Abstract
This chapter studies how indigenous historiography was the first step in perceiving India as a nation. It investigates the role of print media, intellectuals, scholars and poets in the construction and consolidation of national identity by highlighting economic drainage and the poverty of the Indian masses owing to colonial exploitation. The chapter narrates how data collection, surveys and reports about the languages and religions of Indians equipped the colonial administration in politicizing religious–linguistic categories.
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- 1.
Prominent among them were: Voice of India (1883) started by Dadabhai Naoroji, Amrita Bazar Patrika (1868) under Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh, Kesari (1881) and Maharatta (1881) under Bal Gangadhar Tilak , Sudharak (1887) started by Gopal Ganesh Agarkar and edited by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, The Bengalee (1879) by Surendranath Banerjee , India Mirror (1861) by Manmohann Ghosh, Devendra Nath Tagore and Keshub Chandra Sen, The Hindu (1878) by T.T. Rangachariar, G. Subramanya Iyer and others, Bombay Chronicle (1910) by Firoze Shah Mehta, The Leader (1909) and Hindustan (1936) by Madan Mohan Malviya, Independent (1919) by Motilal Nehru, Mooknayak (1920) by B.R. Ambedkar , Al-Hilal (1912) by Abdul Kalam Azad, The Indian Sociologist (1905) by Shyamji Krishna Verma, Navjiwan (1929) Harijan (1933) and Young India (1919) by Gandhi , Vande Mataram (1905) by Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghose .
- 2.
For selected news pieces criticizing VPA and highlighting British atrocities, See the following: Ashruf-ul-Akhbar, 21st June 1880; Lok Bandhu 28th June 1891; Roznamcha-i-Qaisari (Allahabad) 15th September 1901; Najm-ul-Akhbar 16th August 1891; Bharat Jiwan, 5th November 1894.
- 3.
Famous among them are Govind Mahadev Ranade, Romesh Chandra Dutt, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bholanath Chandra, G.S Iyer, G.V. Joshi and later Bipin Chandra Pal and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Newspapers such as Amrita Bazar Patrika, a Bengali daily, The Hindu, the quarterly Journal of the Poona Sarvjanik Sabha, and the Kesari and Maratha newspapers regularly carried articles reflecting the poverty of Indians.
- 4.
For an anthropological analysis of India, see R. Srivatsan (2005) “Native Noses and Nationalist Zoos: Debates in Colonial and Early Nationalist Anthropology of Castes and Tribes”, in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 40(19):1986–1988.
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Sengupta, P. (2018). Building Identity: Information, Intellect and Inspiration. In: Language as Identity in Colonial India. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6844-7_4
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