Community and Family Studies

CAFs Assessment 2- Leadership And Groups.
Gandhi

A bit of background about Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known by as Gandhi, was born on october 2nd, 1848 in Porbander, Kathawar Agency, British India. Unfortunately, Gandhi died at an evening prayer meeting, by being shot 3 times in the chest on January 30th, 1948. Gandhi was married at the age of 13 to a 14 year old named Kasturba. This was done via an arranged childhood marriage since it was apart of the custom in religion. Gandhi’s mother and father was very important in his life. Even from an early age he was taught the customs and influences for his life. Some of the attitudes that were believed to help him through his adult life were vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification and mutual tolerance between individuals of different creed. He travelled to London to study law at university. He was influenced by a vow made to his mother to observe the Hindu percepts of abstinence from meat, alcohol and promiscuity. Going against his mothers will, Gandhi embraced vegetarianism and went onto him becoming part of a vegetarian society, and then on to becoming a teacher. His career of teaching was declined in India when he returned after look for part time work. This was his first taste to leadership and persuaded him to continue his leadership skills in a new way.

Leadership
Throughout Gandhi’s life he was thrown many obsticles, few of which some were discrimination, racism, injustice against Indian’s which started to question their status. This was some of the few things that influenced Gandhi to become the leader that he became. His first leadership role took place when he went to South Africa in 1893 to fight for his community and assist the Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. He and his fellow Indian’s made many protests and signs but were suppressed by the South African government. Many of the Indian’s, including himself, were either jailed, flogged, or shot in the process. People may not agree whether or not he was an effective leader in this particular part of his career, but as the leader of the Indians, they hailed him for his courage and persistence with persuing his goals. The South African government finally compromised with Gandhi and ideas took shape. The concept of “satyagraha” (non- violent protest) matured. This was his first sort of achievement towards his leadership.

The next thing he worked on was his role in Zulu War in 1906. He argued that Indians should support the war efforts in order to legitimise their claims to full citizenship. He kept arguing and persuing. Throughout this stage of his attempt to find better acceptance of Indian’s he has to prove himself as an effective leader, and show his skills. He had to motivate the fellow Indians and convince them to work together as a team in order to achieve their goal of being accepted instead of being seen as some of the lower level natives.

Gandhi’s first major achievement as a leader came in 1918, with the Champaran agitation and Kheda Satyagraha. Supressed by the miltials of the landlords, the Indians were given, measly compensation leaving them in extreme poverty and devastating famine. Being the strong leader that Gandhi was, he couldn’t sit there and watch his country go down hill, he had to do something about it. He established an ashram, organizing scores of his veteran supporters and fresh volunteers form the region. He organized a detailed study and surveyed the villages accounting for the terrible counts of suffering, he began leading the clean-up of the villages, building brand new schools and hospitals helping those with alcoholism and poor health problems. All this was appreciated leadership towards his country, but his real main impact was when he was arrested on the charge of creating unrest and was ordered to leave the establishment. “ thousands of people protested outside the jail, police stations and courts demanding his release, which the court reluctantly granted”. It was during this time, that Gandhi was addressed by the people as Bapu (father) and Mahatma ( Great soul). After this Gandhi’s fame spread across the whole of the nation.

Gandhi employed non-cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his “weapons” in the struggle against the British. During this time the civilians by British Troops caused deep trauma to the nation, leading to increased public anger and acts of violence. After this Gandhi’s mind focused upon “ obtaining complete self-government and control of the Indian government institutions, maturing soon into Swaraj or complete individual, spiritual, political independence”. With Gandhi as their leader, how could India not participate and be motivated? Gandhi was such a committed and heartful leader. If his goals were knocked down or failed he would find a way to start again or keep fighting. He always found a cause to help bring it back towards non violence, poverty and getting Indian’s accepted.

All these battles were the obsticles and pathways to Gandhi’s leadership. As well as the many other steps he took until his final role of the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of the Indian communities. He was also involved in the Salt march, World War II and Quit India and Freedom Of India. These last three acts were the peak of his leadership and help the recognition of the Indians to realise what a great leader he was for their country.
In the results of his efforts and achievements throughout this stage of his life Gandhi was able to achieve: at the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be transferred to the Indians hands. And the Government rescinded its policy and made the payment to Pakistan, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh community leaders and assured him that they would announce no violence and call for peace.
Sadly Ganhi’s life came to an end on January 30, 1948. He was walking towards his evening prayer meeting in front of a congregation of people when he was appoached by a Hindu named Nathuram Godse. Gandhi put his hands together in a traditional gesutre of greeting but this was when in violence Godse shot three bullets into Gandhi’s chest. There was a message after his death that went out to all the Indians about what a great leader he was and how inspirational he was to all them.

Although our worldwide beloved Gandhi may be gone now, he will most definetly not be forgotten for what he did. He was an amazing cultural leader who believed very strongly in his country. He was recognised for his very different leadership styles and as a result he is officially honoured in India as a father of their nation. His birthday was on October 2, in commemoration there is a national holiday held and a worldwide International Day Of Non- Violence.