Gautam Adani calls for India’s civilisational strength to guide its future amid AI shift

NEW DELHI: Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani on Friday said that India’s civilisational strength lies in its ability to learn, rebuild and move forward, describing the country’s progress as a reflection of its enduring identity.

Addressing the Global Indology Conclave 2025, Adani warned that the challenges of the present era come not through traditional means of invasion but through control over the human mind and imagination.

“The new forms of invasions do not come with armies or flags,” he said. “They seek something far more powerful — our attention, habits and imagination. This quiet civilisational force has arrived in its most powerful form — Artificial Intelligence.”

Calling AI both a transformative and a dangerous force, Adani said it carries the potential to reshape human understanding of culture and memory.

“AI is becoming the world’s new teacher, the guide to our past and the keeper of our civilisational memory, and this is where the danger lies,” he said.

“It threatens the very essence of the culture that defines who we are.”

Adani said that India’s growth journey is deeply connected to its cultural roots and philosophical heritage.

“Our civilisation that refuses to break is also the one that learns how to build,” Adani said. “Over the past decade, Bharat has not only been the fastest-growing major economy but has also become the fourth-largest economy on the planet. When a civilisation knows who it is, its economy knows where it must go.”

Reflecting on his upbringing, Adani recalled the stories his mother told from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. “My mother used to narrate episodes from Ramayana and Mahabharata, including Lord Ram’s 14 years of exile, the devotion of Maa Sita… From the Mahabharata, she spoke about Arjuna’s battlefield doubts and Lord Krishna’s words to him to rise beyond family bonds and serve the purpose of Dharma,” he said. “My mother was shaping my sense of duty, devotion and Dharma.”

Emphasising the importance of Indology, Adani described it as the disciplined study of India’s philosophies, arts, sciences, and governance. “When studying it, we don’t look back to live in history, but we look forward so that the best of history lives through us,” he said. He noted that India’s past wounds were not just physical but intellectual, citing the burning of Nalanda and Vikramshila universities and the colonial dismissal of Indian knowledge systems. “It was psychological war and it broke our civilisational self-confidence,” he said.

Adani said the need for a conclave on Indology is rooted in reclaiming that confidence and ensuring India’s knowledge heritage continues to guide its future. “When the roots of culture fade, the land turns dry and barren, but as long as values remain, darkness can never dare,” he said. (ANI)