Early life

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, in the present-day
Indian state of Gujarat. His father was the dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar; his deeply
religious mother was a devoted practitioner of Vaishnavism (worship of the Hindu god Vishnu),
influenced by Jainism, an ascetic religion governed by tenets of self-discipline and nonviolence.
At the age of 19, Mohandas left home to study law in London at the Inner Temple, one of the
citys four law colleges. Upon returning to India in mid-1891, he set up a law practice in
Bombay, but met with little success. He soon accepted a position with an Indian firm that sent
him to its office in South Africa. Along with his wife, Kasturbai, and their children, Gandhi
remained in South Africa for nearly 20 years.Here, he became interested in the philosophy of
nonviolence, as expressed in the Bhagavad-Gita, Hindu sacred scripture, and in Jesus Christ's
Sermon on the Mount in the Christian Bible. He returned to India in 1891, having passed the bar,
but found little success in his attempts to practice law. Seeking a change of scenery, he accepted
a position in South Africa for a year, where he assisted on a lawsuit.
n 1906, after the Transvaal government passed an ordinance regarding the registration of its
Indian population, Gandhi led a campaign of civil disobedience that would last for the next eight
years. During its final phase in 1913, hundreds of Indians living in South Africa, including
women, went to jail, and thousands of striking Indian miners were imprisoned, flogged and even
shot. Finally, under pressure from the British and Indian governments, the government of South
Africa accepted a compromise negotiated by Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts, which
included important concessions such as the recognition of Indian marriages and the abolition of
the existing poll tax for Indians.
In July 1914, Gandhi left South Africa to return to India. He supported the British war effort
in World War I but remained critical of colonial authorities for measures he felt were unjust. In
1919, Gandhi launched an organized campaign of passive resistance in response to Parliaments
passage of the Rowlatt Acts, which gave colonial authorities emergency powers to suppress
subversive activities. He backed off after violence broke outincluding the massacre by British-
led soldiers of some 400 Indians attending a meeting at Amritsarbut only temporarily, and by
1920 he was the most visible figure in the movement for Indian independence.
In 1931, after British authorities made some concessions, Gandhi again called off the resistance
movement and agreed to represent the Congress Party at the Round Table Conference in London.
Meanwhile, some of his party colleaguesparticularly Mohammed Ali Jinnah, a leading voice for
Indias Muslim minoritygrew frustrated with Gandhis methods, and what they saw as a lack of
concrete gains. Arrested upon his return by a newly aggressive colonial government, Gandhi
began a series of hunger strikes in protest of the treatment of Indias so-called untouchables
(the poorer classes), whom he renamed Harijans, or children of God. The fasting caused an
uproar among his followers and resulted in swift reforms by the Hindu community and the
government.
In 1934, Gandhi announced his retirement from politics in, as well as his resignation from the
Congress Party, in order to concentrate his efforts on working within rural communities. Drawn
back into the political fray by the outbreak of World War II, Gandhi again took control of the
INC, demanding a British withdrawal from India in return for Indian cooperation with the war
effort. Instead, British forces imprisoned the entire Congress leadership, bringing Anglo-Indian
relations to a new low point.
PARTITION AND DEATH OF GANDHI
After the Labor Party took power in Britain in 1947, negotiations over Indian home rule began
between the British, the Congress Party and the Muslim League (now led by Jinnah). Later that
year, Britain granted India its independence but split the country into two dominions: India and
Pakistan. Gandhi strongly opposed Partition, but he agreed to it in hopes that after independence
Hindus and Muslims could achieve peace internally. Amid the massive riots that followed
Partition, Gandhi urged Hindus and Muslims to live peacefully together, and undertook a hunger
strike until riots in Calcutta ceased.
In January 1948, Gandhi carried out yet another fast, this time to bring about peace in the city of
Delhi. On January 30, 12 days after that fast ended, Gandhi was on his way to an evening prayer
meeting in Delhi when he was shot to death by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic enraged by
Mahatmas efforts to negotiate with Jinnah and other Muslims. The next day, roughly 1 million
people followed the procession as Gandhis body was carried in state through the streets of the
city and cremated on the banks of the holy Jamuna River.

Leadership is about casting a vision and allowing it to seep into others so that they follow the
lead. Mahatma Gandhi is a world renowned leader who was a politician, a writer, an intellectual
and a gifted orator. I find it incredible that as a young boy, Gandhi did not display any leadership
qualities. He was a below average student (lack-luster) and very shy. His remarkable
metamorphosis from a dull boy to a brilliant leader attests to the fact that good leaders are made.
He has inspired and motivated great leaders such as Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela and Barack
Obama. Gandhi championed passionately for four main causes: Indias independence from Great
Britain, Hindu Muslim unity, the causes of the poor and equality and justice for the
untouchables. As a peace advocate who abhorred violence, Gandhi employed a novel tactic of
engagement with the enemy - resistance through non-violent civil disobedience. In this response
paper, I will respond to the leadership styles that emerge in the course of his agitation and
advocacy. SERVANT LEADERSHIP

In my opinion, this is Gandhis dominant leadership style. Despite having trained as a lawyer in
Britain, he gave his life selflessly to the service of humanity. Gandhis acts of service started in
his days in South Africa where he taught English to Indians without any remuneration so as to
improve their living conditions among racial tensions. He met material needs of a leper who
came to his doorstep, dressed his wounds and nursed him before sending him to hospital. His
passion for humanitarian work saw him volunteer as a nurse in a hospital where he dedicated two
hours each day serving patients. When I examine Gandhis servant leadership, I see close
parallels with the style of Jesus who symbolized service rather than power. Jesus standard of
greatness was Mark 10:43 - 45: whoever wants to become great among you must be your
servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
Few men have ever had as much of an effect on our world as Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948),
though he used the message of peace and love, rather than war and destruction
Gandhi's love for people and his religious fervor made him a revolutionary in many of his ideas
and actions. He desired to see India freed from British rule in a bloodless revolution,
Knowing that violence only begets violence, he began the practicing of passive resistance, or as
he called it, "Satyagraha" which means "holding onto truth". In his famous Salt March of 1930,
Gandhi and thousands of others marched to a coast where salt lay on the beaches to protest the
British Governments' prohibition against the Indians making their own salt. Though many were
beaten, arrested and killed, no one fought back. Over the course of his life he led three major
crusades, rallied support for nonviolent strikes, urged Indians to boycott anything British, and
championed women's rights.

Gandhi exemplified many characteristics of a great leader. His love for the people of India was
boundless; he wanted nothing more than to serve and help them. Always putting others above
himself, he sought to make himself even lower than the lowest member of the Hindu caste
system. He even humbled himself to the point of sweeping up excrement left behind by others,
hoping to teach that disease was spread in filth. One of his most admirable qualities was that he
led by example and never preached that which he was not willing to do himself. A common
thread between Gandhi and many other great leaders was that no matter what he did, he did it to
the best of his ability. He once said:

"No matter how insignificant the thing you have to do, do it as well as you can,...
Gandhis philosophy of non-violence involved civil resistance, refusal to comply with unjust
laws.
Gandhi was an uncompromising opponent of violence. He knew that using violence to fight
violence corrupts and debases even the most noble of causes and leaves a legacy of bloodshed. If
we look to the revolutionary movements of the twentieth century, we see the truth in Gandhis
beliefs
Gandhi knew that the only solution to hatred, ignorance and fear was love, truth, and
forgiveness. He knew that overcoming unjust hierarchies doesnt mean inverting them; it means
eliminating them altogether. Gandhi and his followers, like those who risked their lives to hide
Jews during the Nazi regime, were prepared to die to make injustice visible for the entire world
to see. For Gandhi, truth was a powerful weapon, needing no others. Indeed, truth has proven to
be the most powerful weapon humanity has even known.
One of the strategies that made Gandhi an effective leader was his ability to build bridges
between communities, between upper and lower caste Hindus and among Hindus, Muslims and
Christians. Gandhi saw the intrinsic humanity of all individuals, regardless of their caste,
religion, gender, or social position in society. Deeply upset by communalism (Hindu-Muslim
animosity), Gandhi was able to promote religious harmony through his personal and public
actions. When this harmony was threatened, he fasted. Gandhis tremendous ability to bring an
end to provincial and religious hatreds was tested time and time again with the Yeravda Pact and
his fasts to end violence in Calcutta, Bengal and Delhi.
One of the characteristics that made Gandhi successful was his ability to identify with the poor
masses of India. Gandhis philosophy of self-rule distinguished itself from the elitism that
characterized the Indian Independence movement, as well as virtually all other Independence
movements of this century. Gandhi knew that freeing India from the yoke of imperialism also
meant freeing the masses from economic servitude. Gandhi was opposed to Independence for
only an elite few; he was fearful of an Independent India that would replicate past religious, caste
and economic oppressions.
Gandhi provided leadership by example. He exhibited the perfect marriage between personal
morality and public action. The best example of this was his use of homespun cloth that provided
employment for the poor masses and revived the village economy. In a world in which the
inequalities generated by a global economy are becoming more obvious and frightening,
Gandhis critique of technology and economies that benefit the powerful and marginalize the
powerless is all too relevant today.
Gandhis greatest legacy is the notoriety he achieved for advocating non-violence as a means of
overcoming oppression. It is this belief that guides the actions of millions of average citizens
who participate in civil society movements today across the globe.
A tribute to Gandhis enduring lifetime achievements will be paid by naming the first decade of
the new millenium the United Nations Decade of Non-Violence. No greater tribute has ever been
paid to a leader of this century. Inspired and profoundly moved by his life and work, I hope the
Decade of Non-Violence will truly awaken the consciousness of humanity into liberating
ourselves from all and every kind of oppression; using truth as our only tool