PM Modi says old India was gripped by 'mindset of servitude': 'We used to wait for acceptance'

Speaking at the Network18 Rising Bharat Summit 2026, Modi said discussions with foreign leaders frequently centre on India’s Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) framework and digital capabilities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the government of past decades, saying  imported ideologies from other countries instilled the feeling of us being uneducated.

He accused the past government being busy with copying foreign technology, rather their developing India's own capabilities. "We used to copy international techniques and wait for acceptance from the world," PM Modi said at the Rising Bharat Summit 2026 on February 27.

"Unfortunately, even after independence, India was unable to get out of the mindset of servitude," Modi added.

Modi said national capability is not created overnight but shaped over generations through knowledge, tradition, sustained effort and lived experience.

He added that centuries of foreign rule had eroded India’s confidence, embedding a sense of inferiority. Imported ideologies, he said, further reinforced the perception that Indians were uneducated and submissive.

Modi argued that if India had remained trapped in what he described as the pre-2014 phase — marked by policy paralysis and its inclusion among the “Fragile Five” economies — it would not have commanded global trade partnerships. “Over the past 11 years, a new surge of energy has flowed into the nation’s consciousness. India is now striving to reclaim its lost potential,” he said.