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Home , Indian nationalism, Liberalism in India

According to academic Gianfranco The Development of Poggi, is an essential Indian National Identity ingredient of . Each nation-state is And the impact of the British “made [a] historical reality… purposively constructed, functionally specific machine.”18 Raj Each has a constant need to legitimize itself in Zainab Zaheer the eyes of its citizens by providing a national ideology. The modern nation-state mobilizes his paper will attempt to answer the commitment based on this idea of national question “How did modern-day identity. This commitment requires that T Indian national identity develop and Indian national identity be fluid, continually in what ways was it a product of the British sustained, and able to change. Raj?” In order to do this, the essay will first The study of how these definitions trace the development of a unifying national apply to different states is vast, but for the identity in British , and then tie this to purposes of this paper we will focus on Indian key elements of national identity in the . modern-day state. In order to explore the gradual formation of a distinct national FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO INDIAN rhetoric, this paper will briefly explore the NATIONALISM work of both and British India was ruled by centralized , and the roles they played in state and political institutions. By building this shaping Indian national consciousness. overarching administrative structure, the British would unknowingly ease the NATIONAL IDENTITY VS. NATIONALISM development Indian nationalism. During and In order to define national identity, it after Indian independence, influential is necessary to understand the closely linked nationalist leaders would emphasize that both but distinct concept of nationalism. This the beliefs and efforts of the paper chooses to define nationalism as a belief would be best served if the unity of the in the significance of a geographical or imperial state were kept intact but was demographical region and a conviction in that controlled by Indians. region’s right to independence in order to Unlike most colonial nationalist protect its culture or ethnicity. In contrast, projects, Indian nationalists did not want to scholars often define national identity as a carve one piece of British India for sense of belonging to a state or nation, which themselves. Instead, they sought to claim the is represented by a culture and language, and a entirety of that empire, aiming to bring a land 17 variety of traditions. with fourteen major languages and over two hundred dialects under an overarching identity: India. According to Joya Chatterji,

17 Richard D. Ashmore, Lee Jussim and David Wilder, Social Identity, Intergroup Conflict, and 18 Gianfranco Poggi, The Development of the Conflict Reduction (New York: Oxford University Modern State (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 74–75. Press, 1978), 95-101.

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“[t]he British in India were not in the business communications networks such as railways, of promoting nationhood amongst their roads, and a telegraph network were expanded subjects: indeed, when challenged by critics in order to rapidly send troops across the claiming to speak for an Indian nation, their subcontinent in case of rebellion, and response was to declare that India was irrigation projects were carried out throughout nothing more than a “geographical the Punjab (a geographical region in one of expression”.19 This geographical expression the northernmost parts of the Indian did not consist of a community that identified subcontinent). This transformation came at a itself as a nation or as a strong state that huge cost. White troops were paid higher sought to create a sense of nationalism. Unlike wages and taxes were raised and collected other nationalist projects in the nineteenth more efficiently in order to pay for century (such as the Egyptians against the widespread development. Ottoman Empire or the Slavs against the More white men were brought to Habsburg Empire) India did not face internal India to “develop” the Indian economy and revolutions or external wars, both of which local bodies were created to collect taxes. had proven to inspire modern nationalist Local populations took the opportunity to call movements in the past. for self-government and to try to influence After the War of Independence in policy locally and at imperial centers of power, 1857, the Company’s rule was such as Calcutta and London. This process replaced by the British monarchy and new continued to escalate over the next several structures of government were established, years, resulting in a situation where: including governors, presidencies and provinces. A system of civil servants and [T]he very structures of the British subordinates was created with the express Empire unwittingly generated the goal of involving the “natives” in government, motor force that drove Indians in order to create a sense of ownership among operating in these different arenas of the population without truly devolving power politics to forge new linkages and to them. “This new apparatus of rule sought alliances. These alliances were the to recruit Indians in vast numbers into the crucial adhesive that came to bind the service of a government capable of local, the provincial, and the all-India intervening more effectively than before in arenas into a single, interconnected Indian life in areas that the East India field of politics, matching the Company—its reformist policies interconnected structures of notwithstanding—had in practice left well government with which it aimed to alone.”20 To bring stability and prevent any engage.21 threat of revolt, several measures were taken: more white troops were stationed in India, THE INDIAN NATION AS AN IDEA 19 Joya Chatterji, “ in India, 1857- As the state developed in the 1947,” in The Oxford Handbook of the History of nineteenth century so did civil society, public Nationalism, ed. John Breuilly (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 243. 20 Ibid., 245. 21 Ivi.

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awareness, and involvement. Religious, legal, that concerned Indians, regardless of region and bureaucratic literati (those whose families or religion. By this time, all-Indian nationalism had served British rulers for generations, had spread beyond elitist circles, spurred by including Mughals and regional nawabs) had the increasing intervention of British learned English and understood European administration and an increase in English history. They began to question the education. This further catalyzed the creation disparaging “white man’s narrative” that of a “secular-intelligentsia” that pushed for explained how and why earlier rulers on the nationalism.24 subcontinent had so easily been defeated. As more natives gained an English Convinced that it must be because Indians education and became involved in local and had lost their culture, some like Raja Ram provincial government structures, they Mohun Roy and Sayyid Ahmed Khan, called became increasingly aware of the enforced for modernization and reform by lobbying the difference between themselves and the British government to support educational “whites.” The blatant racial discrimination initiatives (like Khan’s university at Aligrah) they faced turned many “would-be and to outlaw “backward” practices such as collaborators” against their colonial masters.25 satti (the burning of widows).22 Some scholars Their resentment needed an outlet; the argue that these movements were early number of printing presses owned by Indians examples of India’s emerging constitutional increased dramatically. The content they because such reformers insisted that produced challenged the government and it was the government’s responsibility to included the Indian public in the conversation provide for the common good. Later, the on the Indian nation. The desire for paper will argue that Indian nationalists only protection and justice from the state inspired sought to gather power for the greater good a generation of lawyers and journalists. Slowly, of those who fit their definition of “Indian.” the term “native” came to define one’s Towards the close of the nineteenth “Indian-ness”. The varied peoples ruled by century, the idea of a nationalism began to the Raj came together under a unifying, come to the forefront on the Indian territorially-defined sense of identity. subcontinent. In 1893, , one of the founding fathers of the Indian National THE ROLE OF THE , said, “I am an Indian and owe duty CONGRESS & GANDHI to my work and all my countrymen. Whether The Indian National Congress was a I am a Hindu or a Mahommedan, a Parsi, a group of lawyers and journalists, educated Christian, or of any other creed, I am above elites with Western education, who sought all an Indian. Our country is India and our greater native representation, of nationality is Indian.”23 This was became the

INC’s central tenet, to influence policy issues 24 Anthony D. Smith, Theories of Nationalism (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1983), xxii–xxiii. 22 Christopher A. Bayly, “Rammohun Roy and 25 Rajat Kanta Ray, Social Conflict and Political the Advent of Constitutional Liberalism in India, Unrest in , 1875–1927 (Oxford: Oxford 1800–1830,” Modern Intellectual History 4, 1, University Press, 1984); 2007, doi: 10.1017/S1479244306001028. Sumit Sarkar, Modern India 1885–1947 (New 23 Chatterji, “Nationalisms in India,” 249. York: Macmillan, 2000), 22–24.

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press, equal treatment, and economic refuse to uphold the Government by opportunity. The Congress contributed withdrawing cooperation from it. 27 significantly to all-India nationalism by Gandhi encouraged the all-India providing a forum for conversation and Congress to demand full independence, or organized all-India nationalism by fashioning , and called for Indians to boycott “a secular critique of British rule.”26 Their promotions to the provincial councils strategy was to appeal to the British promised under diarchy (the Act of 1920). He government as imperial subjects and launched a non-cooperation movement, emphasize how the very liberal values the , and claimed to speak for the British sought to encourage were being ordinary people of India. It was this that won damaged on the subcontinent. the INC a “more broad-based and disparate India paid a heavy price after World following” than ever before.28 A masterful War I. Heavily-taxed merchants, peasants politician, Gandhi had recruited supporters overwhelmed by price fluctuations and a lack powerful enough to mobilize the masses for of resources, and demoralized soldiers began local campaigns. These included “rich to view the INC as a medium to express their peasants in Gujarat, prohibitionists in discontent. In 1920, the British government in Karnataka, and Khilafatists in Bengal and India responded with the concept of diarchy. .”29 They seduced moderate Indian politicians Ghandi spoke in a way that the with the promise of influence in provincial common man could use and understand. Both councils in order to undermine the still fragile symbolically and semantically, he sought to “all-India” political unity. connect with the everyday Indian. He drew In the years following WWI, Mahatma attention to the weavers, artisans, and Gandhi arrived in India as a critic of the craftsmen losing their livelihood under British state’s ability to improve social conditions and rule by deciding to stop wearing clothes as a social and religious reformer, rather than woven on British looms and to instead wear a political figure. Unlike Khan, Roy, and other cloth he had made himself on a spinning intellectuals of the time, Gandhi believed that wheel. “By his symbolic adoption of the the British were successful in conquering spinning wheel and (hand-woven cloth), India because Indians cooperated with British Gandhi advertised to every Indian that British forces. Ghandi said that Indians had enabled rule was amoral and illegitimate.”30 In his the British by being seduced by materialism book Imperial Power & Popular Politics, and western ideas of modernity. Chandavarkar argues that Gandhi inspired the …we must refuse to submit to this masses because of his skill in turning “the official violence. Appeal to Parliament by all means if necessary, but if the parliament fails us and we are worthy to call ourselves a nation, we must 27 Judith Brown, Gandhi’s Rise to Power: Indian Politics 1915-1922 (Cambridge: Cambridge South Asian Studies, 1974), 245. 28 Chatterji, “Nationalisms in India,” 255. 29 Ivi. 26 Chatterji, “Nationalisms in India,” 252. 30 Ibid, 256.

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blandest metaphor and the most platitudinous demanded an immediate share of central axiom in a distinctly subversive direction…”31 power and Jinnah, the self-appointed leader of Gandhi’s success was not without Muslims in the subcontinent, passed the setbacks. Some INC members were alarmed Lahore Resolution of 1940 calling for a by his mass movements. Satyagraha led to separate state for Muslims. 32 The pursuit of a violence that eventually caused Gandhi to call national Indian identity was complicated and off the movement because he was unable to INC control was threatened. INC leaders control outbursts across the country. Many such as Jawaharlal Nehru denounced the leaders abandoned non-cooperation and Resolution and considered it insignificant, a sought to join the provincial councils created mistake that fueled the fire for the movement by the British with the idea of working within for a separate Muslim nation. the system to conquer it. Gandhi was able to During World War II, Britain’s push the INC through this period of economy suffered and the new Labour party instability by advocating for a new began to look for a quick exit solution. The constitution for the party that would create a Raj was soon no longer sustainable for Great Working Committee, fifteen leaders who Britain. With political unrest and mass would exercise strong, centralized control violence looming, as well as famine and a over a loosely organized and divided party. declining economy, India had turned into a Over time, it became clear that Gandhi’s liability. Negotiating with the INC and ability to mass-mobilize supported the Jinnah’s Muslim League proved difficult as Congress’s ability to negotiate with the British both parties had reservations against the over constitutional reforms. The looming other, however. The INC was threat of widespread revolt pressured the uncompromising towards Muslim demands. British to cooperate with the INC’s demands. In the end, British India was divided into two The INC came to be seen as an effective unequal parts designed to “cut out the vehicle that influenced the people and that troublesome Muslim-majority districts in the represented the people. west and east…”33 Out of this negotiation, was born. As Joya Chatterji says, SEPARATIST SENTIMENTS TAKE HOLD [W]e have the final paradox of all- The INC’s popular hold was not India nationalism encapsulated by the unchallenged. In the 1930s, its unifying Congress: its determination to inherit message of all-India began to fragment with the mighty imperial state constructed the , the , by the British in India led to the and Muslim spokesperson M. A. Jinnah’s 14 division of that empire. That partition Points. Opponents claimed that minority was the outcome of a curious and were being threatened and the INC was covert political entente between the unable to address these fears satisfactorily. At weak and unprincipled Viceroy of a the outbreak of World War II, Congress

32 "Lahore Resolution (1940)," History Pak, 31 Raj Chandavarkar, Imperial Power and accessed May 06, 2016, Popular Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge http://historypak.com/lahore-resolution-1940/. University Press, 1998). 33 Chatterji, “Nationalisms in India,” 259.

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declining imperial power, ‘civic’ of India. All religious communities were nationalists in a hurry to achieve recognized equally and religious schools were independence with a strong centre, eligible for state funding.37 Hindu cultural nationalists in Bengal Minorities received concessions, and determined to protect its unique Nehru sought to accommodate Muslims who ‘genius’, and leaders of had chosen to stay in India.38 While a uniform right keen to purge of civil code was proposed, Muslims were Muslim traitors.34 allowed to use Shariah law within their communities and was UNITING INDIA: NEHRU’S GOVERNMENT recognized as a fundamental right.39 One of Different social, ethnic, and cultural the building blocks of Nehru’s pluralistic groups in the newly-formed, independent vision for India was multilingualism. Hindu Indian state interpreted nationalism nationalists wanted the state language to be differently. The inclusive idea upon which all- Hindi, but Nehru pushed for the Constitution India nationalism had so far been based was in English as well.40 In 1963, English became fractured. Since 1947, successive governments an associate official language. “worked to bring about ‘the emotional This commitment to plurality was integration of India’, precisely because ‘India’ made evident by the constitutional never was wholly united behind its recognition of fifteen official languages and nationalism, and because ‘the nation’ was the reorganization of certain states based on imagined by its people in many contradictory linguistic boundaries.41 and ways.”35 Gujrat, for example, were created due to The Constituent Assembly was public demand in 1960. Over the first few divided ideologically between Ghandi and decades of India’s independence, the Nehru’s multicultural brand of national government showed great flexibility in identity and a desire for a Hindu India. After accommodating regional and linguistic Gandhi’s assassination by a Hindu nationalist nationalisms by recognizing Punjabis, Nagas, less than two years after the Constitution was and Mizos. To promote religious impartiality written, Nehru became the voice of a secular national identity. He aimed to create a 37 The , Article 25, accessed pluralistic society and believed India’s strength May 05, 2016, http://lawmin.nic.in/olwing/coi/coi- lay in its multiculturalism.36 Hindu nationalists english/coi-indexenglish.htm. 38 aimed for Hindu domination and viewed Sarvepalli Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru (London: Oxford India Paperbacks, 1984), 3 and 172. Muslims as threats to national stability. As a 39 The Constitution of India, Article 25 result of Nehru’s influence during the 40 Christophe Jaffrelot, “Nation-Building and Constituent Assembly debates, Nationalism: South Asia, 1947–90,” in The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism, became the official doctrine of the ed. John Breuilly (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). 41 "Language Provisions in the Constitution of 34 Ivi. the Indian Union." Site for Language 35 Ibid, 260. Management in Canada (SLMC). Accessed May 36 Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India 05, 2016. (London: Penguin, 1946 and 1989), 50. https://slmc.uottawa.ca/?q=bi_india_constitution.

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and a ‘Hindu-only image, “the Indian Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or National Republic drew upon to adorn itself Volunteer Corps, is the modern-day political with symbols that could be both Indian and representation of and is neutral: the official emblem replicates the one of the largest organizations in India. lions of , the great Buddhist emperor, The RSS grew increasingly influential for instance.”42 over the next 60 years. In 1955, it formed the This federal flexibility was a product Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, also known as the of Nehru’s secular ideology triumphing over Indian Workers’ Union, to promote Hindu that of the Hindu traditionalists, but it did not nationalist ideology (and which is now the survive long. Neither his successors, nor the country’s largest trade union).45 The union has Hindu traditionalist local leaders were willing helped to develop a school network, a to follow through with his secularism. Hindi religious framework, and has provided was declared the official language in the development assistance in impoverished areas. province in . Despite the central In addition, the RSS created the Family of the government’s recommendation, there was Sangh which lead to a weakening of great opposition to the instruction of Urdu in and the development of state schools.43 Hindi was patronized through anti-Muslim feelings.46 promotion of literature, the slaughtering of Though once dominant, the Indian cows was banned, and violence against National Congress suffered a historic defeat in Muslims was carried out in Aligarh, Varanasi, 2014 (the country’s most recent election). The etc. INC won only 44 out of 543 constituency seats in the lower house of parliament. The MODERN DAY VOICES IN INDIA Bharatiya (BJP), which swept the The secular framework began to come election with 282 seats as well as complete undone in the 1980s during ’s control of four states, is a right wing party third term in office, after her administration with close ideological and organizational links began to exploit communal feelings.44 After to the Hindu nationalist, Rashtriya her assassination, Rajiv Gandhi continued this Swayamsevak Sangh.47 This recent turn of practice and eventually incited Hindu events developed out of a weakening of the backlash, as an increasing number of Indian economy and the INC’s failure to felt treated as second-class citizens. Ever since, Hindu nationalists have played a much 45 more dominant role in national politics. The "Welcome to Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh," Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, accessed May 05, 2016, 42 Jaffrelot, “Nation-Building and Nationalism.” http://bms.org.in/pages/BMSATGlance.aspx. 43 Bruce Graham, Hindu Nationalism and Indian 46 Christophe Jaffrelot, The : A Politics: The Origins and Development of the Reader, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Bharatiya Jana Sangh (Cambridge: Cambridge 2005). University Press, 1990), 113. 47 "Election Results 2014: Historic Win for NDA 44 "1980: Gandhi Returned by Landslide Vote," with 336 Seats, 282 for BJP," Firstpost, May 17, BBC News, January 07, 1980, accessed May 2014, accessed May 05, 2016, 06, 2016, http://www.firstpost.com/politics/election-results- http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/j 2014-historic-win-for-nda-with-336-seats-285- anuary/7/newsid_2506000/2506387.stm. for-bjp-1526377.html.

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effectively engage younger voters. In contrast, becoming more institutionalized, transparent, BJP leader, Narendra Modi, ran one of the and stable. most innovative and successful election campaigns that India has ever seen, making CONCLUSION heavy use of social media, and taking While India developed out of a push advantages of the weaknesses of the then- for an all-inclusive national identity, modern- government, such as corruption scandals.48 day India national identity emphasizes Modi’s victory has signaled a shift in homogeneity. Minorities face what Jaffrelot Indian political development. His campaign calls “the growing Hindu-oriented focused more on ideology than his opponents xenophobia”.51 Despite this, India’s and less on ethnicity, , language, and multilingualism is still strong. The creation of religion, though these factors were still visibly linguistic regions helped diffuse tensions at present. According to a Brookings article, “in the creation of the state and ethno-nationalist 2014 they took a back seat to punishing the separatists were largely quelled. Of course, party in power for presiding over falling Ghandi and Nehru deserve a huge portion of growth rates, inflation, and a rupee that had the credit for India’s early success in lost up to 25 percent in value before inclusivity. Gandhi worked to make these recovering.”49 This is not to say that religion is values widely accepted and Nehru worked to no longer a strong factor. Exit polls showed incorporate them into the state structure. that less than 10% of the Muslim population Indian nation-building was voted for the BJP, meaning the largest strengthened in large part because of the early minority religion is not represented by the focus on mass political literacy and an party in power.50 While there has been institutionalized focus on plurality. It is progress (there is less political corruption and important, however, to recognize that India fewer regional parties demanding has never been free of serious challenges in representation, for instance), the Indian the form of regional nationalisms. India, the political system has a long way to go to before nation-state, survived through a process of continuous reformation, regeneration, and 48 Narendra Modi, "Largest Mass Outreach flexibility in order to win popular favor. While Campaign in Electoral History of a ," today’s in many ways similar to the April 29, 2014, accessed May 05, 2016, http://www.narendramodi.in/largest-mass- India formed in 1947, modern-day India outreach-campaign-in-electoral-history-of-a- would be wise to revisit the multicultural democracy-3136. foundations of the state. 49 Raj M. Desai, "India's Political Development at the Crossroads," The Brookings Institution, May 19, 2014, http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/up- front/posts/2014/05/19-india-political- development-desai. 50 Sandipan Sharma, " Exit Polls Over; the Voters May Have Turned Smarter than Netas and Pundits - Firstpost," Firstpost, November 06, 2015, accessed May 05, 2016, http://www.firstpost.com/politics/bihar-exit-polls- hint-at-all-outcomes-voters-may-have-turned- smarter-than-netas-pundits-2497084.html. 51Jaffrelot, “Nation-Building and Nationalism.”

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