“Ideas of Nationalism also developed through a movement to revive Indian folklore.” Support the statement with four examples.

Nationalist before independence started travelled to many villages to gather folk songs and legends and to record folk tales sung by bards. They believed that traditional culture depicts what are actual culture is and at that time was corrupted by the outside forces. So it had become essential to preserve this traditional culture like Indian folklore by discovering one’s identity and create a sense of pride among them. Following were the examples -

• Rabindranath Tagore in Bengal started collecting ballads, nursery rhymes and myths and initiated the movement to revive the folk tradition.

• Natesa Sastri in Madras published a book called The Folklore of Southern India which was included four volumes all associated with Tamil folk tales.

• Natesa Sastri considered folklore as national literature and ‘the most trustworthy manifestation of people’s real thoughts and characteristics’.

• The famous novel Anandamath, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay included the hymn titled ‘Vande Mataram’, and during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, this hymn was widely sung.

Thus, it is clear that “Ideas of Nationalism also developed through a movement to revive Indian folklore.”