Nationalism in India Past and Present

A persuasive redefinition of nationalism by one of the most eminent historians of India. What makes a people living in a mere geographical expression a nation? From the French Revolution onwards, the word nation came to denote a people who wish to be collectively free. But free from whatcolonial rule and inequality? Or religious and cultural diversity? In this timely and succinct essay, Irfan Habib charts Indias struggle to consolidate a nationalist identity, to identify what it sought to be free from. Even as the colonial regime denied the very possibility of nationalism in the subcontinent, opposition to British rule fomented just such a sentiment. But resistance against colonial exploitation alone could not unify the Indian people. Internal inequalitiescaste, poverty, religious bigotryremained (and still remain) to be tackled.