Fareed Zakaria writes:   Narendra Modi, India’s new prime minister, radiates confidence. He has the first outright majority in India’s parliament in 30 years. The public lauds him, world leaders court him and the Bombay Stock Exchange continues to soar. But will this moment of euphoria translate into lasting gains? Can India become the world’s next economic powerhouse?

I had the chance to pose these questions when I met with Modi last weekend at his house in New Delhi, his first interview since becoming prime minister. Modi is extremely intelligent and focused but is different from most leaders I have met. His worldview has been shaped almost entirely from experience rather than formal schooling. Born poor and lower-caste (which in India is a worse fate), he left home when he was 17 and soon got involved in politics, joining the RSS, a hard-line Hindu nationalist group. He later got bachelor’s and master’s degrees, but his real education came from traveling around India.

He recounted the thousands of villages he had visited as the head of the government in the state of Gujarat — a period during which Gujarat grew as fast as China. This feel for how people live animates him. Modi is passionate about hygiene and has launched an ambitious drive to build toilets in homes, schools and elsewhere. In his Independence Day speech last month, atop the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi, Modi spoke plainly about the shame that vast numbers of Indians defecate in public. Any previous prime minister would have considered the topic beneath the office. But Indians love his down-to-earth approach.

During the election campaign, Modi placed a particular twist on the lavatory theme. He explained that India needed toilets first and temples later. Can this approach succeed?