By Pushpa Iyer
Narendra Modi, the current Chief Minister of Gujarat state, northwestern India, has been in power since 2001. Modi is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, popularly considered a right-wing party that advocates for Hindu nationalism. Modi, has been implicated as the architect of the 2002 pogrom against the Muslims of Gujarat. In spite of all the negativity and opposition against him, he has successfully managed to win the elections in the state three times since the 2002 violence. Following 2002, while a significant section of the population sees him as the “murderer”, an equal if not a greater number of the population inside and outside of the state, see him as the symbol of “Development”, so much so that there is now a ‘Modi Model of Development’ that is studied by business schools of the country and even internationally; a model that is sought for replication in the rest of the country.
The hype around his model of development – a simple neo-liberal economic model (also called the ‘corporate model’ by Medha Patkar, a noted social activist) – is only matched by the fact that the BJP has chosen him to be their Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 national elections.
Modi’s rise to leadership and ability to survive amidst adversity, is reflected in his personal life. He was born on September 17, 1950, in Vadnagar a small town in Mehsana district of Gujarat. He was the third of the six children of Damodardas Mulchand and Heeraben Modi. Modi’s beginning’s were humble, his was a family of grocers; he and his brother are known to have sold tea in a small stall in their town’s railway station (Kamath, M.V., Randeri, Kalindi 2009 and Hindustan Times, September 13, 2013 ). His family belonged to the Ganchi caste listed as one of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the Indian constitution. Modi is reported by his former teachers as an average student who went on to receive his MA in Political Science from Gujarat University (Kamath, M.V., Randeri, Kalindi 2009).
Modi left home at age 17, to join the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an extremist Hindu Nationalist group that from before the time of Independence has committed itself to building Hindu unity, opposing British colonialism and suppressing Muslim assertions of identity. The RSS ideology draws parallel to the Nazi ideology of creating a pure race. With the RSS being banned from political sphere in the post Independence period thrice, it has to a large degree, relied on the BJP to be its political ally and even mouthpiece. Modi raised in the traditions of the RSS since a young age, is a strict follower of the group’s teachings, and in fact spent many years as its Pracharak (propagandist). From then it was it was only a steep rise for Modi politcally. Recognised as a strategist by the then powers that be, Modi has continued to grow and step easily into being a leader.
Modi is one of the most divisive figures today in the country. When he was a child his horoscope was read by an astrologer who declared that Modi would either be an ascetic or an emperor (Kamath, M.V., Randeri, Kalindi 2009). There are many who are rooting for him to be the emperor (read: become the Prime Minister of India) while others continue to wish that he had never strayed from the path he had once explored – that of becoming an ascetic!
More on Modi’s religious beliefs and values next!
