An Essay on Mahatma Gandhi's Leadership Philosophy

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Mahatma Gandhi's leadership, examining his ethical principles, psychological influences, and profound impact on society. It explores Gandhi's commitment to non-violence (Ahimsa) and truth (Satya), illustrating how these principles shaped his approach to leadership. The essay delves into the evolution of Gandhi as a leader, highlighting key events that shaped his leadership style, such as his experiences in South Africa and his pivotal role in the Indian independence movement. It identifies Gandhi as a transformational leader, emphasizing his ability to inspire, motivate, and influence people through his actions and speeches. The essay also discusses the leadership theories that Gandhi followed, including servant, ethical, and spiritual leadership, and the psychological factors that contributed to his development. Furthermore, it explores Gandhi's multicultural approach, his emphasis on equality, and his vision for an independent India, providing a comprehensive understanding of his leadership philosophy.

Running head: LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Leadership is something that a person may not be born with but learn at the time.
Leaders are the people who know their way, walk on that and motivate others to step on that
path. Leadership comes from the attitude of the person to deal with the situation. This essay
will discuss the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. The essay will focus on leadership concept
which Mahatma Gandhi has followed. This essay will illustrate the ethics; psychology related
to Gandhi leadership. The essay will able to state the effect of leadership in the society.
Mahatma Gandhi is known universally as the man of moral ethics and spiritual belief.
He believed in the conduct of truth and non-violence. He is an example of a man that can
make a difference and gave the message that strength does not come from physical being but
an invincible will. The interior quality of his leadership style was his natural evolution
through intense interaction with the public at the events. The ethics which he followed in his
leadership were non- violence to fight with the injustice and exploitation (Rao 2015). He
believed in the concept of Ahimsa which is associated with the compassion, tolerance,
exploitation and forgiveness. The leadership ethics of Gandhi include a Right end with right
mean, true religion, Yajna (Service and Sacrifice), Satyagraha and the deed, not the doer
(Northouse 2015). The belief of Gandhi comprises of all the ethical traits of leadership like
the motive to serve others, dignity and respect, Honesty and community building.
The evolution of Gandhi as a leader began during his studies in South Africa. During
his studies in South Africa, he supported the locals Indian communities for their civil rights.
There are various stories related his evolution as the leader like during a session in the court;
judge asked me to remove his turban to which he refused. There is a story that during his
travel in train at Pietermaritzburg, he was asked to move to third class except having the
ticket of the first class (Khera and Malik 2015). This refers to the Great man theory that
leaders are born to lead, and in the situation of crisis these mean come forward and take their
original palace. Gandhi has played an essential role in the Independence of India and carried
a large number of movements from 1930 to 1940s. Gandhi became the leader of the INC
(Indian National Congress) and supported the party in the in the freedom struggle. During
this time he travelled to different parts of India and carried various moments like Champaran
Satyagraha and Civil Disobedience movement.
The multicultural leadership is acquired by giving respect to all religion around the
world. Gandhi believes in the concept of “Sarva Dharma Samabhava” which means equal
respect to all religion. Gandhi accumulated people of all religion during the time of

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independence. Gandhi believes in the concept of building bridges across the people of
different linguistic and religious sentiments (Rich 2017). During his stay in England, he
associated with theosophists and studied different scriptures of a different faith. The theory
which he holds for religion illustrates that “Religion is something having different roads
meeting at the same point”. This line can help us to understand his multicultural approach to
the society (Rich 2017). Mahatma Gandhi has known well in some Western countries apart
from the Asian countries.
Leadership style which Mahatma Gandhi followed is a transformational leader.
The transformational leader is the person who is inspirational, charismatic role model and
trustworthy. Gandhi always used to explain things to the follower with an example. He used
to relate himself to the life of the poor being himself from a wealthy family. Gandhi has a
strong sense of vision of Independent India which guided him to process in making changes.
Gandhi speech uses to make people feel powerful and confident to fight against injustice.
Gandhi has the power to influence the people to believe in themselves and bring the change
in the nation (Acemoglu and Jackson 2014). The leadership theories on which Gandhi
believes were a win-win theory as his actions were marked by Patience, and belief in the
truth. Gandhi has passive views on the acts of independence as he believed in the engagement
of the people for their freedom. Gandhi leadership focuses on the spiritual, servant and ethical
leadership. The theories of the Gandhi focus on altruism, honesty, empathy, gratitude,
humility, courage and fairness.
The psychological factors which have helped Gandhi to develop as a leader are his
spiritual belief. Gandhi was profoundly influenced by Bhagavad Gita. Gandhi thinking was
profoundly influenced by the Jain philosophy of Anekantavada, which states there is one
truth, constructed differently by wise men. Leadership traits of Gandhi involved mainly two
factors Satya- that means honesty and Ahimsa which means non-violence (Pföstl 2016). The
theory of Satya is associated with the psychological concept Psychoanalytic theory. Gandhi
has given some statement which states his idea which he has for the society - “if you want to
see the change then you have to be the reason for change”. Gandhi was able to understand
the psychology of the people at the time of the independence, and for that he formulated
strategy to mobilize the people and fight against the imperialism.
Gandhi was one of the prominent leaders of the 20th century, and his leadership
traits explain his habits of not tolerating any violence. Gandhi has played an important role in

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the independence of India. His leadership is known to people all around the world, and the
concept of Ahimsa and Satya had influence people to follow the right path. This has helped
him to become a successful leader with a different viewpoint.

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Reference
Acemoglu, D. and Jackson, M.O., 2014. History, expectations, and leadership in the
evolution of social norms. The Review of Economic Studies, 82(2), pp.423-456.
Khera, S.N. and Malik, S., 2015. Book Review: Keshavan Nair, Higher Standard of
Leadership—Lessons from the Life of Gandhi.
Klausen, J.C., 2014. Economies of violence: the Bhagavadgītā and the fostering of life in
Gandhi's and Ghose's anticolonial theories. American Political Science Review, 108(1),
pp.182-195.
Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Pföstl, E. ed., 2016. Between Ethics and Politics: New Essays on Gandhi. Routledge.
Rao, A., 2015. Leela Gandhi. The Common Cause: Postcolonial Ethics and the Practice of
Democracy, 1900–1955.
Rich, G.J., 2017. 16 The impact of early multicultural experience on later creative
leadership. Leadership and Change Management: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, p.120.
Van Dessel, P., Ye, Y. and De Houwer, J., 2018. Changing deep-rooted implicit evaluation in
the blink of an eye: Negative verbal information shifts automatic liking of Gandhi. Social
Psychological and Personality Science.