Of ‘kaamdars’ and ‘naamdars’: Why Modi wants to identify himself with Dhoni’s legacy

Narendra Modi’s cricket acumen maybe untested (although he was once the president of the Gujarat Cricket Association) but his political antennae and communication skills remain razor sharp. Which is why it should come as no surprise that the prime minister chose to recently write a personal letter to former India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on his retirement that was soon made public through social media.

Clearly, Modi was seeking to identify himself with the remarkable legacy of Dhoni, one that is seen to typify the “kaamdar” (workman) versus “naamdar” (dynast) storyline that the prime minister has also sought to consciously embrace. As Modi writes, “You have been one of the important illustrations of the spirit of New India, where family name does not make young people’s destiny but they make their own names and their own destinies.”

There is little doubt that Dhoni’s story is one of the more compelling tales of our times. That a boy from the cricketing backwaters of Ranchi who briefly worked at a railway station in Kharagpur as a ticket collector should then go onto lift all of cricket’s major trophies is the ultimate dream come true.

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