Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi was born on 17 September 1950 in Vadnagar, Mehsana district, in what is now Gujarat. He was the third of six children of Damodardas Mulchand Modi and Hiraben Modi, in a family belonging to the Ghanchi community, classed as an Other Backward Class.

According to Modi and his neighbours, he helped occasionally at his father’s tea stall at Vadnagar railway station. He completed his higher secondary education in Vadnagar in 1967, where teachers remembered him as an average student but a keen debater with an interest in theatre.

As a young man he left home and spent about two years travelling across northern and north-eastern India, visiting religious centres such as Belur Math and the Ramakrishna ashram in Almora. He later settled in Ahmedabad, working in his uncle’s canteen at the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation. He went on to earn a BA in political science through distance learning from Delhi University (1978) and an MA from Gujarat University (1983), degrees whose authenticity has been publicly questioned by political opponents.

Modi was introduced to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at about eight years old, attending local shakhas. There he met Lakshmanrao Inamdar, who inducted him as a junior cadet and became his political mentor.

In 1971 he became a full-time pracharak (campaigner) for the RSS in Gujarat, working under Inamdar. During the Emergency of 1975 to 1977 he was general secretary of the Gujarat Lok Sangharsh Samiti, which coordinated opposition in the state. He went underground to avoid arrest, helped print and circulate pamphlets and organised safe houses for activists.

He became a regional organiser (sambhag pracharak) in 1978, overseeing Surat and Vadodara, and in 1979 worked in Delhi writing the RSS’s account of the Emergency. These years gave him long experience in grassroots organisation and a network that shaped his later political career.

In 1985 the RSS assigned Modi to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). After helping plan the party’s win in the 1987 Ahmedabad municipal election, he was elected organising secretary of the BJP’s Gujarat unit later that year.

In 1990 he joined the party’s National Election Committee and helped organise L. K. Advani’s Ram Rath Yatra, followed by Murli Manohar Joshi’s Ekta Yatra in 1991 to 1992. His electoral strategy was considered central to the BJP’s win in the 1995 Gujarat assembly election, the party’s first majority in the state.

In November 1995 he was appointed BJP national secretary and moved to New Delhi, responsible for Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. After the BJP won the 1998 Gujarat election, he was promoted in May 1998 to general secretary (organisation), a key national post.

Modi was sworn in as Chief Minister of Gujarat on 7 October 2001, replacing Keshubhai Patel, and served until May 2014, the longest tenure in the state’s history. His economic approach, later promoted as the “Gujarat Model”, emphasised industry, infrastructure and investment. Notable initiatives included:

• Vibrant Gujarat, an investor summit first held in 2003 and held every two years.
• Jyotigram Yojana, which separated farm electricity supply from other rural supply to stabilise power.
• The SAUNI Yojana, launched in 2012 to carry surplus Narmada floodwater to dams in Saurashtra.

His first months in office were overshadowed by the 2002 Gujarat riots, in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. His administration was widely criticised for its handling of the violence; a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team found no evidence to prosecute him, a finding the Supreme Court upheld in 2022.

The BJP won the state elections of 2002, 2007 and 2012 under his leadership. His policies were credited with economic growth and investment, while critics noted limited progress on health, poverty and education indicators.

On 12 September 2013 the BJP named Modi its candidate for prime minister in the 2014 general election, despite opposition from some senior leaders including L. K. Advani. His campaign focused on development, governance and anti-corruption, and drew on public dissatisfaction with the Congress-led UPA government.

The campaign made heavy use of rallies, social media and new communication tools. The BJP won 282 seats, the first time a single party had won a Lok Sabha majority on its own since 1984.

Modi won both seats he contested, Varanasi and Vadodara, and kept Varanasi. He was sworn in as prime minister on 26 May 2014.

Modi’s first term focused on economic reform, welfare delivery and infrastructure. Flagship programmes included:

• Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (2014), a financial inclusion drive to open bank accounts for unbanked households.
• Make in India (2014), to promote manufacturing and foreign investment.
• Swachh Bharat Mission (2014), a sanitation campaign aimed at ending open defecation.
• Digital India (2015), to expand online public services and connectivity.
• Ayushman Bharat (2018), a national health insurance and health centres scheme.

In November 2016 the government demonetised 500 and 1,000 rupee notes to target black money and counterfeit currency, a move that caused severe cash shortages and remains debated. In July 2017 it introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a nationwide indirect tax. The PM-KISAN income support scheme for farmers was announced in February 2019.

In the 2019 general election the BJP increased its tally to 303 seats. Major decisions of the second term included:

• Revocation of Article 370 in August 2019, ending Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and dividing it into two union territories.
• The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of December 2019, which prompted nationwide protests.
• The National Education Policy 2020.
• Three farm laws passed in 2020, repealed in 2021 after a year of farmers’ protests.

His government also managed India’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and India’s G20 presidency in 2023. In the 2024 general election the BJP won 240 seats, short of a majority, and Modi was sworn in for a third term on 9 June 2024 at the head of the National Democratic Alliance coalition. In 2025, after the Pahalgam terrorist attack, India and Pakistan fought a brief military conflict that ended in a ceasefire.

Development and economic reform have been central to Modi’s politics since his years in Gujarat, where he favoured privatisation, industrial parks and investor summits. As prime minister, his government’s main economic measures have included:

• The Goods and Services Tax (2017), replacing a patchwork of state and central taxes with a common national market.
• Demonetisation (2016), intended to curb black money, corruption and counterfeit currency.
• Make in India (2014) and Startup India (2016), promoting manufacturing and entrepreneurship.
• Jan Dhan Yojana, which expanded access to bank accounts and direct benefit transfers.

The government also repealed more than 1,200 obsolete laws in its first three years and invested heavily in highways, railways and digital infrastructure. Economists continue to debate the results, citing faster infrastructure growth alongside concerns about slower GDP growth in some years and joblessness.

Modi’s foreign policy has continued many priorities of earlier governments, centred on economic ties, security and regional relations, while giving India a more visible global role. Key strands include:

• Act East Policy, a renamed and expanded version of the earlier Look East policy towards Southeast and East Asia.
• Neighbourhood First, prioritising South Asian neighbours, though relations with Pakistan and China remain strained.
• Closer ties with the United States, Japan, Gulf states and Europe, while maintaining long-standing links with Russia.
• Active participation in the G20, BRICS and the United Nations, including India’s hosting of the 2023 G20 summit in New Delhi, where the African Union became a permanent member.
• Outreach to the Indian diaspora through large public events abroad.

He has addressed numerous foreign legislatures, including joint meetings of the US Congress in 2016 and 2023.