Nationalism spread in India when people began to believe that they were all part of the same nation, when they discovered some unity that bound them together. This sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience of united struggle. It was in the 20‌th ‌ century, with the growth of nationalism, that the identity of India came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata, created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. In 1870, he wrote "Vande Matram" as a hymn to the motherland.
Ideas of nationalism also developed through a movement to revive Indian folklore. Nationalist began recording folk tales sung by bards and they toured villages to gather folk song and legends. As the national movement developed, nationalist leaders became more and more aware of such icons and symbols in unifying people and inspiring in them a feeling of nationalism. In 1921, Gandhiji had designed the swaraj flag. It was a tricolour (red, green and white) and had a spinning wheel in the centre. Carrying this flag, holding it aloft, during marches became a symbol of defiance.
Another means of creating a feeling of nationalism was through reinterpretation of history. Indians began looking into the past to discover India's great achievements. They wrote about the glorious developments in ancient times when art and architecture, science and mathematics, religion and culture, law and philosophy had flourished and decline in these areas began when India was colonised.