Rise of nationalism and the Congress

Indian nationalism grew out of colonial economic change, modern education, print culture and shared political grievances rather than from a single event. Early associations such as the Indian National Congress, founded in 1885, gave these grievances an all-India platform and a common vocabulary of rights, representation and self-government. A concrete example is the Congress demand for Indianisation of the civil service and reduction of military expenditure, which linked elite constitutional agitation to the everyday burden of taxation. This chapter traces that growth from regional associations to a mass movement in embryo.