“History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all played a part in the making of nationalism in India.” Support the statement.

“History and fiction, folklore and songs, popular prints and symbols, all played a part in the making of nationalism in India.” This statement is explained below:

● The Identity of a nation is usually related to a figure or an image that will help its citizens to identify the nation.

● With the growth of nationalism in the twentieth century, the image of India began to be associated with that of Bharat Mata. It was firstly created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.

● He also composed Vande Matram as a hymn to the motherland which was later included in his novel Anandamath and widely sung during the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal.

● Abanindranath Tagore painted the famous image of Bharat Mata. This painting as an ascetic figure displaying features of calm, compose, divine and spiritual.

● Over the years, this painting acquired many forms that were circulated in popular prints and was painted by different artists.

● Nationalists also began recording folktales sung by bards and they toured villages to gather folk songs and legends.

● They gave a true picture of the traditional culture that was corrupted and damaged by the Britishers.

● Tagore also began collecting ballads, nursery rhymes, and myths and led the movement of the folk revival.

● In Madras, Natesa Sastri published a 4 volume collection of Tamil folk tales called the folklore of Southern India.

● During the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, a tricolor flag was designed. It had three colors of red, green and yellow. It had 8 lotuses that represented the 8 provinces of British India and a crescent moon representing Hindus and Muslims.

● Mahatma Gandhi also designed the Swaraj flag by 1921. It was also a tricolor of red, green and white having a spinning wheel in the center representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help.

● The Indian writers also wrote about the glorious achievements of Indians in the field of art and architecture, science and maths, law and philosophy and art and craft.