Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during

the Indian independence movement. He pioneered satyagraha. This is defined as resistance to

tyranny through mass civil disobedience, a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa (nonviolence).
This concept helped India gain independence and inspired movements for civil rights and
freedom across the world.

During the early years of his life, Gandhi was weak in health, shy, aloof and had a nervous
temparement. He was a medicore student, who violated his family custom by eating meat and
smoking, and had even resorted to stealing with one of his friends in order to meet the expenses
of smoke. He stole a bit of gold from his brother's armlet.

In 1983, Gandhi landed in Durban, South Africa, during that time he first employed civil
disobedience while an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, during the resident Indian community's
struggle for civil rights. In South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at Indians. He
was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first class to a third-
class coach while holding a valid first-class ticket. Travelling farther on by stagecoach he was
beaten by a driver for refusing to travel on the foot board to make room for a European
passenger. He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from
several hotels. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered Gandhi to remove
his turban, which he refused to do. These events were a turning point in his life, awakening him to
social injustice and influencing his subsequent social activism. It was through witnessing firsthand
the racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa that Gandhi started to question
his people's status within the British Empire, and his own place in society.

After his return to India in 1915, he organized protests by peasants, farmers, and urban laborers
concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination. After assuming leadership of the Indian
National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's
rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance.
Above all, he aimed to achieve Swaraj or the independence of India from foreign domination.

As a practitioner of ahimsa, Gandhi swore to speak the truth and advocated that others do the
same. According to him " Truth is the end, and non violence is the means of human activities".
Satyagraha for Gandhi was true force acting socialy and humanely. He lived modestly in a self-
sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven from yarn
that he had spun by hand himself. He ate simple vegetarian food, experimented for a time with a
fruitarian diet, and undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.

During World War I, Gandhi supported British in the war, however by the time of the advance of
Japenese in World War II he had given up the notion of fighting alongside with British. He argued
for the use ofcivil disobedience against both the Nazis and the atomic bomb.

Gandhi strongly favored, propagated, and adopted the idea of Swadeshi. According to him
Swadeshi is a way of service to motherland. It does not include competition or opposition to any
nation or dos not teach to hate others. It teaches to produce goods that can be easily produced
within the country. He even felt that attitude of society should change towards women. Women
should be educated and given economic independence. According to Gandhi it will be doubly
beneficial for the society. It will improve the status and performance of the family as a whole.
Describing the idea of one world as a goal of foriegn policy. Accoding to him its Impossible to be
an internationalist without being a nationalist. Nationalism is not an evil, it is narrowness,
selfishness and exclusiveness born out of modernization of nation that is evil.

the literature encompassing Gandhi's life spans over 80,000 pages. What Gandhi achieved in 78
years, may take us centuries to fully understand. Bernard Shaw said, Gandhi was not a man, he
was a phenomenon.
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•Mahatma Gandhi belonged to a rare breed of people who are born leaders.
•Mahatma Gandhi is the greatest leader ever born in the world because what he did no one ever
came close to him. He is the another name of truth, non-violence, peace, honesty,
sacrifices & simplicity, which none of the leader ever poses. He gave his complete life to
the nation, it's people & in return he wanted nothing.
•According to Mahatma Gandhi "truth is the only weapon I have" & through this weapon, he did a
impossible thing or you can say it a miracle & that miracle is nothing but freedom form
British rule. He dressed in "Khadi" to serve humanity & nation but now leaders are
wearing "khadi" to earn money not for service.
•He never attended formal management school where he could be trained for leadership. Though
he had all the qualities of a leader.
•Before the South Africa incident, he was almost indifferent towards societal causes. But then he
leaded India to Independence.
•He imbibed the best from the East and the West and evolved a political philosophy that worked
miracles. Today, in a polity steeped in corruption, perhaps there is a need to rediscover
Gandhi.
•He was charismatic, but he was also deliberate and analytical.
•Gandhi ji reinvented the rules of the game to deal with a situation where all the available existing
methods had failed.He broke tradition. He understood that you cannot fight the British
with force. So he decided to change the game in a fundamentally different way. He
unleashed the power of ordinary people, inspired women and men in the country to fight
under a unifying goal. Resource constraint did not bother him. He aimed at a common
agenda: Poorna Swaraj. That was the motivation.
•Although Gandhi was a man of faith, he did not found a church, nor did he create any specific
dogma for his followers. Gandhi believed in the unity of all mankind under one god, and
preached Hindu, Muslim and Christian ethics.
•As a youth, he was neither a genius nor a child prodigy. Indeed, he suffered from extreme
shyness. However, he approached life as a very long series of small steps towards his
goals, which he pursued relentlessly.
• Gandhi's leadership style is being termed as 'follower-centric' and one that took into account
existing conditions before determining the strategy.
•Gandhi ji advocated having leadership styles that were dependent on the circumstances. When
Gandhi was in South Africa, he launched his protests in a suit and a tie. But when he
came back to India, he thought ofk hadi and launched non-violent protests on a greater
scale, It shows that Gandhi ji’s leadership style was situational leadership style.
•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.
•One of his most admirable qualities was that he led by example and never preached that which
he was not willing to do himself.
•He led three major crusades, rallied support for nonviolent strikes, urged Indians to boycott
anything British, and championed women's rights.
•He is a classic example of the Leadership model put forward in "Leadership Truths". That is, he
had a rock-solid value system from which all of his activities stemmed, he wanted to
make major changes at every turn in his life, and he had a totally interdependent
relationship with his followers.
•He had his own policy, he belived in whatver he did in his life, and the result we all know.

Lastly he was a born leader, who never attended any formal management school, but had all
qualities of a great leader, who leaded India to freedom

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As seen in Lage Raho Munnabhai, the Gandhian principles are very much relevant in today's day
and time.

Satyagraha - Satyagraha has many different meanings, which is good because it allows people to
interpret it in their own way. The individual must use his or her inner soul to achieve
peacefulness, which is brought on by Satyagraha. It can be followed in today's world but hard to
follow as everywhere there is corruption and destruction now. But in order to overcome the
disease of corruption that plague our nation, we have to follow the path of truthfulness.

Non Violence - Mahatma Gandhi maintained, "an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole
world blind". If we believe that non violence is irrelevant we will leave behind a world on the verge
of destruction caused by mankind blinded by hatred and prejudice.

Women Literacy - Gandhiji believed that attitude of society should change towards women.
Women should be educated and given economic independence. Now the society has changed
totally toward women. Women are now educated, they are working and they are everywhere
where only men was dominated before.

Swadeshi - According to him Swadeshi is a way of service to motherland. It does not include
competition or opposition to any nation or dos not teach to hate others. It teaches to produce
goods that can be easily produced within the country. He believed this in order to increase
employment, productivity, economy of a country. To make common people, a majority of who live
in the villages self reliant and self sufficient. As all this would increase employment, this would
reduce inflation as goods are produced within the country and help in prosperity of our country.

Unity - Gandhi believed in the unity of all mankind under one god, and preached Hindu, Muslim
and Christian ethics. If this followed there would be no war in the world

Democracy - Gandhiji firmly believed in Democracy that is why India is the largest democrartic
country in the world. He believed that everyone has the right to speak and equal say in the
decisions that affect their lives.