ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origins and presence of negative components of Hindu consciousness. Historians have often described group consciousness as being based on a sharing of qualities, such as a common language, script, religion, racial composition, and a cultural heritage, often associated with a ‘golden age’ of historic achievement, complete with past heroes and struggles against various opponents. The educated elites, English and vernacular, grew from those sections of the traditional social structure that were already literate. The creation of a modern Hindu consciousness began with Ram Mohun Roy. A brilliant Bengali brahman. Roy was exposed to a mixture of Hindu and Islamic traditions. Swami Vivekananda, a passionate defender of Hindu spiritual supremacy, spoke with great bitterness and anger over the degenerate nature of his countrymen. The Punjab was annexed by the British in 1849, the last great addition to the British colonial state and one that experienced the English at the height of their imperialism and racism.
