For PM Modi, sewa and kartavya have remained central to public life, while Viksit Bharat 2047 vision puts these principles into action.
Technology has transformed all: politics, economics, culture, and even society. This has meant that various ideas, such as nationalism, need to be examined thoroughly to understand what they mean today. In the Indian context, it is a question worth asking, especially eight decades after Independence, because the India to which we attach the word “nationalism” has itself changed. We know that nationalism itself is not frozen in time but remains contingent and responsive to the nation’s circumstances.
In recent decades, the changes have been unprecedented, and India has been a very different country. The India that fought for freedom was seeking sovereignty. While India of the early Republic was struggling to preserve unity, build institutions, and overcome deprivation, India of today is asking bigger and profound questions like whether it can become an economic power, manufacture what it needs, develop the technologies on which future power will depend, and retain strategic autonomy in a world divided among competing centres of power. In other words, it is asking whether it can modernize without compromising its culture.
It is against this backdrop that the past 25 years of India’s public life reveal how the nation and nationalism have evolved. From Gujarat in 2001 to the national stage, this period has coincided with a transformation in the country’s aspirations and their political expression: sewa, kartavya, nation first, development, aatmanirbhar (self-reliance), nari shakti, technological capability, and renewed civilizational confidence. Viewed holistically, these years offer an unusually clear window into the changing meaning of Indian nationalism. At its heart lies a simple proposition: a nation must possess the capacity to deliver for its people. Governance, in this view, becomes not merely an administrative function but a measure of national purpose, confidence, and responsibility.
Nationalism has shifted from an abstract idea of the nation to its everyday experience. Aadhaar, Jan Dhan, Direct Benefit Transfer, and UPI have narrowed the distance between the government and the citizen by enabling direct, accessible, and measurable interactions. Digital India is, therefore, more than a technology initiative: it has strengthened citizens’ daily encounter with the state.
Second, nationalism has acquired a language of dignity. The Modi government’s welfare initiatives, including Swachh Bharat, Ujjwala, Jal Jeevan Mission, PM Awas, Ayushman Bharat, and food-security measures, can be understood in this context. Toilets provide not only sanitation but also dignity; cooking gas offers health benefits and relief from a burden traditionally borne by women. Housing provides security and ownership, while health protection prevents illness from causing financial ruin. Welfare, therefore, is experienced as a basic improvement in living conditions.
Third, nationalism has shifted from “welfare” to “participation”, a transition embodied in Nari Shakti. Women are increasingly recognized not merely as beneficiaries but as contributors to national capability through self-help groups, entrepreneurship, science, technology, aviation, the armed forces, and space. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam extends this participation into political representation. In this distinctly Indian conception, Shakti is not someone who requires protection but power itself, signalling a broader shift towards women-led development.
Fourth, nationalism is becoming a democratization of aspirations. This is important to PM Modi’s conception of social justice. For SCs, STs, OBCs, DNTs, and other disadvantaged communities, welfare alone cannot exhaust the meaning of inclusion. Education, skills, housing, entrepreneurship, connectivity, and access to markets matter. The idea of aspirational districts reflects the same thinking: places historically described as backward need not remain condemned to that status. Their developmental deficits can be identified, measured, and changed.
Fifth, nationalism now carries an economic meaning: moving from managing scarcity to building capability. Post-Independence India managed shortages; New India seeks integrated markets, financial discipline, manufacturing, and strategic investment through GST, IBC, Make in India, and PLI. Atmanirbhar Bharat does not mean isolation or producing everything domestically. It means reducing critical dependencies so India retains freedom of choice. The pandemic highlighted vulnerabilities in medicines, vaccines, food, energy, and medical equipment, while semiconductors, critical minerals, and advanced technologies define future national resilience.
Sixth, nationalism has come to be linked with infrastructure. The roads, railways, airports, ports, waterways, electricity, and digital networks being built across India are not merely infrastructure projects. They change the country’s physical geography. They connect markets, reduce distances, and bring previously isolated regions closer to the national economy. PM Gati Shakti reflects the understanding that these networks cannot be planned as isolated projects.
Seventh, nationalism has entered the realm of technological sovereignty. India has demonstrated that it can deploy digital systems at an extraordinary scale. The harder task is to become a producer of frontier technologies. Chandrayaan, Aditya-L1, and SpaDeX have demonstrated scientific ambition, while the emergence of private space companies has widened the ecosystem. Artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum technology, biotechnology, drones, and deep-tech enterprises are now part of the national capability debate. In the twenty-first century, technological dependence can become strategic dependence.
Eighth, we see an understanding of national security rooted in nationalism and the nation’s dignity. Energy, food, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, cyber infrastructure, communications, and supply chains can all become vulnerabilities. Defense indigenization, domestic manufacturing, innovation, and defence exports therefore form part of the same larger project: ensuring that India has the capabilities necessary to make independent decisions. Operation Sindoor, launched in response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack, represented the government’s stated policy of responding forcefully to cross-border terrorism.
Ninth, nationalism has acquired a new external dimension. The India that developed non-alignment belonged to the bipolar world of the Cold War. Today, India must engage simultaneously with the US, Russia, Europe, Japan, Australia, Israel, Iran, and the Gulf. Modi’s foreign policy has pursued relationships across these centres of power without allowing any single partnership to dictate India’s choices. This is the practical meaning of multialignment: building partnerships while preserving strategic autonomy. India’s growing role in BRICS and the Global South reflects a broader ambition, not merely to participate in institutions created in another era, but to help shape the international system’s rules. A stronger India can engage the world on its own terms.
Tenth, and perhaps most distinctively, nationalism has acquired a cultural confidence. The Modi years have seen renewed attention to India’s civilizational inheritance through the restoration and development of heritage and pilgrimage sites, Yoga and Ayurveda, Indian languages and knowledge traditions. The proposition is not that India must choose tradition over modernity. It is that the two need not be opposites. India can build artificial intelligence and semiconductor facilities while drawing on the confidence of an ancient civilization. It can send missions into space while recovering its intellectual traditions. It can modernize its cities while restoring historic spaces.
Modernity need not mean cultural amnesia. For PM Modi, sewa and kartavya have remained central to public life, while the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision puts these principles into action. A developed India must mean more than a larger GDP: it requires productive employment, stronger human capital, women’s participation, agricultural transformation, technological capability, defence preparedness, social mobility, and strategic resilience. The 25 years of Modi’s sewa thus offer a lens through which to understand the transformation of Indian nationalism. New India’s nationalism is increasingly one of capability: the capacity, confidence, and commitment to shape Bharat’s future.
*Prof Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit is the Vice-Chancellor of JNU.
