia)

This group played a central role in shaping nationalism. With Western education, they analysed India’s plight in economic and political terms.

• Economic realisation: They understood that Britain was reducing India to an economic colony – supplier of raw materials, consumer of British goods, and victim of endless exploitation. They linked India’s poverty directly to colonialism.
• Political realisation: They saw that the British were not moving India towards self-government but, in fact, tightening restrictions on speech, press, and political participation.

The educated classes also faced growing unemployment, which made them connect their personal frustrations with the need for national freedom.

🏭 Indian Capitalists

• Initially, they were slow to join politics, but eventually realised that British policies on trade, tariffs, and taxation were strangling Indian industry.
• Since the government favoured foreign capitalists, they understood that only a national government could protect and promote Indian business.

👑 Zamindars, Landlords, and Princes

• Many of them supported British rule because their privileges were protected under it.
• However, the rising wave of patriotism also touched some individuals among these classes, who eventually joined the national movement out of genuine nationalist spirit.

🌍 The Big Picture

Thus, by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, almost every class of Indian society had some grievance against British rule – peasants, artisans, workers, capitalists, educated youth. Their reasons were different, but their enemy was the same.

And here lies the uniqueness of Indian nationalism:

• It was born out of common suffering.
• It was nurtured by modern ideas and institutions.
• And it united diverse groups who otherwise had little in common.

This is why the Indian national movement could grow into one of the most powerful struggles in modern world history – a movement that turned the humiliation of colonial rule into the collective pride of nationhood.

🌍 Administrative and Economic Unification of India

One of the biggest reasons why nationalist feelings could spread in such a vast and diverse land like India was because, ironically, the British themselves unified India. Before their arrival, India had been politically fragmented into multiple kingdoms, each with its own administration, language, and economy. But by the 19th and 20th centuries, colonial rule had “welded” India into a single political and economic unit.

🏛 Administrative Unification

The British introduced a uniform system of governance across the country. Institutions like the Indian Civil Service (ICS), Police, Military, and a unified Judiciary created a single administrative structure that applied to all regions.

At the same time, new technologies such as the railways, telegraph, and postal system—though built mainly to serve British interests—ended up connecting different corners of the country. Leaders and reformers could now travel, communicate, and coordinate far more easily. For the first time, Indians from Bengal, Bombay, Punjab, and Madras could think of themselves as part of one shared system.

Thus, a sense of “we are all in this together” began to grow.

💰 Economic Unification

Economically too, British policies destroyed India’s traditional self-sufficient village economy and made different regions dependent on each other.

For example:

• If there was a famine in one part of India, it no longer remained a local issue — because shortages raised food prices everywhere.
• The market had become national, and so had the suffering.

Most importantly, everyone could see that the cause of this suffering was the same: British rule. So, even though people came from different classes and regions, they developed a common anti-imperialist outlook.

📖 Western Thought and Education

Another powerful factor behind the birth of nationalism was the spread of modern Western education and thought in the 19th century.

• Through English-medium schools and colleges, Indians were introduced to rational, secular, democratic, and nationalist ideas.
• They read about liberty, equality, and rights in European history and compared those ideals with their own humiliating condition under foreign rule.

Thus, it was the educated Indians who were the first to feel the sting of subjugation. They were also the ones who later became the leaders and organisers of the national movement.

👉 But we should be careful here. Education alone did not create the movement. The real root of nationalism was the conflict of interest between India and Britain. Education simply provided the tools—political vocabulary, modern values, and democratic methods—through which Indians could lead the struggle more effectively.

Interestingly, in other Asian and African countries like China, Indonesia, and across Africa, nationalist ideas spread even without widespread modern education. That shows the core cause was colonial exploitation, not schooling itself.

✍️ English: A Double-Edged Sword

Education also gave India a common medium of communication — English.

• It allowed educated Indians from Bengal, Punjab, Madras, or Bombay to communicate and exchange ideas.
• This created a certain intellectual unity across linguistic boundaries.

However, we must not exaggerate this point. Historically, educated Indians had earlier shared Sanskrit and later Persian as common languages of higher discourse.

And at the same time, English created a barrier: it restricted the spread of modern ideas among the masses. Ordinary people did not know English. That is why the real spread of nationalism among the common people happened through Indian languages and the vernacular press.

👉 In fact, wherever modern ideas spread fastest—whether in Europe, China, or Japan—they did so through the people’s own languages, not through foreign ones. India was no different.

🙏 Socio-Religious Reform Movements

Parallel to these developments, the social reform movements of the 19th century—like the Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Aligarh Movement, and others—also contributed to national awakening.

• They fought against evils like untouchability, caste rigidity, and social inequalities.
• They tried to bridge gaps between communities and revive pride in India’s culture.

By reforming society from within, they laid the groundwork for national unity and gave confidence that Indians could modernise without blindly imitating the West.

📰 Role of the Press and Literature

The Indian press played a decisive role in building nationalism. Newspapers and journals became the weapon of choice for spreading patriotism.

Through their columns:

• Official policies were criticised, often sharply.
• The Indian viewpoint was presented to the public.
• Ideas of self-government, democracy, and industrialisation were discussed and popularised.

This constant flow of ideas helped create an all-India consciousness.

🎭 Art and Literature: The Emotional Connect

Along with newspapers, novels, plays, and songs also became powerful carriers of nationalist ideas.

• They spread patriotism among ordinary people.
• They promoted indigenous arts and crafts, reviving cultural pride.
• They blamed British policies for the economic misery of Indians.

For instance:

• Neel Darpan exposed the cruelty of indigo planters.
• Bankim Chandra Chatterji’s Anandmath inspired with the song “Vande Mataram”, which became a national anthem of sorts for the freedom struggle.

Thus, literature gave heart and soul to the nationalist movement, while the press gave it voice and reasoning.

🏛 Rediscovery of India’s Past

One of the strongest propaganda lines used by the British was: “Indians have never been able to govern themselves; they have always needed strong rulers from outside.”

• This claim was repeated so often that many Indians began to internalise it. Some even lost faith in their own ability for self-rule.
• Nationalist leaders understood that without self-confidence, no movement could succeed.

So, to counter this, they began reminding people of India’s glorious past:

• The cultural heritage of India — in philosophy, literature, science, and art.
• The political achievements of rulers like Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya, Vikramaditya, and Akbar.

This rediscovery restored self-respect and gave Indians confidence that, if they had governed successfully in the past, they could certainly do so again.

⚠️ Negative Side

However, this rediscovery sometimes went to an extreme:

• Some nationalists glorified the past uncritically, ignoring the weaknesses and backwardness of ancient society. This false pride slowed down the fight against social evils.
• Also, by overemphasising only the ancient Hindu past and ignoring the achievements of the medieval (largely Indo-Islamic) period, it created grounds for communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims.

So, while rediscovery-built confidence, it also carried hidden dangers.

👥 Racial Discrimination

If rediscovery gave Indians pride, racial arrogance of the British gave them anger.

• The British consistently treated Indians as racially inferior.
• Indians were often forbidden to share train compartments, clubs, or public spaces with Europeans.
• Educated Indians, despite their degrees and achievements, were told that they could never be equal to Europeans.

This everyday humiliation created a sense of common suffering. Facing the same insult at the hands of the Englishman, Indians — irrespective of caste, creed, or province — began to see themselves as one people.

⚡ Immediate Political Factors

While long-term factors slowly built national consciousness, certain immediate political developments gave it sudden momentum. Two stand out:

🦚 Reactionary Regime of Lord Lytton (1876–80)

Lord Lytton was one of the most unpopular viceroys in Indian history. His policies showed open contempt for Indian aspirations:

1. Destruction of Indian textile industry – He abolished most import duties on British textiles, flooding India with cheap goods and further ruining Indian weavers.
2. Costly foreign wars – He dragged India into the Second Afghan War, paid for by Indian revenues, deepening resentment.
3. Discriminatory Laws –
   • Arms Act (1878): Indians needed a license to own arms, but Europeans were exempt.
   • Vernacular Press Act (1878): Silenced the Indian-language press from criticising the government.
4. Delhi Durbar of 1877 – A grand imperial ceremony was organised to proclaim Queen Victoria as Empress of India — right when a devastating famine was killing millions. Indians saw this as proof of the rulers’ insensitivity.
5. Civil Service Examination Age Limit Reduced – The maximum age was brought down from 21 to 19, making it harder for Indians to compete. It signalled that the British did not want Indians entering higher administration.

👉 All these policies convinced Indians that British rule was not just exploitative, but also deliberately humiliating.

⚖️ Ilbert Bill Controversy (1883)

Under Lord Ripon, a Bill was introduced to allow Indian district magistrates and session judges to try Europeans in criminal cases. On the face of it, it was a small step towards equality.

But the European community in India revolted:

• They launched a furious campaign claiming that “Indians, no matter how educated, cannot sit in judgement over Europeans.”
• Ultimately, the government bowed to this pressure and diluted the Bill.

For Indians, this episode was a moment of awakening:

• They realised that racial discrimination was not just social behaviour — it was built into the very system of colonial rule.
• They also learnt that unless they organised at a national level, their voices would not be heard.

This is why the Ilbert Bill agitation is often seen as a dress rehearsal for the later national movement.

🌿 Lord Ripon (1880–84): A Contrast

Interestingly, Ripon himself was more liberal than Lytton. He tried to win over educated Indians and use them to strengthen British rule. His measures included:

• Repealing the Vernacular Press Act.
• Promoting local self-government institutions (seen as the “father of local self-government in India”).
• Encouraging education.
• Ending the Afghan War.

However, even Ripon could not go far. The character of colonial rule itself placed limits on what any liberal viceroy could do. The Ilbert Bill controversy showed that whenever Indian interests clashed with European privilege, the British establishment always sided with the Europeans.