This is an India that found its voice after socialism was junked in 1991 and has steadily grown in confidence with every percentage rise in the growth rate.
Gujarat is one of the principal citadels of this explosion of suppressed energy. It is a state which is hungry for more. It wants faster growth, more opportunities and more efficiency. It is impatient with the obstacles to the good life - be it bureaucratic bungling, terrorist disruption and liberal carping. It wants to be in the First World. Modi has blended these impulses into raw political energy.
With an image of being uncompromisingly tough, ruthlessly driven, politically innovative, fanatically honest and culturally rooted, Modi has evolved into the leader of the New Gujarat. Through his oratory and resolute leadership, he has captured the restlessness of the intensely nationalist we-can-do-it generation which, as a recent Pew Global Attitudes Survey discovered, believes overwhelmingly that Indian culture is superior to anything else.
The India Shining campaign anticipated the phenomenon but was politically derailed because much of India is still subsumed by Bharat. In Gujarat, New India has reached a critical mass to make it politically viable.
Yet, there is a risk and the Gujarat election is really about Modi trying to overwhelm a deeply entrenched old order with brash daring. His opponents are not merely those who, for various reasons, feel left out by this rush towards entrepreneurial modernity. They include
