“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” These are the words of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, or also known as “Father”, “Great Soul”, Mahatma, and many other loved names called by his brothers and sisters of India. Gandhi was a pre-eminent political ideological leader of India during “British Raj” or the Indian Independence movement, along with being a lawyer graduating from University of London in London.

Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869 in Porbandar Gujarat, India. He was born in his ancestral home, which is now known as Kirti Mandir. His father Karamchand Gandhi belonged to the Hindu Modh community, served as the “diwan” or high official. His mother was Putlibai who came from the Hindu Pranami Vaishnava community, which was Karamchand 4th wife, after other 3 died after childbirth. His mother played the biggest role in Gandhi’s life, and the reason why he is a legacy now. Because his mother was a devout Jain follower Mohandas absorbed early the influences that would play the big roles and his principal guide he used in his adult life. At age 13 Gandhi was married to 14 year Kasturbai Makhanji. At age 15 they had a child who died in few weeks, but later had 4 other children: Harilal, Manilal, Ramdas, and Devdas. In 1888 Gandhi travelled to London, England to study law, and later earned his degree, and set off to South Africa to start his life as a lawyer.

When he went to Africa he had his first share of bitterness the Britain’s had towards Indians. One day travelling on a train Mohandas bought a first class ticket. As he travelled he heard many other people all from Britain complain of him being on first class even though he had paid for the ticket and wasn’t even bothering them yet say a single word. Yet Gandhi at the next stop was throw roughly out of the train, and learned why others were telling him to stay away from the whites, and other tips. This was where Gandhi started his movement and got it really going for India.

After the incident in South Africa Gandhi made a vow in front of his mother and a monk at the Jain temple he would uphold his mother’s tradition and not eat meat, live celibate life, no alcohol, and other customs. This was where Gandhi really thought for the first time that he wasn’t happy with his career of a lawyer. So he thought why not be a political ideologist, and help India become free because the treatment from the Britain people wasn’t fair and so on.

While all the political, work, and other work matters came into Gandhi’s daily life he sort of forgot his duty as a parent, and husband that he forgot about his children. So with having problems at home, work, and everywhere Gandhi sometimes forgot his top priorities, but for the sake of India he thought all this was necessary. His oldest son Harilal even to show hate, and pain to his father became an alcoholic, prostitute, and did other bad deeds against what Gandhi believed. It came to such a point that he said “Harilal isn’t my son anymore; he is dead to me…”

After his tribulations of marriage, and raising children in South Africa, he came back to India with renewed hope, power, and support. In India Gandhi started his real politics, revolts, and fight for a change and Independence. Gandhi believed nonviolent noncooperation was the best way to bring change and independence to India. Instead of revolting and actually getting physical he would use his words to strengthen his people and keep on pushing for a change. He led multiple protests, marches, and urged boycotts. One of the most famous ways of his boycotting was going to jail deliberately, and hunger strikes. This way Gandhi was able to almost change all the new acts passed and send them back. Here Gandhi also, picked up a more or higher religious calling called brahmacharya. He increased his religious followings, and made his harder by have to females support him where ever he goes. 

The beginning of the end was seen soon after British partitioned India into two. The two parts were India and Pakistan. The reason was to separate Hindus and Muslims. Muslims in Pakistan, and Hindus in India. Later on in 1947 after WW-II British gave independence to India. This was a day of celebration, peace, and joy. But this celebration was short lived as tensions now grew between Muslims and Hindus.

In 1948 tensions became so high between the two religions that bloodshed began, and the Muslims were chased in to Pakistan without food, water, or shelter. This had devastated Gandhi because he hoped for his acts, and plans to unite Hindus, Muslims, end discrimination, and promote education and economic development for India as one.

Then came January 30th, 1948. At the age of 78 Gandhi went out to do his daily prayers, and worship. On his way out he was faced by a Hindu extremist that seemed to be like any other normal guy, buy turned out to be a killer. He shot Gandhi as he was about to touch his feet (an Indian way of blessing) he pulled out his gun and fired four shots into Gandhi’s body.

Though Gandhi has died, his legacy continues. Many well known people such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and many other notable people still follow and take Gandhi as a guide. For instance MLK had said “Christ told me what to do, and Gandhi showed me how to do it.” As Gandhi says nonviolence noncooperation is the best way for changes others wise “An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

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Leadership Lessons from Gandhi:

Mohndas Karamchand Gandhi, when you hear this name what are the thoughts that instantly come into your mind?

Obviously non violence, inspiration, truth and a great leader these are the words come in your mind. As far as learning and lessons are concerned there is a saying about learning, if you want to learn, learn from the best. If you are a leader or aspiring leader than I strongly recommend you to learn leadership lessons from Gandhi because Gandhi is considered one of the most inspirational world leader and according to Lalit Bhojwani, “Leadership is inspiration and if you are not inspiring you are not a leader.” Although every attribute of a great leader is found in Gandhi but here some great lessons you can learn from Gandhi -

1. Innovation – According to Steve Jobs,  “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Non violence was a great innovation that was innovated by Gandhi. Before this no other battle was won or no other country had got freedom, even nobody had thought of winning any battle with non violence. But it was Gandhi who had applied non violence successfully and not only helped India to get freedom but he is regarded as a father of nation.

8.Vision : Gandhi was a great visionary leader and with his vision India got freedom with non violence.

In nut shell, Gandhi was a leader who’s thinking and  leadership style was unique and different that made him greatest leader of the world.

What are the other lessons? 

There is no dearth of people who swear by the name of Gandhi without caring a whit about his principles and predilections; but there are few who ever talk about what he was actually proposing to do shortly after India gained independence. There are still very few who talk of what pained Gandhi the most after the congressmen assumed power. Shortly before Gandhi was shot dead, he was working on something which, if destiny had not willed it otherwise, would have changed the quality of polity that has befallen us.

It is no longer a secret that Gandhi desired the winding up of Congress as a political party. But perhaps it is not known to many as to what he proposed to bring in, in its place. But first thing first. Gandhi had set before himself two tasks. First, he wanted to restore peace and goodwill between India and Pakistan, and second, he wanted to purge Indian politics of its corrupting influence. His desire to wind up the party was an intended step in that direction.

Towards the end of 1947, Delhi witnessed the worst communal skirmishes. Gandhi described Delhi as the city of the dead. His sermons at the daily prayer had the desired effect, but the fresh wave of refugees pouring in from West Punjab, divested of their possessions and with blood-chilling accounts of atrocities committed on them, added fuel to the fire fomenting further upheavals. It was at this point of time that he undertook the indefinite fast unto death ostensibly to contain the crisis. But many attributed this fast to Sardar Patel’s decision to withhold the payment of cash balance to Pakistan. This was so because a financial agreement was reached between the two countries. There was yet another agreement on all outstanding issues between the two countries; and one of the clauses was the withdrawal of all Pakistani raiders and infiltrators from Kashmir. But Pakistan did not honour this commitment. So Patel decided to withhold the payment to Pakistan. While the finance minister backed his decision, Nehru did not and approached Gandhi for a solution. This was recorded by Durga Das in his famous book India from Curzon to Nehru and after.

It was at this point that he had resorted to indefinite fast to put pressure on Patel. Patel ultimately relented, and Gandhi broke his fast apparently at the request of the leaders of all communities. But this fact was not known to many. People in general were led to believe that he had undertaken the fast because of the communal situation. No doubt, this was one of the reasons; but certainly not the only reason.

If the communal front disturbed Gandhi, the political situation bothered him no less. He was greatly disillusioned by the rot that was setting in, in the Congress. He was receiving information that a few legislators belonging to the party were taking money from the businessmen promising them licences. Also, he was privy to the knowledge that some of them were indulging in black-marketing and subverting the judiciary to further their own interests and were intimidating top officials to secure transfers and promotions for their protégés in the administration.

Gandhi was deeply hurt by these revelations and was pondering on the possible remedy for this alarming state of affairs. Gandhi had been associated with and had founded many autonomous organizations such as All-India Spinners Association, Harijan Sevak Sangh and the Nai Talimi Sangh. All these organizations were serving the people in one way or the other and most of the members were a dedicated lot. He invited the representatives of the above organizations to Delhi for a conference where he mooted the idea of forming a co-ordinating committee whose primary job would be to recommend candidates for parliament and state legislative assemblies. Some of the luminaries who attended the above conference were Dr. Zakir Hussain and Acharya Kriplani. Gandhi desired the co-ordinating committee to certify integrity of the candidates to be selected for parliament and legislative assemblies of various states. The candidates, he declared, should have the proven record of selfless spirit of service to the community. The members of the committee, he opined, should keep themselves out of politics. But what Gandhi proposed was opposed by the members. A few of them agreed that they should keep themselves out of this ‘muck’ while most of the others were of the view that they should put themselves up for the election.

So, a novel idea got scuttled ab initio. Gandhi’s great brain-child was still born. He felt he was let down by those who professed to be his followers. He was overly dismayed. But he did not give up. He became fully aware that he was being exploited by his own followers for their own political ends. It was at this point of time that he thought of a revolutionary plan. He decided it was time the Congress was dissolved and in its place be installed an organization going by the name of Lok Seva Sangh, i.e. Servants of the People Society. He had already drawn up a constitution for the Sangh, but he could not place it before ‘the Congress Overlords’. The assassin’s bullet ended his life and the ambitious though pious task he had assigned to himself got cremated with him once for all. We called him the father of the nation, but no one, much less a congressman, came forward to fulfil his last wishes. It is said that the unfulfilled wishes of the deceased father is fulfilled by his sons and daughters and grand children. But Gandhi’s tragedy was he did not have worthy sons and daughters and grand children who would take the trouble of fulfilling his unfinished tasks. But surely, there is no dearth of people claiming to be his followers.

So, while we keep swearing by his name, we also keep shunning everything he stood for and all that he prescribed for a good and healthy democracy. Gandhi is, more than ever before, relevant even today. But though there are occasional attempts (shows of attempts, in truth) to have some kind of screening machinery to screen candidates for elections, there is no real work done in this direction ever.

Not only Gandhi failed in his mission of restoring peace and goodwill between India and Pakistan and of purging Indian politics of all its corrupting influences, he also failed to impress the political bigwigs. He had advised Chakravarthy Rajagopalachary who was then the Governor General of India and the governors of other states to shun gubernatorial mansions and move to simple cottages, spin yarn by hand, abstain from consuming liquor and speak only Hindustani and the language of the province. It was just before the communal riots once again flared up in September 1947. Clearly, his advice was not intended to be taken. Nor was it taken.      

It will be foolhardy to think that those who did not abide by him during his life time will do so now. By swearing in his name they merely fulfil a ritual and nothing more.

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Some leaders are like magnet in attracting top talents. A lot of top talented people are attracted towards some specific leaders. Being curious nature, I had asked these question to some young talented people – What are the reasons behind this attraction? What are the main leadership traits that attract you? I have got some great responses.

There are many traits that are responsible for this attraction but when I did the survey among some young top talented people, the results were extremely shocking and only one trait that was common in all the answer. Some said that integrity and some said that leading by example, creativity, adaptability, assertiveness, humility, sense of Humor etc. etc.

But they all agreed on a one trait and that is my friend personality. Then I realized how personalty plays a big role in leadership. This survey shows if you have a positive personality than chances are higher for you to attract top talent nobody will be attracted towards negative personalities.

Here I would like to clarify the meaning of personality. Personality is broader term and it is related with your way of feeling, thinking, expressing words and behaving. For example Mahatma Gandhi and John F. Kennedy  had charming and magnetic personality. Although personality is not the only element of effective leadership but it is such an important one that you can not ignore it. 

Long back Mahatma Gandhi advised us ‘Do not listen to bad, do not see bad and do not speak bad’. Now in modern hyper competitive times we are helpless about the first two don’ts. And persistence exposure to the first two makes us lose the third too!

We cannot help but listen to or watch an endless stream of ‘bad’—all around us from home to the streets, in the newspapers and news channels, in the television serials and in the movies and at every act we have to do like walking praying jogging or driving—everyday and every step of our existence.

Such continuous barrage of ‘bad’ is fast making us speak and utter a lot of ‘bad’ too. We are becoming doubtful and suspicious of everything around us and we are learning to blurt it out freely and openly.

The main ‘bad’ drive comes from politics. We are hounded constantly by all sorts of stories being hammered into us forcing us to form our opinions or go on changing these and finally give vent to it by expressing which often borders on the ‘bad’. We better take one or two illustrative examples here.

We supported the anti-corruption fight by Anna Hazare in India wholeheartedly and in huge numbers. Then slowly seeing the politics building around it we started speaking badly about it, but still supported the cause which was ‘good’ and this ‘good’ was to be solemnized into a Bill in the winter session of the Indian Parliament. The winter session came, but could not function for a single day in the first two weeks thanks to politics being made out of issues like inflation, black money and lately the issue of Foreign Direct Investment in the Indian retail sector. So, some of us are already saying that the political parties have joined forces deliberately to stop the Parliament from passing the anti-corruption Bill!

Cricket—the craze of India—is another hotbed of politicking and the fixing phenomena. We have been so fed up with reports of match fixing over the years that now we cannot accept any cricketing result without being suspicious of the ‘fixed’ kind! We smell a rat in anything our team or ‘their’ team does. So, some of us used to say that the full World Cup-2011 tournament was fixed to help Pakistan come victorious, because terror-torn Pakistan needed some solace! But when India defeated Pakistan in the semifinal stage only those of us were not at all disheartened. They started uttering now that the whole tournament was fixed to favor India, because of big money! Normally, whenever we see India winning big we say the other team fixed it and whenever we see India lose big we say Team India fixed it!

We cannot blame ourselves. The alarmingly enlarging ‘bad’ of modern times has almost forced us to lead paranoid existences smelling a rat at every step. What is the solution? Well, we must still try to follow the great Gandhian dictates. We like it or not!

Disobedience to be civil must be sincere, respectful, restrained, never defiant, must be based upon some well-understood principle, must not be capricious and above all, must have no ill-will or hatred behind it. –Mohandas K. Gandhi, 1920

“They are not in control, we are. That is the strength of civil resistance.” These are the words that Gandhi spoke when leaving his home to begin his march to the ocean to make salt in defiance of the British government. Gandhi was the leader of the movement to force the British to renounce their claim on India voluntarily, thus leaving India a free and independent state. He saw the movement not as his, but belonging to every man, woman and child of every religion living within or outside the borders of India.

When Gandhi arrived in South Africa, he was faced with harsh injustice from the British government. Indians, no matter what caste they were from, what religion they were or what amount of wealth they possessed, were all treated as lower class subjects. The Arab Spring movement that has erupted throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa was focused almost solely on the injustice and greed of corrupt and oppressive governments. The Arab Spring is the inspiration for Occupy Wall Street in their fight against their perceived injustice from the 1% of the American population that supposedly gets everything while the 99% get nothing.

The Occupy Wall Street movement began in the late summer of 2011 long after Gandhi was assassinated but the core of their movement was a nonviolent protest to provoke action even if they are unsure what the end. The problem is they are often provoking authority with no purpose.

Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht wrote that, “When Gandhi returned to India he had an end but no means.” It seems the opposite is the case for the Occupy Wall Street movement in that they have a means but no end. Reading the website home page of www.occupywallstreet.org, it is declared:

“Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.

This #ows movement empowers real people to create real change from the bottom-up. We want to see a general assembly in every backyard, on every street corner because we don’t need Wall Street and we don’t need politicians to build a better society.”

For Gandhi the end was a simple goal of an end to British rule and the creation of an independent India. Yet the forces that were working towards attaining the same goal as his challenged him. The Indian National Congress was essentially a group of elite, successful businessmen that were vying for the power to rule India in Gandhi’s eyes no differently than current British imperialists. The other group was the extremists that were attempting violent means for provoking the British as seen in the film. Gandhi saw this first hand when terrorists, as the government deemed them, attacked and derailed a troop train, killing at least one English soldier.

Gandhi’s way was the way of non-violence. He wrote in the Harjin on July 20, 1931 that, “Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” The Occupy Wall Street has adopted the ways of nonviolence for their protests although there have been numerous isolated incidences of vandalism and resisting arrest.

Occupy Wall Street’s takes great pride in that they are a leaderless movement as quoted from the website earlier in this paper. Information on howtooccupy.org (linked from occupywallstreet.org) contains essays, instruction sheets and numerous other articles all based on experiences in the camps. These writings include the details on how to organize protests, what places are optimal for staging the protests, dealing with police intervention and other issues that have arisen in camps. Like many of the protestors in the Arab Spring nations, #ows thrives and survives on social media. Without free services such as Twitter, Facebook, Google 1+, YouTube, Foursquare, etc. along with text messaging and cellular services bought and paid for by corporate giants, it is likely the movements would never have gained a foothold, nor would they have spread across the nation and the world.

“It does not require money to be clean, neat and dignified” were the simple words spoken by Gandhi.  Unfortunately, the less than sanitary conditions at the Occupy camps have given the media and political leaders a target to attempt to delegitimize the movement as a whole. Former Speaker of the House and current Republican presidential hopeful New Gingrich, made a statement at a Thanksgiving debate that the protestors needed to, “Go get a job after you take a bath.”

Initially, the enemy in India was easily identified as the British. In an unfortunate turn of events, as soon as the British conceded to a withdrawal of India, the division of the Muslims and Hindus forced the split of the new independent nations into two religiously divided ones. It is what is often referred to as the unintended consequence of something. Gandhi had always believed that men and women of all religions could live peacefully in one nation that they were allowed to rule. Perhaps this is why Gandhi stated, “Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment.”

For the #ows group it would seem there are numerous unintended consequences for the achievement of their goals. If for instance they were able to somehow “bring down Wall Street”, what would become of the people so dependent on the investments in Wall Street? It is certainly not the solely ‘the rich’ that have money in the banks. Even if Wall Street came down, what benefit would there be to the protestors. It is as if they think some giant pile of money will appear for everyone to share and all would be equal. Perhaps that is a defining difference of following the model of the Arab Spring and using Ghandian tactics.

On November 18, 2011, students at the University of California-Davis were organized and protesting the universities plans to raise tuition rates. They had gathered peacefully as a branch of the Occupy Wall Street movement sleeping in tents in the commons area. They were instructed by the administration to remove the tents by the morning of November 18 in which they complied. Campus security was dispatched (armed with batons, pepper spray and protected with riot helmets) to remove the tents but all they found were protestors blocking the sidewalk. The students were instructed by security to disperse and they refused. The officers then threatened the use of pepper spray to force them to disperse from the area.

One of the officers then approached the students sitting on the sidewalk with two red spray cans of pepper spray. Warnings immediately began from the watching protestors for the students to hide their eyes. With their eyes closed, some hiding their faces within their hooded sweatshirts, the students remained sitting on the sidewalk in a continued act of noncooperation. The officer then began spraying the faces of the sitting students in two separate passes as if he were mere spraying herbicide on weeds. Other officers moved in and began hauling the students to their feet to remove and arrest them. The crowd then began chanting’ “Shame!” to the officers that circled up and backed away.

It was an act in line with the instructions of Gandhi: noncooperation and nonviolence. The students that sat on the ground made themselves the sacrifice for the movement. Overall, it lacked the power of what could have happened. This incident had greater potential yet some might say that is had maximum impact for minimum casualties. This incident though is one of many where a leaderless, unorganized movement fails. Had a leader been present, it is possible could have compared to the raids on the Dharsana Salt Works with someone to orchestrate the actions of the protestors. Hundreds of students were protesting but only about fifteen suffered the attack of pepper spray. Many students stood by with video cameras, inspired or perhaps to cowardly to kneel down themselves and be harmed. 

When speaking of the difference between cowardice and nonviolence, Gandhi said, “I expected them to intercept the mightiest power that might be in the act of harming those who were under their protection, and draw without retaliation all harm upon their own heads even to the point of death, but never to run away from the storm centre.” 

Now it is certainly unfair to compare the fledgling Occupy Wall Street movement to that which Gandhi toiled for decades to gain support and educate those who followed him. This leads to the question of a movement can endure without a leader. Gandhi had decided to go to Pakistan seeking peace between the Muslims and Hindus. Though the movie never explains it, the assassin does show up several times throughout the film, always with defiant Muslims. In one scene in Calcutta, it is possible he shouts, “Death to Gandhi!” though no one claims responsibility for the statement. Gandhi’s movement could not survive without him as evidenced by the fact that both Pakistan and India have nuclear weapons.

Is it logical to assume that the Occupy Wall Street movement will never be more than sporadic gatherings across the country if it remains leaderless?

            Mohandas Gandhi, an India native, was British educated in law.  Gandhi was a Hindu but he also referred to him self a Jew, Muslim, and a Christian.  He had came to be referred it as many names; Mahatma (Great Soul), Father of the Nation, Gandhiji, Bapu (Father), and many other names.  He had spent twenty years in South Africa fighting against discrimination; this is where he created his concept of satygraha.  The rest of his life he had spent diligently to remove British rule from India, with civil disobedience, and to make the lives of the poor in India better by creating equality.  “An eye for an eye only leaves the world blind”, says Gandhi in the movie Gandhi that was all about Mohandas K. Gandhi and how he led the nonviolent resistance movement against British rule.  This is describing how if we were to get revenge every time somebody acted out toward you then all that would be left would be pain and suffering.  Gandhi had gotten the people of India to seek independence from the British so they didn’t become “blind”.  He had done this by using satygraha against the British, civil disobedience toward the British’s laws, and creating equality between the poor and rich Indians.

            Satygraha, a non-violent way of protesting against injustices, was the way Gandhi had used to protest against the British who had taken over South Africa.  Gandhi had also referred to it as soul-force.  Martin Luther King Jr., had used Gandhi’s concept of satygraha in his protests, along with many other civil rights leaders.  In the movie Gandhi it showed that Gandhi had burnt the passes, used to show citizenship and were much like the Star of David that Hitler made the Jews wear during the holocaust, of his and his colleges, even though the police had kept on beating him he still kept burning them.  He had gone to court since the passes were government property and what he did was considered illegal, but they let him off scot-free although they still kept an eye on him.  Gandhi later had requested that his followers were to bring all but one set of clothing and make a pile out of it and burn it, this was another act of nonviolent protest that he had done.  The Indians weren’t aloud to create their own clothing and had to purchase it from the British, this was a way that the British kept control of the Indians.  The British also had not let them create their own salt.  Because of this Gandhi had came up with the idea of marching 240 mi. to the Indian Sea to make salt, Gandhi had later been arrested again.  His followers had protested against the arrest of Gandhi by lining up and walking toward the gate of the “prison” while the guards kept beating them down one by one, even though they just kept walking toward them wave after wave.  This is very important because if Gandhi hadn’t done this then India may still be under control by the British.  Therefore if Gandhi hadn’t stepped up and nonviolently protested against the British then India would not have been able to become independent from the British.

            Civil disobedience, the refusal to obey certain law or demands of a government/ruler, is what Gandhi had done many times toward some laws that the British had created causing inequality for the Indians.  Gandhi orchestrated the day of fasting and prayer, even though he didn’t call it a strike or general strike it still acted like one.  Because of this the viceroy ordered the arrest of Gandhi.  Because of his arrest the citizens started to riot all throughout India.  The British general, Reginald Dyer, had ordered his troops to fire without a warning on a rally that had shown no signs of violence also was filled with women and children.  This day, on April 13, 1919, is now known as the Amritsar massacre, in fifteen-minutes 1,650 bullets were fired with a total of 1,516 casualties.  Dyer had also stated that if he could have fit the tank through the narrow opening, he would have used the machine gun also.  The Salt March, even though it was an example of satygraha, had also been an example of civil disobedience because it was against the law for Indians to make salt.  When they got to the Indian Sea and made the salt they were defying the law that the government had created, this showed that the Indians were willing to defy the government, which had scared the British.  This shows that without civil disobedience everything that Gandhi had done would have been for practically nothing.  All in all without the refusal of the laws that the government had placed by Gandhi and his followers, Gandhi wouldn’t have gotten very far against the British.

            Equality, the state of being equal, was what Gandhi had wanted between Indians.  For instance the cast system had created an inequality between the poor and rich people of society, Gandhi had wanted to get rid of this wall created by the cast system.  A way that he had shown that the caste system didn’t matter to him was that he dressed poorer as time went on; many other Indians had done the same.  This only made sense because he was so high up in the cast system but treated him self as if he was an untouchable, the lowest of the low in the caste system.  Gandhi had also show this not only by his appearance, but also by his actions.  He would go out and do manual labor, make his wife do the job of an untouchable (such as cleaning the latrine), and he also went to go and live with the untouchables, the poor.  He not only wanted equality between the poor and the rich, he also wanted equality between the men and women of India.  This was show as previously stated, Gandhi making his wife do the work of an untouchable.  It was also shown when he created his own clothing from scratch.  Gandhi was the greatest influence for many of the great civil leaders of history.  As a result of this, Gandhi hoped that the more equality there was between the Indians the stronger they would be against the British.

            Gandhi has influenced many people since he influence the people if India to seek independence from the British, like Martian Luther King Jr. and his peaceful protests.  Gandhi had used satygraha to protest against the British and their law.  Also, similarly he had use civil disobedience to protest the government not allowing Indians to create certain objects, such as clothing and salt.  Additionally, when Gandhi did anything he had made it equal, including making the women to the jobs of men, vice versa, and also when he dressed as if he was poor no mater the occasion.  Gandhi, although he was assassinated, had many great accomplishments that still exist to this day, like the independence of India.

Many individuals in the past have sacrificed what was dearest to them for a cause that they believed was more important for the welfare of society than their own lives. Gandhi, the revolutionary who spoke up for the Indian community during the British rule, provides us with the perfect example. Gandhi wore a plain white dress and often walked barefoot. He propagated the principles that he lived by – peace and non-violence trumps all. Gandhi’s progeny are no more well known than any other common citizen today. What can we draw from this?

Well, Gandhi was obviously not motivated by a desire to amass a large amount of personal wealth – his own sons were just as poor as he was. Gandhi did gain fame and power as a result of his leading mass movements, but that was never his motive. Gandhi had only one motivation – his pure conscience. It was his conscience that drove him and millions of others during a time of struggle- struggle for freedom, struggle for emancipation. Had it not been for the pure selflessness of his acts, India might never have gained Independence. Today, Gandhi is renowned world over. He represents the good in all of us and epitomizes the “ideal” citizen that we all strive to be.

Yet, the world we live in has not changed. We are no closer to becoming “ideal” citizens than we ever were. Corporate megalomaniacs continue to make fortunes that could feed the whole world. It seems that the “Keynian” philosophy has been embedded in our minds. Lord Keynes, in the early 1940’s , expounded his theory that we can only achieve peace, tranquility and general well-being through economic expansion. According to his theory, only through greed and avarice can the rich and poor alike achieve the utopian society that they forever envisage. 

And this remains the condition of the modern community. The otherworldly “do-gooders” are driven by moral factors, whereas the common citizen remains in constant search of the holy grail – a large amount of money, low interest rates and zero mortgage.The innate, human quality to do good permeates through each and everyone, but the greedy mind has taken over.

Hence, while I maintain that conscience is still the strongest of all motivating factors, it seems that it is slowly losing the battle against the well-known, recognized (and accepted) evils.

14. He was educated at London University and became an attorney.

13. Mahatma Gandhi experimented with diets to see how cheaply he could live and remain healthy.

12. Mahatma Gandhi never visited the US, but he had many American fans and followers.

11. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement.

10. Gandhi is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

9. Time Magazine named Mahatma Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930.

8. On 30 January 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was shot and killed in New Delhi.

7. In 1930 he led Dandi March to collect salt in protest of the British salt tax.

6. He worked as an editor for several English, Hindi and Gujarati newspapers in India as well as South Africa.

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5. Mahatma Gandhi was chosen for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1948, but he was assassinated before it was conferred to him.

4. He was married at the age of 13 to 14-year old Kasturbai Makhanji andhad four sons.

3. Gandhi was afraid of public speaking. Later on, in South Africa Mahatma Gandhi was able to overcome his shyness.

2. He was given expensive gifts including gold watch and necklace but Gandhi returned all those gifts because he believed in living life simply.

1. Gandhi was also a prolific writer.

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Are they above the law?

People ask weather any one should be above the parliament. My question is weather any one should be above the law. That includes even the parliament and parliamentarians.  The way the parliamentarians in our country are behaving. They should be, taught a lesson to behave with immediate effect, irrespective of party they belong to, government or opposition.

Only recently, a main cabinet minister has advised our highest law enforcing body to keep away from sending the top industrial people jail and should not arrest them on their financial crimes. He thought that if they will be arrested no one would like to invest here in India. This is ridiculous and against the law especially coming from the minister of central cabinet.

I was on my way to Delhi a couple of days back to take the flight from Indira Gandhi airport and saw an ordinary member of parliamentarian zipping past the traffic from the wrong side of the road, with all his escort cars and security staff hooting the siren on full. Is he above the law and has he over privileged just because he is a MP.

Image by pravin.premkumar via Flickr

Should the big business persons go Scot-free doing any thing just because our political economics gives them special rights?

Image via Wikipedia

No every one has the same law here and this should not be, allowed at any cost, and we shall have to teach them how to behave like law abiding citizens and parliament is not above the law, rather they are more responsible and should be role models for ordinary citizen. This is still time to mend their ways before public teach them to behave.