New Delhi: Addressing the nation from the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his longest Independence Day speech Tuesday. The official English version of his speech in Hindi, issued by PIB, shows that it contained about 10,866 words — making it his first Independence Day address to breach the five-digit mark in terms of the word count.
ThePrint scanned the Prime Minister’s prior Independence Day speeches using language processing software and found that the speech he delivered Tuesday differed slightly from the ones made in the past.
The most considerable difference was in the way he addressed the nation.
Prior to 2023, the word ‘countrymen’ on average would fetch the highest frequency. According to ThePrint’s calculations, in speeches he delivered between 2014 and 2022, Modi used the word ‘countrymen’ (or deshwasiyo) a total of 247 times, or about 27 times on average each year. This year, it was used 29 times. The Prime Minister, however, used the word “parivarjan” — “family members” — 54 times in his speech this year.
“I have come from amid you. Whatever I dream is for you. Even if I sweat, I sweat for you…I work for you not because you gave me this responsibility,” he said. “I do it because you are my family members and I can’t see your suffering, your dreams crashing.”
The word ‘world’, meanwhile, found mention in this year’s speech a total of 104 times. For instance, one usage was to underline India’s role and importance in the world, while others were references to India being the world’s biggest democracy, the world’s most populous country, besides the world of sports and the world of startup ecosystems etc.
Another usage was during his resolution towards the end of his speech to make India a developed country.
“We have to live every moment for the country, along with this resolution, we also have to make a resolution for the dreams of 140 crore countrymen in this immortal period. The resolution of 140 crore countrymen has to be converted into achievement and when the tricolour flag will be hoisted in 2047, the world will be praising a developed India,” Modi said.
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How ‘education, poor’ fared in Modi’s speeches
On the other hand, the word ‘education’ did not find a single mention in the Prime Minister’s speech this year. This word was mentioned thrice last year, 14 times in 2021 and six times in 2020. Only in the years 2015 and 2018 did the word ‘education’ not find explicit mention in Modi’s Independence Day speeches, though there were one or two references to ‘educational’ or ‘educationists’.
The word ‘poor’, which was mentioned on account of India reducing multidimensional poverty, was used about nine times in this year’s speech.
This was relatively low, compared to previous years. In Independence Day speeches delivered between 2014 and 2018, Modi used the word ‘poor’ about 106 times — which dipped to 41 in his 15 August addresses since being re-elected in 2019.
The word ‘farmers’ too saw fewer mentions. Used about 59 times between 2014 and 2018, and 33 times in the succeeding five speeches, it found mention only five times in this year’s speech.
Words like power, youth, and technology, at the same time, were used more often in his second term compared to the first.
Between 2014 and 2018, the word ‘power’ was used 37 times in Modi’s Independence Day speeches — this jumped to 75 times in speeches he made between 2019 and 2023. In his address from the Red Fort Tuesday, he used this word 30 times.
The word ‘technology’ found 11 mentions this year — the highest so far, given that it was used 16 times during his first term and 29 times during the second. Similarly, the word ‘youth’ was used 46 times during Modi’s first term and 57 times during the second. Of the 57 mentions between 2019 and 2023, this year’s speech accounted for about 25 of those.
In addition, in his last Independence Day speech before the general election next year, the Prime Minister used the words ‘nepotism’ thrice, the word ‘appeasement’ nine times and the word ‘corruption’ 12 times.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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