PM Modi Challenges Colonial Narrative Behind ‘Hindu Rate Of Growth’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (PTI photo)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday slammed the linking of the Hindu faith with the rate of growth in the country, saying that attempts were being made to malign the Hindu way of life in a bid to tarnish the faith and misrepresent India’s cultural foundations.

While addressing the HT Leadership Summit in New Delhi, PM Modi said that the Hindu civilisational ethos was linked to India’s slow economic growth.

“There is an attempt to malign the Hindu way of life by terming India’s slow growth a few decades ago as the Hindu rate of growth,” he said.

The Prime Minister further said that the term Hindu rate of growth was used when India was struggling for 2-3 per cent of growth.

“The policy of Macaulay, which sowed the seeds of mental slavery in India, will complete 200 years in 2035. This means there are 10 years left. Therefore, in these very 10 years, we all must come together to free our country from the slave mentality,” he said.

“Linking the growth of the country with the faith of its people, with their identity… this was the symbol of the mindset of colonialism,” he said.

“Today’s intellectuals who keep searching for communalism in all things did not see communalism in the use of the term Hindu rate of growth. This term was made part of books and research papers during their time,” he said.

Asserting that India is a model of high growth and low inflation, he said the country’s 8.2 per cent growth in the second quarter of this fiscal year shows that it is becoming the growth driver of the global economy.

He further said that while the world today was beset with uncertainty and fragmentation, India had emerged as a bridge-builder, backed by cultural confidence and economic momentum. While referring to the financial crisis and the Covid pandemic, he said that India now stood in a “different league,” buoyed by renewed self-belief.

“We are at a juncture where one-fourth of the 21st century has passed. Amid global uncertainties, India is full of self-confidence,” he noted.

“When the world talks about slowdown, India writes stories of growth. When the world faces a trust crisis, India becomes a pillar of trust,” he added.

The Prime Minister also took a jibe at the previous government and stated that the earlier systems “did not have faith in their own citizens”. He recalled how, earlier, citizens had to get their own documents attested by government officials.

He said that self-attestation would now be sufficient for numerous official procedures, calling it a decisive break from red tape and mistrust. The reform, he said, was part of the Jan Vishwas Bill, which also decriminalises minor offences to ease the burden on ordinary people.

“Our government broke that way of working. A citizen’s self-attested document is enough to prove its authenticity,” PM Modi said.

PM Modi also said that a government’s “biggest aspect” is the trust the citizenry puts in it.

“Today, in the country’s banks, Rs 78,000 crore of our citizens’ own money is lying unclaimed. We don’t know who this money belongs to; it is just there. Insurance companies have Rs 14,000 crore, and dividends have Rs 9,000 crore. And all this money is unclaimed; there’s no owner,” said PM Modi.

He added that this money belongs to the poor and middle-class people and his government is “trying to find who this money belongs to, because we want to find the rightful owner of this money.”

He further asserted on freeing India from the mindset of slavery due to its colonial past.

“We have to make the country rid of the colonial mindset from every corner. I want to take the citizens forward with the vision for the next 10 years,” the PM said.

“We are completing 200 years of colonialism in 2035, and we have ten years to get there. And in these 10 years, we have to rid the country of this colonial mindset,” he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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