The ‘Modi Way’ distils eleven guiding principles of leadership that have propelled India’s rise and may offer the West a path out of its current decline.
Leadership
Indian metrics, economically even politically have largely been positive even inspiring in the last several years. Many countries rightly envy such successes of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. His principles of leadership have been distilled to eleven.
So, rather than listing raw statistics, this is simply to say on economic growth, sheer numbers of added jobs, new infrastructure, industrialization, foreign direct investment and global influence, the rise of India has been spectacular. Not coincidentally, India has been led in most of those years by Prime Minister Modi and the incredibly valuable team of his fellow enlightened, but no nonsense patriots. A team that wants to keep India rocketing forward but not beggaring any neighbor at all. A fairly solidly united nation neither being a pushover to those who wish it security, political and economic ill will, nor too give in to evil toward the nation.
Rather, there will be an attempt here to set out some important principles around which the PM has applied in leading India in becoming such an overall success story and even some say a model, especially for the South. But I argue that the West, and the North more broadly should likely give more attention to the “Modi Way” to help them offset or prevent further decline. In the West there are widening domestic protests, assassination attempts and actual assassinations of leaders (re Charly Kirk major associate to President Trump), polarization, revolving door leadership where prime ministers are seemingly changed in months. (See France and the UK, for instance.) It almost seems, there is excess in rhetoric towards war by western leaders pushing punitive tariffs and/or sanctions in their lashing out that are globally destructive and crazy glued to hegemonic behaviour. It should make one wonder. Might a more stable and successful Modi-led and enduring democracy be more learned from? That the West is far from the very best? And the South such as India may be looking more forward than (being) backwards with valuable lessons learned and to be learned from.
Also as laid out here many of these principles can be applied to daily life directly or in certain extensions beyond nation-state focus. That includes in family, community and individual personal development.
A list of 11 principles is rather short given the overall major accomplishments of the prime minister and his wisdom in so many areas. Nevertheless, here they are:
Behave humbly, but strive for success at all levels – local to global, street to family. Reject colonial mindsets and respect sovereignty.
Equality before law – citizens are fundamentally equal regardless of ethnicity, color, or religion; government works to address real injustices.
Spirituality as central – Modi respects all faiths while remaining committed to inclusiveness; Hindu philosophy of equality underpins his approach.
Inclusiveness over domination – nations as part of a common family, mutual respect lowering barriers of hatred and conflict.
Multilateralism consistent with Indian values – strengthening the UN, pushing for inclusivity and South’s rightful representation.
Multipolarity, not hegemony – rejecting neo-colonial behaviour, standing up for many poles of influence with India as a rising one.
People govern, not lobbies – serving the electorate as a whole; refusing to be beholden to big lobbies, domestic or foreign.
Prosperity through pragmatism – encouraging enterprise and reforms to bring private investment; avoiding half-baked revolutionary ideas.
Made in India focus – pushing industrialization, jobs for youth, sustainability, and attracting foreign investment while retaining benefits within India.
Technopopulism – promoting digitalization, access to services, financial inclusion, and democratization of IT in governance and education.
Securing the homeland – absolute no-nonsense stance against terrorism, upgrading military, self-reliance in defence, and strong partnerships like the Quad.
Peter Dash has researched and written extensively on geopolitics and India and has been a university lecturer. He resides in the Global South where he teaches.
