RISE AND FALL OF LEADERSHIP IN INDIA

Reformers:

01.Raja Rammohan Roy                             1772 – 1833

02.Vidyasagar                                               1820 – 1891

Spiritual Leaders:

01.Ramakrishna                                              1836 – 1886

02.Vivekananda                                            1863 – 1902

Leaders with spiritual inclination:     

01.Tilak                                                               1856 – 1920

01.Gokhale                                                 1863 – 1902

02.Gandhi                                                       1869-1948

Ideological leaders:

01.Nehru                                                    1889 – 1964

02.Bose                                                                1897 – 1945

03.Shastri                                                   1910 – 1967

04.Ambedkar                                                      1891 – 1956

05.Shyam Prasad Mukerjee                          1901-1953

Power leaders

01.Jyothi Basu                                              1914 – 2010

02.Indira Gandhi                                           1916  - 1984

03.Nuroji                                                         1909 – 1988

04.Morarjee                                                   1896 – 1995

05.Charan Singh                                           1902 – 1987

06.Devilal                                                       1914 – 2001

India ranks among the oldest civilizations in the world. It had first cities of the world like Harappa and Mohanjudaro. There were books like Arthasastra and Kamasutra which discuss specialized subjects. Iron pillar beside Qutbminar shows the scientific advancements it made. It had world’s earliest universities Nalanda and Taxila.  It had rebels like great Gautam Budha who opposed the existing practices.

India can be proud that it never killed or threatened opposition. It gave birth to many religions and almost all of religions of the world spread into India immediately after their birth elsewhere and they were encouraged here. It shows the spiritual advancement India made not to talk about Vedas and Upanishads.

Often it is claimed that British united India and there was never a concept called India before them. Any nation to be called as one if it had Geographical, Cultural and Political unity. Geographical unity of the country before British can be seen from every day Sankalpam chanted in Indian temples which talk about Bharatavarsham, Bharatkandam etc. about cultural unity of the nation we can write number of volumes. Then the question arises about political unity. Even though Ashoka of 3^rd Century BC and Akbar in the 16^th century had almost entire India under one rule but for parts of South India it was not under one rule at any time. The main reason for this is in India war was never glorified and annexing other kingdoms through war was never encouraged. As early as in 3^rd century BC India realized during Kalinga war the devastation and dangers of war. Emperor Asoka spread the message of peace to the entire world. Even during British time there were many princely states Zamindaries but definitely controlled by Central Government. The credit of real political unity should go to Sardar Vallabhai Patel even though Goa and Sikkim became parts of India long after Sardar’s death.

Son of servant maid Mura with the guidance of Chankya founded one of the world’s greatest Mauryan Empire. Sivaji son of Jijiyabhai with the guidance of Guru Ramdas rebelled against Moghuls. Down south Harihararya and Bukkaraya founded famous Vijayanagara empire. But all these had replaced only one empire with another kingdom. Basic political philosophy was not changed. Shilpathikaram, the great Tamil epic describes an ordinary woman (perhaps the first book that had woman in lead role) rebels against the kingdom for defending the rights of her family and ultimately burns the city of Madurai. Some stories might have been there but they were not recorded. Ancient Indians were not known for history recording only notable exception being Kalhana’s Rajatarangini. Most of the Indian history owes its existence through the recording of famous Chinese visitors. Whatever history is available also talks about only kings and palaces, at the most about capital cities. It never discussed how the ordinary people in these kingdoms lived. Hence no recording for Indian leadership in true spirit.

As Romila Thapar states national struggle or true freedom struggle was started by only Tilak. Eventhough 1857 struggle is described as first freedom struggle it is a rebellion by some regional kings restricted to only North India UP, Bihar, MP, Delhi regions and it was fought for their own power rather than for true freedom of people.

Real leadership started only with Raja Rammohan Roy rightly called as “Maker of Modern India”. He and later on in the mid 19^th century Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar made lot of efforts in reforming the religion, then with full of unacceptable practices like child marriage, Sati etc. Through Brahma samaj and taking the help of the then British Government they tried to eradicate some of the practices. They propagated that spreading education is the best way for reforming people. They are basically Religious reformers with little political inclination.

With the above policies unintentionally a feeling erupted and which was widely publicized by some British Scholars and British Government that everything in Indian religions is inferior and to be reformed. It cannot be carried by Indians and British Government and English people alone could save it. Protesting the above theory and for reviving the ancient Hindu Culture and creating pride in the vedantic tests and restoring self confidence of people leaders like Swami Vivekananda and Shirdi Sai emerged. Speeches and theories had greatly helped in restoring self confidence and pride in the religion. Although his speeches sometimes had subtle political tone basically he is purely Religious leader. Another important feature of his leadership was he travelled length and breadth of the country and other countries in short span of life and made contact with many ordinary people across the country. First signs of involving ordinary people, though only educated started from Vivekanada.

Then the next stage of political leadership started with the emergence of people like Tilak, Gokhale and Gandhi to mention a few at the turn of century (late 19^th and early 20^th century). Though these people were political leaders they had always checked every act of theirs with spiritual text. Each might have interpreted the text in their own way. But they never deviated from the spiritual path they believed. These leaders can be rightly called Leaders with spiritual inclination. Correspondence between Gandhi and Tilak amply demonstrate the above theory. Though Tilak belongs to the extremist group and Gokhale belongs to  the moderate group both feared to involve common man and less educated people into the political movement. Gandhi was the first who dared to do this and succeeded. There are so many other leaders like Madan Mohan Malaviya, Aurobindo, Lala Lajpati Roy, Surendranath Benarjee. All these were also having spiritual inclination.

Though this sort of leadership succeeded in involving and consolidating the struggle spiritual inclination put seed of suspicion among religions. This was used by the British Government. They added fuel to fire. So a need was felt to separate religion from politics. Next generation leaders emerged who can be called Ideological leaders. Again there were many leaders but some of the prominent people who belong to this category are Jawarharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Ram Mohanohar Lohia, Jinnah and Shyam Prasad Mukherjee. Interaction with other countries like America, Russia, Germany had also helped in development of various ideologies. Each was following different ideology but all ideologies were political. They tried to pull other people also into their ideology. These people represent transformation from British rule to Independent India. Due to these ideological differences partition of India took place and Pakistan was born. Democracy had solid foundation due to these democratic processes. All of us should owe to these great leaders for entrenchment of democracy in our country. We had to take note here that many countries which attained independence along with us could not keep the democratic form of Governments.

By the time these people were no more India already completed around 20 years of self rule. Leaders form village Sarpanch to Prime Minister understood the importance of political power. License Permit Raj compounded the importance of political power. So leaders like Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh had emerged who were ready to do anything including splitting and merging political parties to gain and retain the political power. Declaration of emergency by Mrs. Gandhi best exemplify this. With their power Chief Ministers and Ministers were changed at their will, bureaucrats were transferred for strengthening their political power. Economic policies were manipulated and catchy slogans like Garibhi Hatao were created to influence the people for getting votes. So these leaders can be classified as power leaders. In this process lot of opportunities were created. Down south people were feeling their self respect was not taken care by the central leadership dominated by North Indian. In north some sections felt that minorities were appeased to gain vote at the cost of majority. Mandal commission respect was another opportunity. Long years of one party one family rule was opposed by some people. In easing these opportunities leaders like NTR, MGR emerged in south. Mulayam, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik emerged in north. Rajiv Gandhi who  entered politics after his brother had died in accident.He became Prime Minister after his mother had been assassinated by terrorists. P.V. Narsimha Rao became Prime Mininister after Rajiv’s assasination and new generation was not yet ready to take over. These leaders can be classified as Opportunity leaders because these leaders emerged out of the opportunity created using their position, locality and charisma. Then in 1990 there were economic reforms Globalisation and decline of USSR and emergence of US as sole Super Power. Suddenly for new generation industrialists like Narayana Murthy, Ratan Tata, Ambanis and Azim Premji became role models. These people started commanding more respect worldwide compared to Indian political leaders.

The above situation was wrongly read by politicians. So another political class emerged which started encashing the political power. Unholy nexus between industrialists and political class emerged. Industrialists in the garbs of politicians emerged. Everything was measured in terms of money including leadership. Leaders also were in hurry to increase their net worth like companies. Lot of money is being spent during elections and leaders and celebrities started exhibiting their wealth during marriage and other functions. Lavish spending became the order of the day. These leaders can be classified as Leaders who literally encash the opportunities. Here for obvious reasons names of leaders are not mentioned.

 In vendantic terms first three phases can be classified on Satvic leadership fourth and fifth Rajasic final two Tamasic. Though the above seven are mentioned as different phases some overlapping of phases was there. The presence of next phase in the time of earlier phase was visible. But the dominant phase was clear. More important to this for 160 years starting from 1800 there was rise of leadership. But in only 50 years there is rapid decline. It also fit into the theory propagated by futurologist Alvin Toffler in Third wave and Future shock. Advanced technological tools and military capabilities make a dangerous combination. Urgent course correction is the real need of the hour and cannot be overemphasized.