Narendra is visiting the White House this week.
NEW DELHI — Ronald Reagan famously said once: “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”
What if the dinner plate of the guest of honor is empty?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the United States later this week, his first trip to this country after his party won a resounding victory in May. It is a visit that has been a long time coming and one that both nations hope will reboot U.S.-India relations.
Modi, who will address the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Saturday and speak before a large gathering at Madison Square Garden, was expected to attend a private White House dinner Monday.
But there is a new twist in the tale.
Modi, a devout Hindu, is observing the annual nine-day religious fastcalled Navratri, an auspicious period in the Hindu calendar that also marks the coming of autumn. No, this is not about dietary restrictions. For Modi, this is a strict no-food fast.
Fasting Hindus follow a fruit-only fast, or avoid meat, or get by with only one meal a day during this nine-day period. Some avoid onion, garlic and alcohol, as well. But Modi, who is a devotee of Hindu mother goddess Durga and a strict vegetarian and teetotaller, follows the strictest form of abstinence. Since the 1970s, he has observed water-only fasts.
In a blog in 2012, Modi wrote:
Yes, I have been fasting during Navratri for over 35 years now. This fast is never to seek anything but an act of self-purification. Fasts such as this have been a source of strength, power and inspiration for me over the last many years.
“For Modi, this is not a religious ritual; it is a spiritual tool for introspection and cleansing,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of the book "Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times." “For him, the fast is a personal journey inward. But knowing Modi, he will also convert it into an opportunity to tell Americans how strong he is from the inside.”
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