This sense of collective belonging came partly through the experience of united struggles. History and fiction, folklore and songs popular prints and symbols all played a part in the making of nationalism.1•FIGURE OR IMAGE•The identity of India came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata. It was created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. In 1870s,he wrote Vande Mataram.•Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata. In his painting, she is seen as a ascetic figure and is calm, composed, divine, and spiritual. Devotion to this mother figure was seen as an evidence of one\’s nationalism.2•INDIAN FOLKLORE•In the late nineteenth century of India,nationalists started recording folk tales,folk songs and legends.•In Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore himself began collecting ballads, nursery rhymes and myths.•In Madras, Natesa Sastri published a massive four volume collection of tamil folk tales, The Folklore of Southern India.3•ICONS AND SYMBOLS•During the swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolor flag (red, green and yellow) was designed. It had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British India, and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims.•It was again a tricolor (red, green and white) and had a spinning wheel in the centre, representing Gandhian ideal of self help.4•REINTERPRETATION OF HISTORY•By the end of the nineteenth century many Indians began to feel to instill a sense of pride in the nation.•Many writers wrote about the glorious developments in ancient times when art and architecture, science and mathematics,religion, etc had flourished.