The aim of this paper is to give insights on the role and persuasive power of metaphor in political communication. The current paper imbibes the study of conceptual metaphors in two different forms which are the lifeline of politics, that is: election campaigns and projection of Prime Minister and the nation to a global audience. For analysing the role of metaphor, while addressing an international audience, we have picked up some famous speeches of Indian PM Modi which he pitched at several national and international forums immediately after being elected as Prime Minister. For studying election campaign communication we have examined the text of newspaper articles and the trending social media updates. We have analyzed the text using Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Some famous conceptual metaphors are analysed, such as war, nature, nation as person/body/family and the world as a community. In a valuation of public speeches, we found that speech which addressed general public has double the metaphors than those addressing limited audiences. Metaphors allow the worldwide public to grasp the meanings of political events and feel a part of the performance. They are also effective because of their ability to resonate with latent symbolic representations residing at the unconscious level.

• Anjuman D Antil(University of Delhi, India)
• Harsh V Verma(University of Delhi, India)