When Did India Become Modern

[acharya]

<!--QuoteBegin-ramana+Nov 29 2006, 08:29 AM-->QUOTE(ramana @ Nov 29 2006, 08:29 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->There will always be progress in isolated pockets in a sea of darkness. That does not negate the idea that the sea is dark. What came about during British rule was a gathering of people who started think of the idea of India as a nation state. If you read parallels in world history the barbarian invasions (e.g. Mongols) stopped only with the organization of large states and gun-powder i.e. technology.

So the Indian national movement (~ 1820s) was also an exercise in organizing a large nation state on the Indian sub-continent. It so happened that Westphalain state concept was also quite new as it began in 1648. Even Western Europe was consolidating on linguistic basis around that time 1840-1870s. So it was part of a global movement. To credit the British for this is not right.
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There was more movement in European nationalism after the first world war 1920 and the Indian nationalists in the Freedom movement got more clarity from that. The Indian freedom movement gained more power after 1920 because of what was happening in Europe.

Check this site to read the conditions of Europe form 1500 to 1920s

http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/lect07.htm
Ethnic nationalism became the paramount issue as Italians, Slavs and Hungarians resisted rule by the German-dominated Habsburg state. Except in Italy, nationalism did not just imply unification: it involved language laws and rules that favored one ethnic group over another.

http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v05/v05p203_Lutton.html