Narendra Modi was born on 17 September 1950 in Gujarat vadnagar . Born to a Gujarati family in Vadnagar , Modi help his father as a child and has said he later ran his own stall. He was introduced to the RSS at the age of 8, beginning a long association with the organisation. Modi left home after finishing High School in party due to an arranged marriage to Jashodaben Chimanlal, which is he founded and publicly acknowledged only many decades later. Modi travelled around India for 2 years and visited a number of religious centres before returning to Gujarat. In 1971 he became a full time worker for the RSS. During the state of emergency imposed across the country in 1975, Modi was forced to go into hiding. The RSS assigned him to BJP in 1985 and he held several positions within the party hierarchy until 2001, rising to the rank of general secretary.