Gautam Adani Warns of AI's Impact on India's Cultural Identity While Championing Civilisational Strength

New Delhi:

Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, emphasized that India's enduring civilisational strength lies in its capacity to learn, rebuild, and progress forward. Speaking at the Global Indology Conclave 2025, he described the nation's advancement as a manifestation of its lasting cultural identity.

Adani highlighted that contemporary challenges emerge not through traditional invasions but through subtle control over human consciousness. "The new forms of invasions do not come with armies or flags," he observed. "They seek something far more powerful -- our attention, habits and imagination. This quiet civilisational force has arrived in its most powerful form -- Artificial Intelligence."

He characterized AI as both revolutionary and potentially hazardous, noting its ability to reshape cultural understanding and collective 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," Adani warned. "It threatens the very essence of the culture that defines who we are."

The industrialist connected India's economic trajectory to its rich cultural foundations and philosophical heritage. "Our civilisation that refuses to break is also the one that learns how to build," he stated. "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."

Sharing personal experiences, Adani recounted how his mother instilled values through epic narratives from the Ramayana and 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 reminisced. "My mother was shaping my sense of duty, devotion and Dharma."

Adani defined Indology as the systematic study of India's philosophies, arts, sciences, and governance systems. "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 explained. He referenced historical wounds inflicted on Indian intellectual traditions, citing the destruction of Nalanda and Vikramshila universities and colonial dismissal of indigenous knowledge systems. "It was psychological war and it broke our civilisational self-confidence," he reflected.

According to Adani, the Global Indology Conclave serves to reclaim this confidence and ensure India's knowledge heritage continues guiding its future development. "When the roots of culture fade, the land turns dry and barren, but as long as values remain, darkness can never dare," he concluded.

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