Narendra Modi: Teachers, mother & people who shaped his life

Prime Minister Narendra Modi turns 76, marking 25 years since he first took charge of a government as Gujarat chief minister in October 2001. The journey from Vadnagar to the Prime Minister’s Office has been shaped not only by political milestones, but also by the people Modi himself says left a mark on him, including his mother and father, school teachers, mentors, childhood friends and the ordinary Indians whose lives he encountered along the way.

For PM Modi, some of the most enduring lessons of his life did not come from political office or formal classrooms, they came from a small house in Vadnagar, a railway station tea stall, school teachers who noticed more in him than his grades suggested, an RSS mentor who encouraged him to study, the writings of Swami Vivekananda, and ordinary people whose lives he encountered along the way.

Also read: At 76, PM Narendra Modi’s journey runs from a Gujarat town to the world stage

Hiraba: “Work for the poor, never take a bribe”

Among the simplest pieces of advice Modi has recalled is also one of the ones he has repeated most often.

When he became the chief minister of Gujarat in 2001, his mother, Hiraba, told him that she wanted him to do two things: always work for the poor and never take a bribe. Modi recalled the exchange while marking his entry into the 25th year of serving as the head of a government.

Years later, he described another piece of advice from his mother as equally significant. During his first podcast with entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, Modi recalled visiting his mother when she turned 100. Hiraba, who had never received formal schooling, told him to “work with intelligence” and “live life with purity”.

Modi has often spoken of his mother not as someone who gave him political lessons, but as someone who embodied simplicity, hard work and concern for others. In a later conversation, he recalled how she would help children in the neighbourhood with traditional remedies, an experience he said contributed to his sense of empathy and service.

The significance he attaches to these lessons is visible in the way he describes them: not as an elaborate philosophy, but as basic rules for conduct.

Also read: Narendra Modi facts you may not know: 10 little-known details from Indian PM’s life

Damodardas and a family shaped by work

PM Modi's childhood was rooted in Vadnagar, where he was born in 1950 to Damodardas Modi and Hiraba Modi. The family lived in a modest single-storey house and struggled to make ends meet. Modi helped at the family tea stall while continuing his school studies.

In his conversations about childhood, Modi described his father as disciplined and hardworking, particularly punctual in his daily routine. His recollections of his parents are therefore less about individual political influence and more about the environment in which he grew up, a household where work was part of everyday life and resources were limited.

That background also became part of the way Modi later described his understanding of ordinary Indians. He has repeatedly connected his childhood experiences with his interest in the lives of people dealing with shortages of water, electricity and basic amenities.

In his podcast with Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath, PM Modi called his childhood his “University of Adversity” and said, “My life is my biggest teacher”. He recalled seeing women travel long distances for water and said such experiences stayed with him.

The teacher who saw something beyond the classroom

Modi's own description of his school years does not fit the conventional image of a high-achieving student.

He has described himself as an “ordinary student” who was not particularly noticed. He was not interested in academic competition and preferred participating in different activities. But one teacher, Veljibhai Chaudhary, saw something different.

According to Modi, Chaudhary once went to his father and told him that the boy had considerable talent but did not concentrate for long. He grasped things quickly, the teacher observed, but then became absorbed in his own world.

That recollection is revealing because Modi has often spoken about the importance of recognising an individual's abilities rather than forcing everyone into the same mould. In his interaction with students and teachers, he has argued that parents and teachers need to understand a child's strengths, interests and tendencies rather than simply impose expectations on them.

Other teachers also left an impression. Modi has recalled his school days at Gaekwad State Primary School and Bhagwatacharya Narayanacharya High School in Vadnagar. He has spoken about participating in drama and physical activities, including Malkhamb and wrestling, rather than focusing exclusively on examinations.

Swami Vivekananda: an early intellectual influence

Long before politics became central to his life, Modi has said he was drawn to the writings of Swami Vivekananda.

The PM says Vivekananda's writings influenced him thinking as a young man and helped shape his interest in spirituality and the idea of India playing a larger civilisational role in the world.

At 17, Modi left home and travelled across India for about two years. He has described that period as one in which he encountered different parts of the country and its cultures before returning with a clearer sense of purpose. He subsequently moved to Ahmedabad and joined the RSS.

Vivekananda's influence, therefore, sits in a different category from that of his school teachers or political colleagues. It was an intellectual and spiritual influence that Modi himself places among the forces that shaped his early outlook.

Lakshmanrao Inamdar and the RSS years

The RSS provided Modi with his first sustained organisational environment, and among its senior figures, Lakshmanrao Inamdar — popularly known as Vakil Saheb — occupies a particularly important place in accounts of his formative years.

Modi met Inamdar through the RSS and later wrote about him in his book Setubandh. Inamdar encouraged him to pursue higher education and eventually inducted him as an RSS pracharak in 1972. Contemporary accounts and later profiles of the relationship describe Inamdar as a mentor who played an important role in shaping Modi's organisational approach.

The influence was not limited to political organisation. Inamdar encouraged Modi to study further and helped him obtain study material for his political science degree.

Modi's own writings on RSS leaders also indicate the importance he attached to the organisation's culture of discipline, organisation and service. His years as a pracharak involved a routine far removed from electoral politics — travelling, meeting workers and building networks across Gujarat. The Prime Minister's official biography records that he became an RSS pracharak in 1972.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the 2001 transition

By the late 1990s, Modi had moved from the RSS's organisational work into the BJP. The next decisive transition came in 2001, when he was chosen to take charge of Gujarat.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was then prime minister and the BJP's most prominent national leader. Modi had already worked in the BJP's national organisation, and his organisational experience had brought him into the party's central leadership circle. Contemporary and later accounts identify Vajpayee as a key figure in the decision that brought Modi to the Gujarat chief minister's post.

Modi took oath as Gujarat chief minister on October 7, 2001, in the aftermath of the Kutch earthquake and amid other challenges facing the state. He has since described the assignment as a major responsibility entrusted to a relatively unexpected choice from within the party organisation.

The transition was important in Modi's personal trajectory because it moved him from the role of a party organiser into direct executive responsibility. Gujarat would become the principal political laboratory of his career before his move to national politics in 2014.

Childhood friends and the people who remained part of the story

For someone who left home young and spent decades working away from Vadnagar, reconnecting with childhood became a recurring theme.

Modi has spoken about inviting old classmates to meet him after he became chief minister. He has also recalled meeting former teachers and schoolmates after long gaps, often remembering details and names from decades earlier.

His first podcast with Nikhil Kamath included an extended discussion about his childhood, teachers, friends and family. Rather than presenting his rise as a clean break from his origins, Modi has repeatedly returned to Vadnagar and the people he knew there as reference points for understanding his journey.

Ordinary people as teachers

Perhaps the broadest category in Modi's own account is also the least specific: ordinary people.

He has often said that his understanding of India came not only from books, organisations or political leaders, but from encounters with people in everyday life.

His early work at the family tea stall brought him into contact with travellers and people from different parts of the country. In discussing his public speaking, Modi has linked his familiarity with Hindi and his ability to communicate across regions to these early interactions.

As his career progressed, he has continued to use individual encounters to illustrate larger ideas. In the Nikhil Kamath conversation, for instance, he spoke about meeting workers, farmers, children, women and members of India's diaspora, often presenting their aspirations as a source of insight into the country.

One example he has recalled is a conversation with a labourer in Kuwait who spoke about his dream of seeing an international airport in his home district. Modi presented such aspirations as an illustration of the scale of ambition among ordinary Indians.

These stories form an important part of the way Modi describes his political worldview: not as something acquired solely through formal education, but through observing people's lives and listening to what they wanted for themselves and their families.

'My life is my biggest teacher'

There is a common thread running through Modi's descriptions of his parents, teachers, mentors, friends and ordinary citizens.

He rarely presents them as a single chain of political instruction. Instead, each occupies a different place in the story he tells about himself: his mother as a source of personal ethics; his father and family as examples of discipline and work; teachers as people who recognised his abilities; Vivekananda as an intellectual and spiritual influence; Inamdar and the RSS as an organisational school; Vajpayee as part of the transition into executive politics; and ordinary people as a continuing source of understanding about India.

Modi himself has described the larger lesson more simply: “My life is my biggest teacher.”

That formulation also explains why his accounts of the past repeatedly return to people rather than milestones. The tea stall, the classroom, the shakha, the railway station, the family home and the conversations with strangers and old friends all appear in his recollections as classrooms of a different kind.

As he enters his 76th year and looks back on 25 years of leading governments, the people he credits for shaping him remain largely outside the offices he has held. They are the people from whom, in his own telling, he learned to work, listen, organise, endure and remain connected to the lives around him.