Narendra Modi and his Impact on Indian Nationalism

Today is the second Saturday of the month and hence I will be writing about Indian Nationalism in general.

Today I want to discuss about Narendra Modi and his influence on Indian nationalism.

 Narendra Damodardas Modi is the 14th and current Prime Minister of India. He was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014.

 He is right now the individual who is the leading figure of Indian nationalism. 

To understand this phenomenon we need to go back to his days as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. 

 In 2001 Keshubhai Patel was the Chief Minister. Due to poor health and criticisms of his handling of the earthquake Modi replaced him as the CM. He was sworn in in October 2001. He was elected to the State Legislative Assembly on 24 February 2002 in a by-election. 

 The most well known incident during his time as Chief Minister was the violence that erupted in the state in February 2002. It was caused by an attack on a train in Godhra in which a mob of Muslims burnt it. The train carried a large number of Hindu pilgrims who were returning from Ayoghya after performing a religious ceremony at the site of the demolished Babri Masjid mosque in support of the building of a Ram Mandir. 60 Hindus were burnt alive by the mob. This caused an outrage in the Hindu community in Gujarat and riots broke out in several areas of Gujarat between Hindus and Muslims. 

Modi was accused by the Congress party the mainstream media in India and by the western media and western governments of allowing the riots to occur. These accusations continued throughout his tenure as Chief Minister. Various investigations were launched against him. 

These include the Nanavati-Mehta commission which was appointed by the Gujarat Government and headed by a retired Supreme Court judge G. T. Nanavati found no evidence that Modi was complicit in the riots. In March 2008, the Supreme Court reopened several cases related to the riots and established a Special Investigation Team to look into the issue of Modi's culpability in the riots. He was questioned by the SIT in March 2010. The S.I.T gave its report in March 2012 stating that there was not enough evidence to prosecute Modi.

 He won State elections as Chief Minister three times in 2002, 2007 and 2012. He was successful because of his economic development that he brought and because he was seen as tough on crime and did not appease Muslims at the cost of other religious communities which is what the pseudo-secular parties like the Congress did.

 He made Gujarat a model state for the rest of the country. It became synonymous with development across the country. Modi was nominated by the BJP as its Prime Ministerial Candidate in 2013 for the 2014 elections. The rest as they say, is history. 

 Riding on his achievments in Gujarat and  nationalism, as well as targeting the UPA government over corruption, poor economic growth and failure to uphold national security properly from  Pakistan and China, he and the BJP won a landslide victory of 282 seats in the Lok Sabha. The BJP became the first party other than Congress to win a majority at the national level.        

 Modi won because he captured the imagination of the voters. He made them believe that India could and would develop into a great and modern nation. He inspired hope in the face of the Congress' weakness. I remember the joy I felt when he won. It felt like we were finally free from the Congress under whose rule the Indian government seemed corrupt and inefficient.

 Since then Modi's popularity has grown although there have been dips. The BJP won elections in states that it never ruled before like the north-east and Jammu and Kashmir. This shows that the BJP's philosophy of Hindu nationalism has become acceptable to more Indians. 

 The Congress, the Congress friendly media and the western media and various human rights organizations have constantly fear-mongered about Modi and his nationalism. They said that he was anti-Muslim, that India was becoming intolerant under him, that Hindus were becoming aggressive. Because the BJP constantly won elections the opposition started attacking BJP's supporters. The foreign press and some parts of the Indian press started attacking the country itself.

 However none of their criticisms, insults and allegations worked which is why Modi was re-elected in 2019 with 303 seats - the first time a non-Congress party has won two consecutive majorities in the general election.

  

 And in 2019 he won not just because of his development and welfare schemes but also because of his surgical strikes against Pakistan - specifically the Balakot Airstrike which was done as retaliation for the Pulwama terrorist attack. These actions against Pakistan proved to the people that he could protect and defend India. 

 Modi's support for nationalism had various impacts on the nation. It made the opposition parties support nationalism too. Rahul Gandhi came out as a Brahmin Hindu when he had hid his Hindu identity throughout his career. Every political party in India supported the reconstruction of the Ram Mandir when many had earlier opposed it. 

Nationalism also influenced cinema. Bollywood actors like Akshay Kumar made several nationalistic films like Baby, Airlift and Holiday. Sanjay Leela Bhansali made two historical films, Bajirao Mastani and Padmavat which were about Hindu historical figures like Peshwa Bajirao of the Maratha empire and Rani Padmavati of the Mewar, Rajput kingdom, who fought against Islamic empires.

 Ajay Devgn produced and acted in Tanhaji which was a movie about Tanhaji
Malusare, a general in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's Maratha army who fought against the Mughal empire. 

 Baahubali 1 and 2 were two fictional films set in historical India. They showed Indian culture in a very positive light which was appreciated a lot by people. 

 More and more Indians are learning about Indian history and culture. They are learning about the things that the Congress hid from us such as the attrocities of Muslim kings and emperors. Indians have always been a patriotic and nationalistic people but they also developed an inferiority complex about being Indians and looked to the West - specifically Western liberals - for validation. This insecurity has reduced in Modi's tenure with Indians becoming more confident in themselves and their country.

 It is amazing how one man has had such a big impact on his nation and his people. I do not agree with all his policies and am not a fanatic supporter of his. But I do support most of his policies and decisions he has taken as a Prime Minister. I now support Hindutva when I had not supported it before he was elected even though I supported his development policies. I wish him more success in the future. 

                                                  

 Thank you for Reading, 

 Vande Mataram

My video titled Narendra Modi and his Influence on Indian Nationalism - 

https://youtu.be/1fOYsNW37eo