Gandhi as a Leader Essay

Gandhi is one of the most prominent political leaders of 20th century. According to experts he single handedly motivated the people of brutalized and oppressed country to fight a non-violent battle against the mightiest empire of the world at that time. His leadership style is talked discussed across schools, universities, management institutes, political circles and corporate organizations across the world. This paper will shed light on what was Gandhi’s leadership style, how it was so effective and what is its relevance in today’s world. For a leader and first and foremost is the knowledge of his/her followers. This can come either with understanding them closely or coming from them. Gandhi came from normal background. He suffered the atrocities himself for example he was thrown out of a train on railway station because he wasn’t white and can’t travel first class. Gandhi didn’t take that humiliation silently but decided to resist it through various conventions. Secondly he identified with the common people and decided to leave the western style wardrobe with much more minimalist one as the masses in India could only afford that. He decided to live simply and sleep on ground like masses of Indians at that time. By living like them and traveling third class in train people able to identify with him (Communication ) and realized that here is the man who not only know what they are going through but also living it with them. Gandhi motto was not ‘I know what you are going through’ but that was of ‘we have to fight it out together to get freedom’. When Gandhi started India was a divided countries ruled by either Britishers directly or number of patrons of British who were equally brutal in oppressing people. Gandhi knew that if India has to get Independence than every section of Indian society has to contribute to it. With his influential he tried to bring the neglected sections of the society into mainstream and motivated them to fight for a common cause. Gandhi strategy (Planning) was clear, he wants to challenge the morality of the most brutal force on the face of earth and want to gain independence for India with a non violent struggle. His belief in non violence was unshakable so much so that once in the course of civil disobedience mob got violent and burnt down the police station. He refused to take it as an aberration and called off the civil disobedience movement. Secondly the planning of the struggle is also done in an evolutionary way. Gandhi understood that if the britishers leave at once there will be a vacuum and that will be filled by the violent sects of the society which are comparatively more organized compare to liberal power in the beginning of the struggle. In the beginning Gandhi launched struggle for right for independent primaries with in the british rule. Once able to achieve them he designed the campaign for no taxation and finally a full blown struggle for complete freedom (Vision). The relevance of Gandhi has not decreased over the years, infact it has significantly increased given the trigger hungry world we live in. Martin Luther King Jr followed the example of Gandhi in resisting racism and fought for civil rights by challenging the morality of ruling America. A bullet for bullet gives the oppressor the right to oppress more and way to fight oppression is not subjecting to it and resisting it by questioning the morality of it. Knowledge@Wharton (2006) Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, a Tree, a Pillow †¦ Images of Leadership from Future Leaders. Retrieved on 25th Feb from http://knowledge. wharton. upenn. edu/article. cfm? articleid=1417 Gandhi (1926). My Experiments with Truth. Govt of India Publication.