Modi was born and raised in Vadnagar in northeastern Gujarat, where he completed his secondary education. He was introduced to the RSS at the age of eight. His account of helping his father sell tea at the Vadnagar railway station has not been reliably corroborated. At age 18, he was married to Jashodaben Modi, whom he abandoned soon after, only publicly acknowledging her four decades later when legally required to do so. Modi became a full-time worker for the RSS in Gujarat in 1971. The RSS assigned him to the BJP in 1985 and he held several positions within the party hierarchy until 2001, rising to the rank of general secretary.[c]
In 2001, Modi was appointed Chief Minister of Gujarat and elected to the legislative assembly soon after. His administration is considered complicit in the 2002 Gujarat riots,[d] and has been criticised for its management of the crisis. A little over 1,000 people were killed, according to official records, three-quarters of whom were Muslim; independent sources estimated 2,000 deaths, mostly Muslim.[11] A Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India in 2012 found no evidence to initiate prosecution proceedings against him.[e] While his policies as chief minister, which were credited for encouraging economic growth, were praised, Modi's administration was criticised for failing to significantly improve health, poverty and education indices in the state.[f] In the 2014 Indian general election, Modi led the BJP to a parliamentary majority, the first for a party since 1984. His administration increased direct foreign investment, and it reduced spending on healthcare, education, and social-welfare programmes. Modi began a high-profile sanitation campaign, controversially initiated the 2016 demonetisation of high-denomination banknotes and introduced the Goods and Services Tax, and weakened or abolished environmental and labour laws.
Under Modi's tenure, India has experienced democratic backsliding, or the weakening of democratic institutions, individual rights, and freedom of expression.[27][28][g] As prime minister, he has received consistently high approval ratings.[34][35][36] Modi has been described as engineering a political realignment towards right-wing politics. He remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally, over his Hindu nationalist beliefs and handling of the Gujarat riots, which have been cited as evidence of a majoritarian and exclusionary social agenda.[h]
Kinnvall, Catarina (2019), "Populism, ontological insecurity and Hindutva: Modi and the masculinization of Indian politics", Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 32 (3): 238–302, 295, doi:10.1080/09557571.2019.1588851, S2CID164991567
^Cite error: The named reference BS Book review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Akhtar, Rais; Kirk, William, Jammu and Kashmir, State, India, Encyclopaedia Britannica, archived from the original on 19 June 2015, retrieved 7 August 2019 (subscription required)
^Welzel, Christian; Inglehart, Ronald; Bernhangen, Patrick; Haerpfer, Christian W. (2019), "Introduction", in Welzel, Christian; Inglehart, Ronald; Bernhangen, Patrick; Haerpfer, Christian W. (eds.), Democratization, Oxford University Press, pp. 4, 7, ISBN978-0-19-873228-0
^Kaul, Volker; Vajpeyi, Ananya (2020). Minorities and Populism – Critical Perspectives from South Asia and Europe. Springer Publishing. p. 22. ISBN978-3-030-34098-8.
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