Indian Nationalism: Theories and History

Indian Nationalism

• Western social theories aid in understanding Indian nationalism.
• Ernest Gellner's work on the relationship between the state and nation provides understanding.
• Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" offers valuable insights.
• Early development of capitalist industries is a temporal precondition to nationalism.
• Theory does not explain the origins of Indian nationalist sentiments due to sparse industrial development until the mid-twentieth century.
• Indian nationalism must be understood in the context of specific historical circumstances.

Historical Preconditions for Indian Identity

• There is a debate on the modernity of nationalism in India.
• Unification and aspiration for a common political entity was a modern phenomenon, according to historians and sociologists.
• Pre-modern collective self-recognitions were cultural, not political.
• Hindu epics and narratives around Rama, Krishna, and the Buddha were commonly recognized.
• The Mughal period fostered connections between Sanskrit and Persian learning.
• Medieval Indian history showed simultaneous lateral exchange between Sanskrit and Persian cultures, and vertical exchange between vernaculars and cosmopolitan languages.
• These historical processes led to a complex structure of common culture in pre-modern India.
• Modern Indian political culture has roots in historical structures.
• Indian nationalism and the post-Independence state adapted to this historical structure instead of dismantling it.
• Two forms of cultural commonness exist: first and second degree, based on language use and intelligibility.
• Individuals often understand more languages than they fluently speak.
• Indian bilingualism involves using one language but understanding others.
• Use of Tamil creates cultural commonness; many Tamil speakers understand English or Hindi.
• Ordinary Indians are exposed to vertical and lateral connections between first and second-degree cultures.
• Pre-modern culture involved practicing first and second-degree commonness.
• Bengali Vaishnavas treat Gaudiya Vaishnava worshippers as having a common culture.
• They include those with different versions of the Vaishnava faith in other regions.
• The capacity to produce first and second-degree commonness was adapted to modern political construction in the 20th century.

Nationalist History of Nationalism

• Indian nationalism created a teleological history, presenting a single narrative from Ram Mohan Roy to Jawaharlal Nehru.
• Teleological narrative obscures differences between stages of nationalist growth.
• As the British departure neared, differences regarding the social constitution of the nation intensified.
• The Nehruvian victory in the 1950s equated Indian nationalism with a secular, pluralist vision.
• Radically different nationalist ideas did not disappear entirely.
• Hindu nationalism reappeared in the 1980s.
• It sought to impose an anti-pluralist history, reasons should be viewed inside pre-Independence nationalist politics.

Early Regional Patriotism

• The history of nationalism's starting point is an interesting point.
• Modern nationalism emerges from a specialness among groups and the politicization of this idea.
• Stable pre-modern territorial identifications existed where regional kingdoms were formed.
• From the second millennium, territorial unities developed regional cultures based on vernacular literatures.
• Areas like Orissa, Bihar, Bengal, Assam, and Andhra had territorial names with ancient genealogies.
• A sense of specialness emerged in linguistically bounded regions.
• Modern culture introduced divides, transforming Indian society.
• It created differences between culture adopters and those adhering to older forms.
• Modern research shows the consequences of cultural change.
• Modernist elite and literate Bengalis were impressed by their cultural resemblance to the British.
• There was a cognitive orientation from illiterate subjects, and culturally backward neighbours.
• Early regional patriotism was deeply loyal to British rule.
• Territorial identity was confined to Bengal and its Bengali-speaking inhabitants.
• Ram Mohan Roy hoped the British would not leave India for 200 years.

Emergence of Anti-Colonial Patriotism

• By the 1860s, Bengali writers showed discontent against British rule, different from the 1857-8 rebellion.
• Colonial ideology of economic prosperity was compared to the reality of British rule.
• Disaffection appeared in Bengali literature in the 1860s.
• Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was a key figure, using literary satire for anti-colonial criticism.
• Intellectuals adopting liberal ideas disliked the lack of representation.
• Those adopting political equality ideas from the Enlightenment found the racial basis of colonial rule repugnant.
• Colonial education produced unintended consequences.

Emergence of Political Nationalism

• Slow dissatisfaction with the British government took two forms.
• British policies affected two fundamental classes in Indian society.
• The modernist elite felt mildly discontented.
• Sections of the elite questioned restrictions on liberal society principles.
• Their disappointment was mild, recognizing their dependence on British power.
• British land revenue policies drove the peasantry to desperation.
• Modern elites used British law to form political associations, leading to the loyal INC in 1895.
• Elites despised peasants and feared rebellions.
• Peasants saw elites as instruments of the colonial state.
• Uprisings expressed opposition to land revenue demands.
• These types of politics were disconnected.
• A movement combining peasant support with middle-class politics was needed to challenge British power.
• Gandhi's mobilizations in the early 1920s achieved this combination.
• Nationalist agitations combined resources from elites and business, petty bourgeoisie, and the Indian peasantry.
• "Common sense" imparted cognitive and practical cohesion despite social inequalities.
• Gandhi connected divergent forms of "common sense".

Internal Complexities of Indian Nationalism

• The identity of being 'Indian' was a modern invention due to British rule.
• First identity was based on territorial regions.
• Regions were held together by kingdoms and linguistic cultures.
• Second, identities were based on long-standing religious communities.
• Religious communities were entirely coincident and dependent on political power.
• Indian nationalism resolved contradictions with regional identities.
• National identity was a second-order that subsumed cultural regions.
• Majority and minority was in reference to identity, and not voting.
• After Independence, the state was to maintain equal distance from all religions.

Internal Diversity

• Indian state institutions practiced equal respect for and distance from all religions.
• This aligned with Gandhi and Tagore's ideas rather than the radical Left.
• Nehru's modernist secularism was tempered by political realism.

Diversity of Nationalism and Construction of the State

• After Independence, political tendencies had to agree on institutional form.
• Key issues were the relationship between the nation, religious communities, and regional cultures.
• Partition influenced debates in the Constituent Assembly.
• The Assembly favored religious pluralism.
• The principle rejected exclusive claims of single identities.
• Individuals need multiple levels of identity in a pluralistic society.

Banal Nationalism

• Indian nationalism had three phases: enthusiasm during the Independence movement.
• Institution construction, and banality through constant repetition.
• State-controlled media, popular culture, and evocations of nationalist leaders caused people to forget the past of Indian nationalism.
• Congress government associated nationalism with the Congress party.
• Lower-caste groups asserted the constitutional promises were ineffectual since the 1970's.
• Hindu nationalist groups challenged pluralist nationalism.
• Regional identities did not challenge the idea of an Indian nation-state after 1956.
• Dissatisfaction festered in Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, and the Northeast.
• Degradation of democracy and perceptions of injustice based on regional, religious and economic issues occured.
• State and market operate on a national scale, supporting a strong national state.

Nationalism and Globalization

• Two primary forces: economic-drove globalization.
• The collapse of communism and liberalization of economies resulted in global capitalist economy.
• The capitalist economy had unprecedented trade.
• A second aspect is the perception of indivisibility and global.
• The state faces a historical transformation.
• Functions of nation-states are being unpacked.
• Political authority is redistributed.
• Redistribution can occur sub-nationally, regionally, and internationally.
• The state controls globalization consequences and assists economies to benefit.
• Recent Indian economic growth has led to political parties seeking credit and nationalism among business leaders.
• Political discourse attempts to reconfigure the central ideas of Indian nationalism.
• Hindu nationalist politics suggests a less pluralist conception of the nation.
• Efforts restate Nehruvian nationalism meeting demands of marginalised groups.
• Indian nationalism is at the threshold of a new stage.