Constructing cultural integration through rhetoric in Modi's speech in Lumbini, Nepal

Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, at the invitation of the prime minister of Nepal, Sher Bahadur Deuba, made an official visit to Lumbini on May 16, 2022, on the auspicious occasion of Lord Buddha's 2566th birth anniversary. He delivered his speech as a distinguished guest, addressing the gathering of dignitaries, Buddhist scholars, monks, and ministers of the government of Nepal, focusing on Buddhism and Hinduism to establish cultural and religious relations between Nepal and India. The existing scholarship reflected that he focused on improving relations with neighboring countries, including Nepal, since he was appointed prime minister of India in 2014 by concentrating on culture, connectivity, and cooperation among the countries. However, some studies reported that his attempt to establish harmonious relations with his neighboring nations, particularly Nepal, failed as he could not implement the promises, mainly related to developmental and mutual understanding in problem-solving among the neighboring countries, made in the Neighborhood First Policy. In addition, some literature revealed that Modi adopted Hindu nationalism and promoted international relations with the support of Hindu religion and culture. However, the existing literature almost ignores how Modi utilized rhetorical devices and logical structure in his speech in Lumbini, Nepal, to establish a cultural connection with Nepal. Rhetorical analysis of Modi's speech during his Nepal visit has always been significant in exploring the relationship between Nepal and India. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze Modi's speech delivered in Lumbini to find out the answer to the research questions, such as what message Modi delivered in his speech, what rhetorical devices and logical organization he utilized to deliver his message, and how his rhetorical devices and logical organization used in his speech helped him establish a cultural and religious relationship between Nepal and India. I analyzed Modi's speech from a rhetorical perspective, as this study was highly motivated to explore rhetorical elements and logical organization in the speech.

Promotion of Hinduism and Buddhism. Some existing studies reported that Buddhism has served as a powerful diplomatic tool in many ways for historical reconstruction and building strong attachments among Buddhist countries almost all over the world. After exploring two thousand years of the history of Buddhism and its influences in the Himalayan region, there was high competition between India and China about utilizing Buddhist diplomacy for their national interests. In the present context, it has been claimed that Modi utilized cultural diplomacy based on the spiritual strength of Hinduism and Buddhism to promote the national power of India in the world, multiplying a trend of high-profile international visits, including to neighboring countries, to advance Indian cultural influence and promote India's image in a new global context. Moreover, several studies reported that Modi promoted Hinduism by demarcating Hinduism and non-Hinduism, particularly separating Muslims, and promoted Hindu nationalism by dividing the population into categories such as pure Hindus, disloyal elites, and risky Muslims. The promotion of Hindu nationalism increased perceived threats to non-Hindu religious people, more precisely to Muslims, and Modi has been argued to minimize such threats by erasing Islamic history through an economic policy of development; thus Hindu nationalism is embedded in popular development programs.

Modi's art of communication. Studies of Modi's communication during COVID-19 argued he skillfully used language attuned to context via television and radio to establish mutual relations with the audience, facilitating compliance and crisis management, though these works did not explore rhetorical devices and logical arguments in depth. Research adopting motivating language theory claimed that meaning-making, direction-giving, and empathetic language made him an effective leader, while other scholarship showed he emulated ordinary people's language, used powerful symbols and images from Hinduism, and cultivated visual rhetoric that enhanced his popularity. Analyses of his Twitter rhetoric depict him as democratic, multidimensional, supportive, and peace-establishing. However, these studies largely remained silent on how chains of arguments and rhetorical devices functioned to persuade audiences in public speeches.

Indo-Nepal relation. Despite geographical proximity, Indo-Nepal relations face challenges due to open borders, Nepal’s dependency on India for trade and transit, and India’s security concerns. Factors such as India’s “big brother” stance, territorial conflicts, unequal diplomatic contracts, and border disputes have contributed to anti-India sentiment in Nepal. Although Modi promised to strengthen relations through cooperation and development, gaps between promise and delivery, delays in implementation, and perceived interference (e.g., border blockade after Nepal’s constitution) strained ties. Modi has frequently visited Nepal to improve relations and endorsed the Neighborhood First Policy, which was modified by his government’s ideology and domestic calculations. Yet, several studies report the policy’s limited success, particularly regarding Nepal and Pakistan. In Lumbini, Modi advocated Buddhism and Hinduism to emphasize age-long harmonious religious and cultural relationships between Nepal and India.

The departure of the study. Prior literature highlighted Modi’s use of ordinary language, motivating rhetoric, and religious-cultural symbolism, but largely failed to explore his speech from a rhetorical perspective. This study therefore examines Modi’s message, the rhetorical elements he employed, and how his devices and arguments supported his aims, adding value to rhetoric and communication scholarship and clarifying how rhetoric can foster religious and cultural relationships between Nepal and India.

Design and data. The study adopts an interpretative research design. Modi’s speech in Lumbini on the occasion of Lord Buddha’s 2566th birth ceremony (May 16, 2022) was purposefully selected as the primary text. The English script was retrieved from the official website and the original-language video from YouTube. Secondary data were collected from theses, journal articles, books, magazines, and press releases. The speech lasted approximately 20 minutes and was addressed to distinguished guests, dignitaries, ministers, Buddhist monks, and scholars. Modi spoke mostly in Hindi, with occasional switches to Nepali and Sanskrit.

Analytic procedure. The researcher repeatedly watched and listened to the speech, focusing on the message, rhetorical devices, and arguments. Rhetorical devices (e.g., similes, metaphors, images, symbols, repetition) and argument components (claims, data/grounds, warrants, backing, qualifiers, rebuttals) were recorded. Observations of delivery (dress, gestures, confidence) and audience responses were noted. Analysis integrated the collected information within the overarching theoretical frameworks.

Theoretical frameworks. The study utilizes Aristotle’s concept of rhetoric—ethos, pathos, logos—as modes of persuasion linking speaker character, audience emotion, and argumentation. Rhetoric is treated as the art of using language and stylistic devices to influence and persuade. Additionally, it adopts Stephen Toulmin’s model of argument, employing claim, ground (data), warrant, backing, qualifier, and rebuttal to analyze the logical organization and persuasiveness of Modi’s speech, and to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the arguments and the trains of reasoning.

• Modi’s speech sought to establish cultural integration between Nepal and India primarily through the religious frameworks of Hinduism and Buddhism. He asserted age-long religious and cultural ties and portrayed shared heritage as a foundational asset for bilateral relations.
• He extensively employed Aristotelian rhetorical appeals: ethos by sharing personal connections to Buddhist and Hindu sites (e.g., Sarnath, Bodh Gaya, Kushinagar, Lumbini; Vadnagar as a historical Buddhist learning center); pathos through glorifying imagery and repetition about Nepal (e.g., “Nepal means the country of…”) to evoke pride and affinity; and logos by presenting grounds such as shared sacred geographies and epics (e.g., Ramayana, Janakpur–Ayodhya linkage) to support claims of cultural unity.
• Stylistic devices—similes, metaphors, images, and repetition—reinforced his narrative (e.g., relationships “as stable as a mountain” and seeking new “height” like the Himalayas), using accessible, lucid sentence structures and code-switching into Nepali and Sanskrit to broaden appeal.
• Toulminian structure was observable: claims about enduring cultural-religious bonds were supported by grounds (shared sites, history), warrants (audiences’ religious-cultural sentiments), and backing (the general preference for harmonious international relations). Conclusions were signaled through confidence markers (“I am satisfied…”, “I am confident…”), with the potential rebuttal being a decline in religious-cultural faith among populations, which would undercut the argument.
• The rhetoric also manifested exclusion: by centering Hinduism and Buddhism as the shared civilizational core, it implicitly marginalized other religious and cultural communities in both countries and projected the supremacy of Hindu-Buddhist civilization. This civilizational framing extended globally, envisioning youth as messengers of Buddha’s teachings and coupling cultural-religious unity with development cooperation (science, technology, infrastructure), aligning religious diplomacy with political and developmental aims.
• Overall, the speech’s rhetorical and argumentative strategies served a political mission of promoting Indo-Nepal relations via cultural nationalism, enhancing India’s influence while narrowing inclusivity to Hindu-Buddhist paradigms.

The study demonstrates how Modi’s rhetorical and argumentative strategies answer the research questions: his message foregrounded shared Hindu-Buddhist heritage to construct a narrative of civilizational unity between Nepal and India; his use of ethos, pathos, and logos, combined with Toulmin’s argument components, formed a persuasive structure that connected claims to audience values and historical-religious grounds. These strategies aided persuasion by aligning diplomatic aims with culturally resonant symbols and sites, employing accessible language, and signaling confidence in conclusions.

The findings clarify the significance of rhetoric in political communication and cultural diplomacy: rhetorical devices can effectively mobilize shared religious heritage to advance foreign policy objectives and bilateral cooperation. However, defining common culture primarily through Hinduism and Buddhism introduces exclusivist implications, potentially sidelining other religious-cultural groups in both countries and reframing Indo-Nepal relations through a civilizational lens. The analysis contributes to understanding the interplay between rhetoric, cultural nationalism, and development narratives in shaping regional diplomacy and public perception.

The study concludes that Modi utilized rhetorical devices and logical arguments to construct religious and cultural connections between Nepal and India, thereby advancing a political mission of promoting bilateral relations through cultural nationalism. By elevating Hinduism and Buddhism as shared civilizational pillars, his rhetoric positioned these traditions as central to regional friendship and global humanitarian messaging, yet simultaneously excluded other religious and cultural communities present in both countries. The article contributes to scholarship on rhetoric and political communication by revealing how carefully deployed rhetorical devices and argument structures can support agendas of cultural integration and influence. It calls for future research to further analyze Modi’s rhetorical strategies, clarify how such rhetoric promotes religious-cultural supremacy, and interrogate the underlying purposes of economic and developmental assistance deployed alongside cultural diplomacy.