Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday urged people to completely rid the country of the “slave mentality” in the next 10 years, which he termed as the biggest hindrance to the country’s development journey, while hitting out at the “so-called intellectuals” for trying to malign an entire civilisation by terming years of sluggish economic growth as Hindu rate of growth.
“Today, the world is filled with uncertainties but in this era, our Bharat appears in a different league altogether. India is overflowing with self-confidence,” the Prime Minister said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, adding that the country was scripting “the story of growth”. India, he said, is becoming a pillar of trust.
Referring to the country’s 8.2% growth in Q2 this fiscal, PM Modi said, “… This is a message that Bharat is today becoming a growth driver of the global economy… Bharat has become a model of high growth and low inflation.”
The PM said, “Our Northeast, our villages, our Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, Nari Shakti, innovative youth power, naval power, blue economy, the space sector—all held immense potential which couldn’t be used in earlier decades. Bharat is now moving forward with the vision of tapping this vast and previously unrealised potential.”
Terming next-gen GST the biggest of all reforms in 2025, he said there has also been a significant reform in the direct tax system with zero tax on income of Rs 12 lakh.
“The yatra that Bharat is on today is not just one of Vikas but also one of a transformation in mentality. This psychological reawakening is also a journey of a psychological renaissance,” he said.
“No country can progress without self-confidence”, he said, “unfortunately, a long spell of slavery had shaken this self-confidence of Bharat, and the reason for this was slave mentality… it is a big obstacle in the Viksit Bharat journey.”
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“… Today Bharat is the world’s fastest growing economy; some call Bharat a global growth engine, some a global powerhouse… but did you hear anyone call it ‘Hindu rate of growth’?” he said, and reminded the audience that the term was used at a time when India struggled even to reach a growth rate of 2-3%.
“Linking a country’s economic performance to the faith, to the identity of its people … was a reflection of the slave mentality,” he said.
“The message being pushed was that India’s slow growth was somehow the consequence of Hindu civilisation itself. And those who now communalise every issue had no objection to this term then. This term became part of books and research papers,” he said, adding that an entire society was reduced to a synonym for poverty.
“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.
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The PM said that the “slave mentality” destroyed India’s indigenous manufacturing sector. “Even during the colonial era, Bharat was a big producer of arms and ammunition. Weapons were exported from India. But after Independence, our defence manufacturing ecosystem was destroyed. The slave mentality took hold to such an extent that people sitting in government started seeing weapons being made in India as inferior, and this made India one of the biggest importers of defence equipment.”
“Today, in each sector, leaving the slave mentality behind, attempts are being made to attain new pride…” the PM said and listed decisions like the Jan Vishwas Act, and a campaign to locate the rightful owners of Rs 78,000 crore lying unclaimed in various institutions to build trust between the government and its citizens. “This money belongs to the poor and the middle-class… So far, camps have been set up in about 500 districts and thousands of crores of rupees have been handed over to the real owners,” he said. “It is not just a matter of asset recovery; this is a matter of trust.”
