In this blog post, Ananya Sharma, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Ashoka University, India, looks at Narendra Modi’s carefully constructed eco-masculine persona and delves into what lies behind the performance.
On March 4 2025, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Vantara, the world’s largest private wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and conservation centre located in Gujarat. The project spans 3,500 acres and houses over 150,000 rescued animals and over 2,000 species. As India’s largest private-sector conglomerate, the flagship project was conceived under Reliance Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Reliance Industries Limited. Modi lauded the efforts on social media for advancing ecological sustainability and promotion of animal welfare. The mainstream media in India was saturated with images of Prime Minister’s interactions with a variety of animals including feeding white lion cubs, sitting face to face with a golden tiger, engaging with chimpanzees and a one-horned rhino calf, among others. The extensive media coverage of Modi’s visit to Vantara, used both powerful visuals and carefully crafted narratives to portray him as a charismatic and ecological compassionate leader.
Sourced from the Deccan Herald
In India, a key part of Narendra Modi’s image is epitomised by the widely cited claim that he is a man with a ‘56-inch chest’. This has become symbolic of his distinctly assertive, hyper-masculine political persona, portraying him as a leader that is capable of responding to both internal and external challenges. Modi’s chest becomes more than a metaphor, it is a symbol of virility and strength.
In the book, Global Rise Of Populism, Benjamin Moffitt, a Senior Lecturer in Politics & International Relations at Monash University, argues that populist leaders strategically use affective political style, embodied performances and spectacle to craft a direct connection and relationship with a nation. These symbolic gestures and performative acts play a pivotal role in shaping public perceptions and consolidating narratives to reinforce their political legitimacy. In today’s world where strongmen are on a rise in politics, projecting masculinity is a powerful political tool and strategic asset. Yet, this projection is riddled with internal contradictions. This article explores how Modi’s masculinity functions as a central theme in his leadership style and diplomatic stagecraft, striking a chord with domestic as well as international audiences.
Populist Leaders and Performance of Political Legitimacy
Modi has carefully cultivated an image through his strategic use of media appearances. His diplomatic engagements are characterised by personal touch including hugs, firm handshakes and public displays of back-slapping camaraderie paired with highly choreographed visuals of him visiting the Maha Kumbh and taking the dip in the holy Ganges. The ritualistic dip serves both as an expression of devotion in alignment with majoritarian religious sentiment, as well as performance of Hindu cultural identity. These moments are not just routine exercises in political communication, but deliberately staged to demonstrate his charisma, strength and endurance.
There is a need to understand the nuanced dimensions of Modi’s gendered performance where his self-representation shifts between traditional displays of physical strength to equally overt emotional, spiritual and technocratic expertise. It is through this fluid and carefully balanced performance that makes Modi’s populism both emotionally resonant and also politically enduring.
Modi has constructed and projected his masculine image through a strategic blending of three tropes: ascetic discipline, paternalistic authority and technocratic efficiency.
His ascetic portrayal marked by projection of simplicity, self discipline and detachment from material excess is deeply embedded in cultural symbolism. He frequently references his humble beginnings as a chaiwala (tea-seller). Modi emphasises his personal sacrifices and moral discipline, which are values that resonate deeply with Indian spiritual ideals. The cultivated image of asceticism positions him publicly as a figure of moral masculinity. This frames him as being incorruptible and spiritually elevated, which is often juxtaposed against the dynastic excesses of his political rivals (most prominently the Congress party).
He also adopts a paternalistic image rooted in narratives of protection, care and guidance, which positions him as a nurturing and authoritative figure who is capable of safeguarding the nation. In order to reframe his political power in terms of compassion and trust, Modi has also referred to himself as pradhan-sevak (a chief servant) and uses familial metaphors like modi ka parivar (Modi’s family) when referring to Indian citizens. This works to transform citizens from feeling like mere political subjects to emotionally engaged and obligated family or kin.
Finally, Modi’s carefully curated reputation for bureaucratic efficiency and technocratic governance not only reinforces his image as a decisive leader but ties in with India’s aspirations for economic growth and development. Initiatives like Modi’s Make in India initiative (a government-led program to encourage domestic manufacturing), app-based citizen interfaces like MyGov (a digital platform that enables citizens to engage directly with government policies) and high profile space achievements including Chandrayaan space mission to the moon (Indian Space Research Organisation’s lunar exploration program), are part of projecting visual politics of competence. By blending these technological milestones, Modi is able to cultivate a ‘myth of masculinity’ calibrated to and resonating across India’s diverse social and political constituencies.
Environmental Stewardship: Rearticulating Modi’s Masculinity
Modi’s visit to Vantara animal rescue centre reveals how environmental stewardship can be woven into performances of masculinity, and how ecological care can be mobilised to construct and legitimise populist authority. Traditionally, environmental discourses have been feminised– associated with nurturing and passivity. This framing often casts caring for the environment as soft and emotional, reinforcing gendered stereotypes that align nature and care work with women. But Modi’s visit to Vantara became yet another terrain for a populist performance, one that can be understood as eco-masculinity, where caring for the environment is no longer feminised or apolitical, it is instead weaponised to strategically shape public perception.
Modi’s visit to Vantara isn’t an isolated instance of his performance of eco-masculinity. A notable precedent is his appearance on Man vs Wild with British adventurer Bear Grylls. In the episode, shot in the Jim Corbett National Park in India and broadcast across Discovery networks globally, Modi traversed the rugged wild terrain with apparent ease and emphasised his spiritual connection with the natural world. Similarly, his speech during the 50th year commemoration of Project Tiger (a wildlife conservation initiative launched by Government of India in 1973 to protect Bengal tiger) or commitment to Van Mahotsav (the festival of trees) are all reflective of ecological stewardship being fused with gendered performances.
The Contradictions of Modi’s Eco-Masculinity
While Modi carefully projects an image of ecological steward through highly mediatised acts like visiting animal sanctuaries or promoting flagship campaigns like Namami Gange programme, India’s environmental record under his leadership tells a different story. It reveals a stark disjuncture between these symbolic gestures and the reality on the ground. Since 2014, successive legislative and administrative changes have systematically diluted environmental protections in favour of extractive developments. There have been amendments to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, fast tracking of clearances of mining and industrial projects and the expansion of infrastructure projects into ecologically sensitive zones disproportionately impacting adivasi (indigenous) populations whose homes are being sacrificed for the larger nationalist developmental imaginary.
The spectacle of eco-masculinity enables the leader to position himself as the paternal guardian and protector of both the environment and the nation. The performance of ‘care’ for the environment shifts our attention away from structural critiques of environmental injustices, shielding the leader’s image from accountability. Populism thrives on such disjunctures, where symbolic gestures replace substantive policies. The contradiction lies not only in the gap between what is said and what is done, but what is made visible and what is deliberately obscured.
The stark gap between Modi’s performative ecological stewardship and India’s regressive environmental governance is not incidental — it is central to the logic of populism. It reveals how performative gestures of environmental stewardship are used to consolidate power, constructing the leader as both being caring and in control while masking the environmental and social costs of developmental nationalism.
Populism in the Age of Climate Crisis
In an era marked by escalating climate crises and democratic backsliding, the intersection of eco-masculinity and populism offers a critical insight into how environmental politics is increasingly shaped by spectacle and symbolism. Modi’s performance of eco-masculinity embodies a carefully calibrated blend of contradictions; authoritative yet paternal, ascetic yet emotional, muscular yet empathetic. This should be seen as a strategic extension of his masculine persona—casting him as benevolent eco-patriarch which does not match up to the reality of his environmental governance. These shifting expressions of masculinity are highlighted in populism’s performative versatility, allowing it to feel both intimate and resonate emotionally. Recognising this complexity is essential to gaining a richer understanding of how state leaders, like Modi, use eco-masculinity as a dynamic political tool, one that simultaneously reinforces and challenges notions of hegemonic masculinity to serve populist ends.
Around the world, populist leaders, including Bolsonaro and Putin, are reshaping masculinity to include selective performances of environmental concern while simultaneously accelerating extractive policies and dismantling regulatory protections. As eco-masculinity becomes a vehicle for populist performance, it is crucial that we remain attentive to how care is performed, for whom and at what cost if we are to act responsibly in a planetary age defined by both ecological crisis and political manipulation.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are solely those of the blog post author. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Global Souths Hub and/or any/all contributors to this site.
Ananya Sharma
Ananya Sharma (ananya.sharma@ashoka.edu.in) is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Ashoka University, India. She completed her Ph.D. in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her research focuses on the affective, visual and symbolic dimensions of populism within the Indian context. Her work has been published in Global Studies Quarterly, International Studies, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), and edited volumes including the Oxford Handbook on International Studies Pedagogy and Routledge Handbook of South Asia. She has also contributed to E- International Relations, The Loop and LSE South Asia Blog.
