80% Indians have favourable view of PM Modi, finds Pew Research Center

India is seen especially favourably in Kenya, Nigeria and the UK. However, South Africans tend to hold more critical views of India

About 80 per cent of Indians have a favourable view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and nearly seven in 10 Indians believe their nation’s global standing has advanced in recent times, according to a survey by Pew Research Center.

With international attention set to focus on India, as world leaders prepare to convene in New Delhi for the annual Group of Twenty summit on September 9 and 10 — the first ever to be held in South Asia — the findings of the new survey have revealed generally positive views of India across 23 countries.

According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults hold a favourable view of India, while 34 per cent hold unfavourable views.

 

Views of India are most positive in Israel, where 71 per cent expressed a favourable view of the country. India and Israel are part of the I2U2 partnership — a coalition comprising India, Israel, the US, and the United Arab Emirates. India is Israel’s top arms importer.

India is also seen especially favourably in Kenya, Nigeria and the UK. However, South Africans tend to hold more critical views of India.

Nevertheless, there has been a sharp drop in India’s favourability in some European countries since 2008, when this question was last asked.

France, for example, has experienced a 31 per cent drop in favourability — from 70 per cent in 2008 to 39 per cent currently. Similarly, those holding an unfavourable view of India increased from 29 per cent in 2008 to 39 per cent now.

Spain saw a decline in favourable views from 48 per cent to 34 per cent, Germany from 60 per cent to 47 per cent, and the UK from 75 per cent to 66 per cent.

Conversely, those viewing India unfavourably increased from 9 per cent to 30 per cent in the UK.

In Indonesia and South Korea, where opinions on India were last recorded in 2018, favourable views of India have decreased by 12 and 6 percentage points, respectively.

Among African and Latin American countries — last surveyed about views of India in 2013 — evaluations have grown more critical in Brazil (down by 14 points) and South Africa (down by 8 points), while becoming more positive in Mexico (up by 18 points) and Nigeria (up by 15 points).

The survey also highlights that political ideology plays a role in how India is perceived in some cases. In Hungary, Australia, and Israel, those on the political Right report more favourable views of India than those on the Left. The opposite is true in the US, where Liberals are 10 points more likely than Conservatives to hold a favourable opinion of India.

Similarly, supporters of Italy’s centrist Five Star Movement, France’s Right-leaning National Rally, and Spain’s Right-wing Vox tend to view India more positively than those who do not support these parties.

Opinions on Prime Minister Modi are mixed, with a median of 40 per cent expressing no confidence in Modi’s approach to world affairs, while a median of 37 per cent have at least some confidence, according to the survey.

Mexicans and Brazilians are especially critical of Modi. In contrast, individuals in Japan, Kenya, and Nigeria are more likely to have confidence in Modi's abilities. Kenyans, in particular, exhibit strong confidence, with 60 per cent indicating at least some faith in Modi’s approach to world affairs. In Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea — countries where trend data is available — confidence in Modi has remained relatively unchanged since the question was first posed in 2015, the survey notes.

In India itself, 79 per cent of respondents expressed a favourable view of Modi, including 55 per cent who viewed him ‘very favourably’, compared to 62 per cent for Rahul Gandhi, with 26 per cent indicating they view him ‘very favourably’.

The majority of Indians — 68 per cent — believe that India’s global influence is getting stronger, while 19 per cent believe it has remained consistent, and 12 per cent think it is waning.

The average of responses across 19 countries was 28 per cent for a stronger global influence, with 48 per cent stating it has stayed about the same.

While Indians hold positive views about the US and Russia, their views on China are less favourable. The survey reveals that the median across 22 countries for a favourable perception of the US stands at 59 per cent, while in India, it is 65 per cent.

For Russia, the median across 23 countries is 14 per cent, while in India, 57 per cent hold a favourable view. As for China, the median across 23 countries is 28 per cent, whereas in India, it is 26 per cent.

The Pew Research Center looked at views of India and its Prime Minister across 23 countries spanning North America, Europe, West Asia, the Asia-Pacific region, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.

To gather data from countries beyond India and the US, the report relied on nationally representative surveys involving 24,674 adults, conducted between February 20 and May 22, 2023.

In India, the Center surveyed 2,611 Indian adults from March 25 to May 11, 2023, and in the US, 3,576 US adults from March 20 to 26, 2023.