In this article for Liberty Unbound, I examine Narendra Modi, the euphoria surrounding him, and the misplaced expectation that he will turn India into the next China.

I argue that India’s problems cannot be solved by a political savior. Modi’s popularity reflects the Indian middle class’s search for a new deity rather than a serious confrontation with the country’s deeper problems: irrationality, superstition, weak respect for the individual, Hindu fanaticism, and the absence of reason. India’s future depends not on a leader, but on whether Indians can find the hero inside themselves.

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