Modi – nadzieja, Modi – zwycięstwo, Modi – rozczarowanie? Analiza przemówień Narendry Modiego wygłoszonych z okazji Dnia Niepodległości w latach 2013–2017

The Independence Day speech is a very special point in the political calendar of India—it provides an insight into the current needs, aspirations and worries of the Indian electorate. Political speech—especially in Indian political culture—definitely cannot be considered merely as the recitations, remarks or postulates of a leader. It is a multi-modal performance with no priority attached to its verbal aspects. The aim of this article is to compare 5 speeches given by Narendra Modi on this occasion between 2013 and 2017. Although N. Modi is widely considered as one of the best orators in contemporary India, not all of those addresses were acclaimed by the audience, even if they were quite similar from the point of view of linguistic structure and composition. What varied greatly was the context in which each of those speeches was given. Looking deeper into the setting of a performance is one of the postulates of the anthropology of word—considered to be a very promising methodology for research on political speech.