The building of Indian identity began sometime in the beginning of the 19^th century during the British rule over the Indian sub-continent. Before its independence in 1947, India was never one nation but always a collection of different entities and cultures with no sense of identity. In different parts of India different cultures, manners and languages existed. Different rulers ruled different parts of India. Some of them were foreigners. The only features common to the large portion of India's residents were some of the Hindu religious customs and taboos like caste system, child marriages and other religious oriented customs.

The building of the Indian identity actually began as a social reform movement with an intention to change the traditional Hindu/Indian society. The Indian independence issue was not at first the main issue. From the Indian point of view the British were just another foreign ruler over India. Later on a general feeling of an oppressed nation subjected to a foreign power arose among the Indians including the non-Hindus.

The new Indian identity was a combination of the intentions of the Indians to change the traditional Indian society and the nationalist Indian feeling which, developed later on because of the British oppression of the Indians.