Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a major claim about the history of the Somnath Temple during his speech at the Somnath Swabhiman Parv.
The three-day event marks 1,000 years since the first major attack on the Somnath Temple in Gujarat by Mahmud of Ghazni, and 75 years since it was restored to its present state by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It also saw Modi participate in a Shaurya Yatra to honour those who died protecting the temple.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday led the ‘Shaurya Yatra’, a ceremonial procession held to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in the defence of the Somnath temple in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district.
— THE WEEK (@TheWeekLive) January 11, 2026
(PM Narendra Modi, Somnath Temple, Shaurya Yatra, Gujarat) pic.twitter.com/LlOgMfeHtN
PM Modi claimed that the motive behind the attacks on the Somnath Temple was not just "economic plunder", because then it would have stopped after the first attack.
He argued that this was not the case, as further attacks had led to the sacred idol of Somnath being destroyed, and attempts made to change the temple's appearance.
#WATCH | Somnath, Gujarat | PM Narendra Modi says, "... Unfortunately, after independence, people with a colonial mindset tried to get rid of our glorious past. They tried all they could to erase history... Those who fought for the Somnath Temple were not given their due… pic.twitter.com/xNrJFCnRQ6
— ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2026
"The real brutal history of hatred, oppression and terror was hidden from us," he declared.
These statements came amid PM Modi's attack on the Congress's "slave mentality", saying that the party's "appeasement politics" made it bow down to "extremist thinking".
"When India was freed from the shackles of slavery; when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel took the oath to rebuild Somnath, attempts were made to stop him too," he alleged in his charged speech.
#WATCH | Somnath, Gujarat | PM Narendra Modi says, "After independence, when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel pledged the renovation of Somnath Temple, he was stopped from doing so. Objections were raised in 1951 on the visit of then President Rajendra Prasad to Somnath... Unfortunately,… pic.twitter.com/q609VYxX2y
— ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2026
He also claimed that the "powers that opposed the redevelopment of the Somnath Temple"—which reportedly blocked Rajendra Prasad (India's president in 1951) from visiting the rebuilt temple—were still active today, Modi said, warning people of "hidden conspiracies against India".
After participating in the Vibrant Gujarat Regional Conference and inaugurating the remaining stretch of the Ahmedabad Metro (Phase 2) later in the day, PM Modi is set to meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday.
Apart from discussing various issues, Merz's visit to India—his first visit to an Asian country since becoming the Chancellor of Germany—is also expected to review the progress of the India-Germany Strategic Partnership, which recently completed 25 years.
