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The identity of the nation, as you know (see Chapter 1), is most often symbolised in a figure or image. This helps create an image with which people can identify the nation. It was in the twentieth century,withthegrowthof nationalism,thattheidentityof India cametobevisuallyassociatedwiththeimageofBharatMata.The imagewasfirstcreatedbyBankimChandraChattopadhyay.Inthe 1870s he wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ as a hymn to the motherland. LateritwasincludedinhisnovelAnandamathandwidelysungduring the Swadeshi movement in Bengal. Moved by the Swadeshi movement, Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of BharatMata(seeFig.12).InthispaintingBharatMataisportrayed as an ascetic figure; she is calm, composed, divine and spiritual. In subsequent years, the image of Bharat Mata acquired many different forms,as it circulated in popular prints, and was painted bydifferentartists(seeFig.14).Devotiontothismotherfigurecame tobeseenasevidenceof one’snationalism. Ideasofnationalismalsodevelopedthroughamovementtorevive Indianfolklore. Inlate-nineteenth-centuryIndia,nationalistsbegan recordingfolktalessungbybardsandtheytouredvillagestogather folksongsandlegends.Thesetales,theybelieved,gaveatruepicture of traditional culture that had been corrupted and damaged by outside forces. It was essential to preserve this folk tradition in ordertodiscoverone’snationalidentityandrestoreasenseof pride Fig. 12 – Bharat Mata, Abanindranath Tagore, inone’spast.InBengal,RabindranathTagorehimself begancollecting 1905. ballads,nurseryrhymesandmyths,andledthemovementforfolk Notice that the mother figure here is shown as dispensing learning, food and clothing. The mala in one hand emphasises her ascetic quality. Abanindranath Tagore, like Ravi Varma before him, tried to develop a style of painting that could be seen as truly Indian. a d I n i s l n i a N Fig. 13 – Jawaharlal Nehru, a popular print. Nehru is here shown holding the image of Bharat Mata and the map of India close to his heart. In a lot of popular prints, nationalist leaders are shown offering their heads to Bharat Mata. The idea of sacrifice for the mother was powerful within popular imagination. 47 Reprint 2026-27