#460 – Narendra Modi: Prime Minister of India – Power, Democracy, War & Peace
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Who is Narendra Modi and what is his background?
The following is a conversation with Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. It was one of the most moving conversations and experiences of my life. Allow me here to say a few words about it. Please skip ahead straight to our conversation if you like. Narendra Modi's life story is incredible. He rose from poverty to lead a nation of 1.4 billion people, the biggest democracy in the world, where he won epic-scale elections for prime minister three times. As a leader, he fought for ideas that unite his nation of India, a nation that is composed of a large number of highly varied and disparate cultures and peoples who have a long history marked by religious, social, and political frictions. He's known for taking decisive, at times controversial actions, for which he's loved by hundreds of millions of people and is also criticized by many.
We discuss all of this at length in this conversation. On the world stage, he is respected as a peacemaker and friend by most major world leaders, even those whose nations are at war with each other, from the United States, to China, to Ukraine and Russia, to Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East, and everywhere else. Now, at this moment in history, it is clear, at least to me, that the flourishing of human civilization hangs in the balance, with several wars on the brink of escalation to regional and even global conflict, rising tensions between nuclear powers, technological developments from AI to nuclear fusion that aim to completely transform society and geopolitics as we know it, and, of course, generally, increasing political and cultural turmoil.
So now, more than ever, we need great leaders, great peacemakers who build bridges, not destroy them, who may preserve the identity of their nations, but still celebrate the common humanity of all of us, all people on earth. For this and many other reasons, this conversation with Prime Minister Modi was one of the most remarkable I've ever had. You may hear such words and think that I'm just enamored by power or access. No, never was, never will be. I do not idolize anyone, especially those in power. I'm generally skeptical of power, money, and fame because of their natural, corrupting influence on the mind, the heart, the soul of a person. The whole point of all the conversations I've had in my life, on mic and off mic, is that I try to see and explore the full complexity of every human being, the good and the bad. I believe we're all the same in a deep fundamental sense, all capable of good, all capable of evil, all carry stories of pain and stories of hope.
whether you're a world leader or a truck driver, a coal miner, or a farmer in the American Midwest. And by the way, I will be talking to a lot of the latter kind of folk this year off mic and maybe even on mic as I travel the U.S. and the world. My brief statements here about Narendra Modi are about both him as a leader and especially him as a human being. In the extensive time I spent with him, I spoke with him, off mic and on mic. It was a deeply personal human interaction, characterized by warmth, kindness, humor, inner and outer peace, and absolute focus on the conversation between us in the present moment, as if nothing else existed. I have heard from many people that he treats everyone he meets in this empathic way.
no matter where they come from or what their position is in this world. So, for those and many other reasons, this really was an incredible experience I will never forget. Oh, And by the way, we make captions and voiceover audio tracks available in English, Hindi, and other languages. You can also listen to the original mixed language version where I speak English and Prime Minister Modi speaks Hindi. Separately, you can choose to turn on subtitles in your preferred language. On YouTube, you can switch between language audio tracks by clicking the settings gear icon, then clicking audio track, and then selecting the language you prefer. For fully English overdub, select English. For fully Hindi overdub, select Hindi. And to listen to the original mixed language version where I speak English and Prime Minister Modi speaks Hindi, please select Hindi Latin audio track. So you can listen either to a version that is all one language or to the original mixed language version with subtitles in your preferred language.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is Narendra Modi and what is his background?
0:00–6:59
2
How does fasting influence Narendra Modi's leadership?
6:59–18:08
3
What was Narendra Modi's early life like?
18:08–39:00
4
How did Narendra Modi's spiritual journey shape his leadership?
39:00–1:07:53
5
What is the role of RSS in Narendra Modi's life and politics?
1:07:53–1:28:13
6
How does Narendra Modi view India's cultural and historical identity?
1:28:13–1:58:57
7
What are Narendra Modi's thoughts on Mahatma Gandhi?
1:58:57–2:16:49
8
How does Narendra Modi approach international relations and peace?
2:16:49–3:25:35
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Lex Fridman Podcast
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