National consciousness aroused among Indian people in the second half of 19th century. Meaning of National consciousness is that sense, prevailing among citizens of any nation, with which they start to feel that all of them belong to one nation.

There were many causes of the rise of national consciousness among Indian people and causes of this sense are given below :

1. Impact of Great Revolt of 1857 A.D. Indian people revolted against the British rule in 1857 A.D. to remove foreign rule from the country. This revolt was crushed by the British. After this, they started committing atrocities on Indian people. That's why a sense of national awakening rose among Indian people to throw away foreign rule.

2. Administrative Unity: The British government started the same legal and administrative system in the country. As a result people living in different parts of the country started to consider themselves as citizens of one nation with which national consciousness rose among the people.

3. Socio-Religious Reform Movements: Many socio-religious reform movements started in 19th century and 20th century in different parts of the country. All the social reformers, like Raja Ram Mohan Roy (Brahmo Samaj), Swami Dayanand (Arya Samaj) Sri Satguru Ram Singh ji (Namdhari Movement), etc. criticised the prevailing evils of society. Socio-religious consciousness was arosed by them, among the people, to remove these evils and this lead to the birth of nationalism among the people.

4. Western Education and Literature: Indian people read books of foreign writers like Hilton, Mill, Burn etc. and came to know about their political rights. Feelings of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and National Consciousness rose among the people with the views of many scholars like Rousseau, Voltaire, Macaulay, etc.

5. Economic Exploitation of Indians: The British traders used to buy raw materials at less rates, from Indian people and used to send it to England. Then they used to sell goods, made in the factories of England, to Indian people at higher rates. It led to less sale of Indian made goods. Small Scale Industries were destroyed due to unavailability of raw material. As a result, Indian artisans became unemployed. Farmers were forced to pay higher land revenue because of which they were forced to sell their land. In this way, they also became unemployed.

6. Non-appointment of Indians on Higher Posts: The British Government never appointed Indians on higher posts even if they had the ability to do so. So resentment came in them against the British. Except this, Indian employees were given less wages and facilities as compared to the English employees even for same work. So Indian employees were very much annoyed with this. This thing also helped in the awakening of national consciousness.

7. Indian Newspapers and Literature: Knowledge of people was increased ‘/ben newspapers in India started to publish in the English and local languages. People came to know about local and international events from newspapers like Bombay Samachar, Amrit Bazar Patrika, The Tribune, Kesari etc. and national consciousness rose among them. Except this patriotic writings of great writers like ‘Anand Math’ of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and his song ‘Vande Matram’ became very popular. Poetry and Essays of Ravindra Nath Tagore, Hemchandra Banerjee and Kashavchandra Sen also helped in awakening of national consciousness among the people.

8. Means of Transport and Communication: It became very easy for the people to move from one place to another place with the development of means of transport and communication like Railway, Post and Telegraph office, etc. People started to exchange their ideas. They started to think jointly about solution of their problems.

9. Opposition of Illbert Bill: Governor-General Lord Rippen was the first British officer who kept soft corner for the Indians. He wanted to give equal rights to Indian judges as compared to European judges. That’s why he introduced a bill called Illbert Bill. But this Bill was opposed by the British. That’s %hy Indian people started opposing the British as well. ”

10. Study of Ancient Literature: Many European Scholars, William Jones, Max Mular, Jacobi etc. studied ancient Indian literature. They proved that the Indian culture is great. So Indian people started to feel proud of their country and culture. It also led to awakening of national consciousness among the Indian people.