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ENG2D English

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ENG2D English
  • Subject Code :  

    ENG2D

  • Country :  

    CA

  • University :  

    Virtual High School

Answers:

Indian Nationalism, if rightly said is the by product of the long British rule in India. The great nationalism movement that took place in India was a primary source of inspiration for many other countries that fought a similar battle especially Africa and other parts of Asia which faced similar situations and colonial rule (McLane, 2015). Intelligentsia refers to the class of people who are educated and are generally engage in activities that require the complex use of the mind and an ability to critique. This group of people normally plays a very major role in the act of bringing anew change in the society (Balthaser,2018). Therefore, it is very clear that when the major movement of nationalism and patriotism took place in India, then the intelligentsia of the contemporary Indian society played a major role in the movement. In this essay we will find out how patriotism and nationalism is more common among the intelligentsia.

Particularly in the case of India, they have been suppressed and subdued for a long span of two hundred years by the forces of the British colonial power because of the ununited stature of the nation. This lack of unity was caused essentially due to the multiple culture, linguistics and other factors that were prevalent in the society. The first step of nationalism for the country was brought by the action of uniting these people belonging to the diverse culture and linguistics. This much needed unification of the mass was made possible by the contemporary people who belonged to the educated class of the nation and formed the party which is known as the Indian National Congress (Orwell,2018).

The main force for all these members were common that is nationalism and patriotism that made them demand for sovereignty. It was due to the long British rule in India that resulted in the development and awakening of a new political consciousness among the people of the nation. It must however be remembered that though majority of the people living in the country of India were illiterate, there was very little chance of awakening of the consciousness among them. It was due to the educated class of people of the nation that there was an upright understanding of sovereignty among the people of the nation.

The reasons for patriotism and nationalism being common among the people who are known to be the intelligentsia is evident. The people belonging to this class are normally people who are educated. They are also people who possessed a mind that is critical and able to understand the complex exploitation of the society in the hands of the British colonial rulers. It was the intellectual class of people that had successfully exposed the exploitative nature of the British rule in front of the common mass. It is due to this class of intelligentsia that the common people of the country got the confidence to fight back against the various exploitations that they faced relentlessly.

It was the intellectual people of the country who were first exposed to the different fights of nationalisms in the other parts of the world. It is due to the capability to read to the examples of the great nationalists and their movement that notably changed the attitude of the intellectual people towards the British rule (Basu,2018). The press played a very significant role in the shaping of the attitudes of the people of the country. During this type nationalist poems and novels written to find out the glorious past of India before the colonization and even before the medieval age of the Muslim attacks naturally gave rise to a deep sense of patriotism and nationalism among the people of the nation.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, initially the educated people or the intelligentsia believed in the beneficiary side of the British rule, the scenario changed in the second half of the nineteenth century (Nayak, 2019) The racist arrogance and the continuous denial of equal rights to the Indians aggravated the critical and reasonable minds of the intellectual people of the country. Liberal egalitarian ideas that were essentially democratic in nature opened the minds of the eyes of the intelligentsia (Hutchinson,2015).

There was a noted dissatisfaction among these people. During this period another prominent trend that was witnessed is the exceeding rise of the vernacular literature, press and pamphlets that gave rise to an increasing consciousness about the idea of nationalism among the common people (Haithcox,2015). Though initially, the intelligentsia had complete trust on the British rule, the repeated famines that were caused as a result of the British rule inflicted severe doubts in the critical minds of the intellectual people. Among the first intelligentsia to strongly criticize the exploitation of the Indians by the Britishers were Dadabhai Naoroji and Ramesh Chunder Dutt (Visana,2016).

As a result, the intellectual and educated people of the country understood the need to establish a unified association that would help them to put forward their demands in front of the British authority. At the very moment, Allan Octavian Hume, a retired member of the Civil service understood the need of unifying a group of intellectuals in a common representative body that would prove to be the voice of the Indians to present their problems and demands in front of the British people (Lubelsky,2019). Therefore, the body was formed that was famously known as the Indian National Congress. Though it is true 5that Allan Octavian Hume played a very important role in the formation of the Indian National Congress, it was majorly the idea of the Indian intelligentsia to form the same.

There are many debates that follow regarding the role of the intelligentsia in the nationalism and patriotism movement in India. Though it is true that the feeling of nationalism had affected the entire nation and the general mass plays a very important role in the movement through the massive fight and resistance against the British colonial rule there is no denial regarding the fact that nationalism and patriotism was a common factor among the intelligentsia. Throughout the country, the intellectual people unified over the feelings of nationalism and patriotism that was very common among them (Kaufmann,2017). It was this intelligentsia class of people across the country who actually instilled the sense of freedom among the common people. It is also the intellectual people who inspired the commoners to resist the British exploitation and fight for their sovereignty.  

To conclude the essay, it may be said that patriotism or nationalism is more common among the intelligentsia. It is the intellectual mind of the intelligentsia that first understood the necessity of posing a resistance to the much exploitative rule of the Britishers. Though initially they kept their faith in the rule of the British colonial rulers and thought it to be beneficial for rthe people of India, they ultimately understood the truth. It is also their capability to read and interact with the other leaders that they had a common idea regarding the feeling of nationalism. It is also the intelligentsia that ultimately channeled the thoughts of the mass towards the latent patriotism in their hearts. The intelligentsia played a major role in shaping the political consciousness among the mass regarding the exploitative rule of the British colonial leaders and instilled in them a sense of freedom and patriotism. Thus the aggressive freedom movement that continued in the later times owe much to the intelligentsia of the time.

References

Balthaser, B. (2018). “A New Indian Intelligentsia”: Archie Phinney and the Search for a Radical Native American Modernity. In Indigenous Visions (pp. 258-276). Yale University Press.

Basu, S. (2018). Unit-5 Foundations of Indian Nationalism. IGNOU.

Haithcox, J. P. (2015). Communism and Nationalism in India. Princeton University Press.

Hutchinson, J. (2015). Cultural nationalism. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, 1-5.

Kaufmann, E. (2017). Complexity and nationalism. Nations and Nationalism, 23(1), 6-25.

Lubelsky, I. (2019). Allan Octavian Hume, Madame Blavatsky, and the Foundation of the Indian National Congress. Imagining the East: The Early Theosophical Society, 273.

McLane, J. R. (2015). Indian nationalism and the early Congress (Vol. 1403). Princeton University Press.

Nayak, A. K. The Middle Class Intelligentsia and the Question of Peasant Leadership in Colonial Odisha: A Case Study of the Praja Pratinidhi Sabha (1912-13 AD).

Orwell, G. (2018). Notes on nationalism. Penguin UK.

Visana, V. (2016). Vernacular liberalism, capitalism, and anti-imperialism in the political thought of Dadabhai Naoroji. The Historical Journal, 59(3), 775.

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