Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi was born and raised in Vadnagar, where he completed his secondary education. His teachers described him as an average student and a gifted debater with an interest in theatre. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Delhi in 1978 and a Master of Arts degree in political science from Gujarat University in 1983.

Modi was introduced to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at the age of eight and attended its local training sessions. Lakshmanrao Inamdar inducted him into the organisation and became his political mentor. As a young man, Modi travelled through northern and northeastern India before returning to Gujarat and working in Ahmedabad.

His first significant political activity came in 1971, when he joined a Jana Sangh protest in Delhi connected with the Bangladesh Liberation War. After the Indo-Pakistani War, he became a full-time campaigner for the RSS. Modi was married to Jashodaben Chimanlal Modi in 1968, and they separated in 1971 without divorcing.

During the Emergency declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, Modi served as general secretary of the Gujarat Lok Sangharsh Samiti, an RSS committee coordinating opposition activity in Gujarat. He worked underground, travelled in disguise, helped distribute material opposing the government and assisted in organising safe houses for wanted activists. He later wrote a Gujarati-language account of the period titled Sangharsh Ma Gujarat.

Modi became an RSS regional organiser in 1978 and worked in Delhi in 1979, where he researched and wrote about the organisation's history during the Emergency. The RSS assigned him to the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1985. He helped organise the BJP's successful campaign in the Ahmedabad municipal election in 1987 and became organising secretary of the party's Gujarat unit.

He later helped organise L. K. Advani's 1990 Ram Rath Yatra and Murli Manohar Joshi's 1991-1992 Ekta Yatra. Modi became BJP national secretary in 1995, with responsibility for party activities in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, and was promoted to national general secretary in 1998.

Modi became Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001, replacing Keshubhai Patel, and entered the state legislature after winning a by-election from Rajkot II in February 2002. He subsequently won elections from Maninagar in 2002, 2007 and 2012. His governments promoted investment, industrial development, infrastructure and changes to electricity distribution, while Gujarat recorded strong economic growth during his tenure.

The 2002 Gujarat violence became the most consequential controversy of Modi's time as chief minister. Following the burning of a passenger train near Godhra, anti-Muslim violence spread through Gujarat, killing hundreds according to official figures and more than 2,000 people according to independent estimates. Scholars and human rights critics described the state government as complicit in the violence, while Modi's personal role remained the subject of continuing debate.

A Supreme Court-authorised Special Investigation Team found no evidence against Modi, and courts rejected challenges to that finding. In 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of a petition by Zakia Jafri, whose husband Ehsan Jafri was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre. Modi's administration was also criticised for Gujarat's record on poverty, education, nutrition, healthcare and social inequality, despite the state's economic performance.

During his later terms, Modi increasingly presented Gujarat as a development model. His government supported large groundwater-conservation projects, expanded rural electricity provision and promoted financial and technology parks. In 2008, he offered land to Tata Motors for a Nano car plant after the company left West Bengal following protests.

The BJP named Modi its candidate for prime minister in the 2014 Indian general election. His campaign centred on corruption under the previous Congress government, economic development and the promise of decisive leadership. It made unusually extensive use of Modi's personal image, social media, large rallies and hologram appearances. The BJP won 282 Lok Sabha seats, becoming the first party since 1984 to secure a parliamentary majority on its own.

Modi contested Varanasi and Vadodara in 2014 and won both constituencies, vacating the Vadodara seat to represent Varanasi. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L. K. Advani were among the senior BJP figures connected with the party's earlier development and with the political debates surrounding Modi's rise.

The BJP again named Modi its prime-ministerial candidate for the 2019 election. The campaign, led organisationally by Amit Shah, emphasised national security after the Pulwama attack and the Balakot airstrike, as well as development and foreign relations. Modi won Varanasi by a wide margin, and the BJP won 303 seats while the National Democratic Alliance secured 353.

In the 2024 general election, Modi contested Varanasi for a third consecutive time and won, although the BJP lost its outright majority in the lower house. The National Democratic Alliance secured 292 seats, and Modi formed a government supported by the coalition.

As prime minister, Modi replaced the Planning Commission with the National Institution for Transforming India, known as NITI Aayog, and pursued a more centralised model of executive government. His administration launched Digital India, promoted electronic access to government services and rural internet infrastructure, repealed numerous obsolete laws and introduced a 10 percent reservation for economically disadvantaged people in education and government employment.

Major economic policies included the Make in India manufacturing initiative, liberalisation of foreign direct investment, the Goods and Services Tax and the 2016 demonetisation of high-value banknotes. Demonetisation caused severe cash shortages, protests and job losses, while the Goods and Services Tax became the country's largest tax reform since independence. Critics also pointed to slower growth, unemployment and increased inequality during parts of his tenure.

Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014 to eliminate open defecation and manual scavenging and expand sanitation facilities. The government constructed millions of rural toilets, and the World Health Organization later estimated that the sanitation effort helped avert at least 180,000 diarrhoeal deaths in rural India. His government also introduced the Ujjwala programme, which expanded access to liquefied petroleum gas connections for rural households.

His administration's response to COVID-19 included a nationwide curfew, a three-week lockdown, restrictions on travel and a large vaccination programme. India experienced a devastating second wave in 2021. The World Health Organization estimated that 4.7 million people died of COVID-19 in India, a figure rejected by the Indian government.

Hindu nationalism has remained central to Modi's political identity and to the BJP's governing agenda. His administration strengthened links with the RSS, appointed RSS-affiliated figures to prominent positions and supported policies associated with Hindu nationalist organisations. In 2019, Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act, which created a route to citizenship for specified persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan while excluding Muslims from that eligibility route.

The same period saw the repeal of Article 370, the removal of Jammu and Kashmir's special constitutional status and the reorganisation of the region into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The measures were accompanied by a communications shutdown and the detention of political figures. Modi also visited Ayodhya for the foundation-stone ceremony of a Hindu temple after the Supreme Court ordered the disputed land to be transferred to a temple trust.

Scholars and civil liberties organisations have described Modi's tenure as a period of democratic backsliding, citing pressure on the media, restrictions affecting critics, weakened institutional checks and concerns about freedom of expression. His government has also faced criticism over its handling of communal violence, including the 2020 Delhi riots, in which Muslims made up most of those killed.

Modi remains a highly polarising political figure. Supporters associate him with strong leadership, development and Hindu cultural nationalism, while critics view his policies and rhetoric as majoritarian and exclusionary.

Modi's foreign policy has combined economic diplomacy, security cooperation and what the Indian government calls multi-alignment. His administration promoted the Make in India and Digital India initiatives abroad, strengthened relations with the United States and expanded engagement with countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The earlier Look East policy was renamed the Act East policy.

Relations with the United States improved after Modi became prime minister. President Barack Obama invited him to Washington in 2014, despite Modi having previously been denied a United States visa over his record as Gujarat chief minister. Modi also developed a close working relationship with Donald Trump, including at the 2019 Howdy Modi event in Houston.

Modi's government maintained strategic ties with Russia, purchased the S-400 missile system and declined to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Operation Ganga evacuated more than 19,000 Indian nationals from Ukraine and included some citizens of neighbouring countries. India also hosted the 2023 G20 summit, during which the African Union became a permanent member of the group.

Climate and solar diplomacy became prominent aspects of Modi's international agenda. He helped launch the International Solar Alliance in 2015 and later announced India's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2070. In 2018, he received the United Nations Champions of the Earth award for environmental policy leadership.

Modi has received consistently high approval ratings during his premiership and has been described as one of India's most influential political figures. His campaigns have focused heavily on his individual persona, presenting him as a decisive, energetic leader capable of delivering economic growth and national security. The personal branding of his campaigns contributed to the expression "NaMo" becoming closely associated with his political movement.

He hosts Mann Ki Baat, a monthly radio programme on All India Radio, and has conducted Pariksha Pe Charcha, a series of discussions focused on students and examinations. In 2019, he appeared with Bear Grylls in an episode of Man vs. Wild filmed in Jim Corbett National Park, where they discussed nature and wildlife conservation.

Modi has written books including Jyotipunj, Social Harmony, Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio and Exam Warriors. He also wrote lyrics for the Gujarati garba songs "Garbo" and "Maadi". A song featuring a speech by Modi, "Abundance in Millets," received a Grammy nomination for Best Global Music Performance.

His public image has also been represented in films and television programmes, including PM Narendra Modi, Modi: Journey of a Common Man and the docudrama series 7 RCR. The BBC documentary India: The Modi Question examined his role in the 2002 Gujarat violence and his record as prime minister, and the Indian government moved to block its distribution.