Romantic Nationalism in India

Cultivation of Culture and the Global Circulation of Ideas
Ultimately, this innovative book argues that because of the confrontation with European civilization and processes of modern­ization at large, cultivation of culture in modern India was morally and spiritually more important to the making of the nation than in Europe.
Through the concept of ‘Romantic nationalism’, this interdisciplinary global historical study investigates cultural initiatives in modern India that aimed at establishing the nation as a moral community and which preceded or accompanied state-oriented political nationalism. Drawing on a vast array of sources, it discusses important Romantic nationalist traits such as the relationship between language and identity, historicism, artistic revival­ism, and hero worship.