Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: [nəreːnd̪rə d̪ɑːmoːd̪ərəd̪ɑːs moːd̪iː] (
listen), born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and currentPrime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014.[1][2] Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi. He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which gave the party a majority in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – a first for any party since 1984 – and was credited for 2014 BJP electoral victories in the states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.[3]
listen), born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and currentPrime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014.[1][2] Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi. He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which gave the party a majority in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – a first for any party since 1984 – and was credited for 2014 BJP electoral victories in the states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.[3]
Since taking office as Prime Minister, Modi's administration has focused on reforming and modernising India's infrastructure and government, reducing bureaucracy, encouraging increased foreign direct investment, improving national standards of health and sanitation and improving foreign relations. Modi has been appreciated for starting initiatives like Swachh Bharat Mission, Make in India and Digital India.[4][5][6][7] Earlier, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi's economic policies (credited with encouraging economic growth in Gujarat) have been praised,[8] although his administration has also been criticised for failing to significantly improve the human development in the state and failing to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots.[9][10][11] A Hindu nationalist and a former member of theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Modi[12][13] remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally, despite his progressivism.[9][14][15][16][17] Known for his tech savvy image, he is the second most followed politician on social media after U.S. President Barack Obama
Modi was born on 17 September 1950 to a family of grocers in Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Bombay State (present-day Gujarat).[25][26] His family belonged to the Modh-Ghanchi-Teli (oil-presser) community,[27][28][29] which is categorised as an Other Backward Class by the Indian government.[30][31][32] He was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand (1915-1989) and Heeraben Modi (b. c. 1920).[33][34][35] As a child, Modi helped his father sell tea at the Vadnagar railway station, and later ran a tea stall with his brother near a bus terminus.[36][37] He completed his higher secondary education in Vadnagar in 1967, where a teacher described him as an average student and a keen debater with an interest in theatre.[36][38] An early gift for rhetoric in debates was noted by teachers and students.[39] Modi preferred playing larger-than-life characters in theatrical productions, which has influenced his political image.[40][41]
At age eight, Modi discovered the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and began attending its local shakhas (training sessions). There he met Lakshmanrao Inamdar, popularly known as Vakil Saheb, who inducted him as an RSS balswayamsevak (junior cadet) and became his political mentor.[42] While Modi was training with the RSS, he also met Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda,Bharatiya Jana Sangh leaders who were founding members of the BJP's Gujarat unit in 1980.[43][44][45][46]
Engaged while still a child to a local girl, Jashodaben Narendrabhai Modi, Modi rejected the arranged marriage at the same time he graduated from high school.[47] The resulting familial tensions contributed to his decision to leave home in 1967.[48] He spent the ensuing two years travelling across northern and north-eastern India, though few details of where he went have emerged.[49] In interviews, Modi has described visiting Hindu ashrams founded by Swami Vivekananda: the Belur Math near Kolkata, followed by the Advaita Ashramain Almora and the Ramakrishna mission in Rajkot. He remained only a short time at each, since he lacked the required college education.[50][51][52] Reaching the Belur Math in the early summer of 1968 and being turned away, Modi wandered through Calcutta, West Bengal and Assam, stopping by Siliguri and Guwahati.[53] He then went to the Ramakrishna ashram in Almora, where he was again rejected, before travelling back to Gujarat via Delhi and Rajasthan in 1968-69.[54] Sometime in late 1969 or early 1970, Modi returned to Vadnagar for a brief visit before leaving again for Ahmedabad.[55] There he lived with his uncle, working in the latter's canteen at the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation.[56][57] In Ahmedabad Modi renewed his acquaintance with Inamdar, who was based at Hedgewar Bhavan (RSS headquarters) in the city.[43][44][58] After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, he stopped working for his uncle and became a full-time pracharak (campaigner) for the RSS.[57] In 1978 Modi became an RSS sambhaag pracharak (regional organiser), and received a degree in political scienceafter a distance-education course from Delhi University.[59][60] Five years later, he received a Master of Arts degree in political science from Gujarat University
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