I am reading this book with the same title authored by Dominique Lapierie, and it's really connecting the dots of India's Past with the Present. One thing that stuck me is the role of Mahatma Gandhi in this whole process. As the book is from a foreign author so his writing is not polluted with political pressures.
First question to be answered is what make Mahatma Gandhi a great leader and why that great leader lost the control over India at the time of Independence.
So what made Mahatma Gandhi a great leader:
1. Connect not just Communicate: Masses were connected with the thoughts and lives of Gandhi and he always presented that he is one of them, not a person from some other planet. Just imagine the reaction among people of Bihar when politicians land in their private jets and talk socialist ideas. Similarly I have observed similar things in our offices as well when our great leaders talk about the million dollars in kitty for a project. We all are presented a picture that this money would be transferred in our respective bank accounts over the weekend.
2. Motivate people with Hope but Motivate urself with desire: Everyone needs motivation from time to time, even the great leaders. What make leaders different from masses is this desire and hope. For people of India there was a hope that there is a better life ahead for them after independence, but for Gandhi it was the desire to fight for the self respect, freedom and equality. Architect of India's freedom struggle was not there at the time of independence.
What went wrong in his leadership
1. Create core team and future leaders: As I was going through that book I realized that Gandhi was sidelined by his own stalwarts. So for every leader creation of core team and future leaders is utmost important who stands for the same values as presented by the leader. So a million dollar question why leaders fail to do that? I don't have definite answers but one of the reason I can think of the fear that some day those future leader will undermine the current leader.
2. Chose what to compromise and what not to compromise: Gandhi never wished for a partition and he agreed to that under the duress of his colleagues and viceroy of India. Standing on your own stand is one of the most simplest and difficult thing to do in which he failed. What worse could have happened at that moment. Partition was not less than a civil which they were eagerly trying to prevent.
I know I am no where to comment on the capabilities of these great leaders but for appreciation and criticism I leave it to my readers if there are any :).
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Why we are so obsessed with American Dream
In last 24 hours I have just seen all news channel playing serial Just Obama. Or Indian media don't have anything else to present on post Diwali day.
I think Indian political leadership believes that one day America will turn some magical stick to solve all our security problems but we don't believe on our capabilities in solving those problems. Just a simple school of thought will India worry on cross border issues which US have with Mexico, that's there internal problem so is Mumbai attacks are India's internal problem. These attacks have global nexus but @ end of the day it was India attacked so action should also originate from India. There was another point that was raised why name of Pakistan was not explicit while making reference to terrorist, but actually what difference would it have made except few headlines and few columns.
Next come trade and commerce believe me I am not an expert in economics and trade, but I am expert in a field where everyone is novice and that is common sense. I believe simply create quality, we buy iphone not because it is created in some part of America. There will always be other pressure which for sometime manipulate trade and commerce but I believe in self correcting nature of economy. If we want our commercial interest to be safeguarded we should invest on genuine R&D (not just an eye wash) in all technology facets and focus on quality or meet end users expectations.
So my conclusion we only can solve our problems and come out of the habit, developed because of 200 years of colonial that some foreigner and will come and solve all our problems.
I think Indian political leadership believes that one day America will turn some magical stick to solve all our security problems but we don't believe on our capabilities in solving those problems. Just a simple school of thought will India worry on cross border issues which US have with Mexico, that's there internal problem so is Mumbai attacks are India's internal problem. These attacks have global nexus but @ end of the day it was India attacked so action should also originate from India. There was another point that was raised why name of Pakistan was not explicit while making reference to terrorist, but actually what difference would it have made except few headlines and few columns.
Next come trade and commerce believe me I am not an expert in economics and trade, but I am expert in a field where everyone is novice and that is common sense. I believe simply create quality, we buy iphone not because it is created in some part of America. There will always be other pressure which for sometime manipulate trade and commerce but I believe in self correcting nature of economy. If we want our commercial interest to be safeguarded we should invest on genuine R&D (not just an eye wash) in all technology facets and focus on quality or meet end users expectations.
So my conclusion we only can solve our problems and come out of the habit, developed because of 200 years of colonial that some foreigner and will come and solve all our problems.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
