Lessons from Great leaders of India (Part-I)

Dr Awdhesh Singh, IRS (Retd.)

Director, Awdhesh Academy,

Former Commissioner, Customs & Indirect Taxes

Chanakya

Brief Introduction

• Chanakya was also known as Vishnugupta or Kautilya.

• He was the Prime Minister of Chandragupta Maurya (345-300 BC).

• He was very intelligent and shrewd; and played kingmaker for Chandragupta.

• He is known for his diplomacy and statesmanship.

• He is also called Indian Machiavelli.

• His book ‘Arthsastrata’ is the oldest text on public administration.

Arthashastra is divided in three parts

• Arthaniti: ‘economic policies’ to promote economic growth

• Dandaniti: ‘administration of justice’ to ensure justice to people

• Vedeshniti: ‘foreign affair policy’ to maintain cordial relationship with other states and to expand the kingdom

Political Governance Ideas of Chanakya

• Introduced the concepts of hierarchy and departments for specific jobs

• Territorial divisions like provinces, district, villages were done.

• He wanted everyone to obey the rules and follow ‘the rule of law’.

• Prescribed duties and functions of kings, ministers and officials.

• Strict code of conduct for all government functionaries.

• Gave the concept : ‘Yatha Raja Tatha Praja’

• Kings must be intelligent and possess highest qualities of leadership

Political Governance (Contd.)

• He classified offences into civil and criminal

• He suggested fair penalties and proportionate punishment

• He recognized the importance of the cooperation of citizens and honest governance for national development

Four Policies of Administration

1. Sama (Persuade)

2. Dama (Reward/Bribe)

3. Danda (Punish)

4. Bheda (Divide)

Chanakya’s Idea of Corruption

• Chanakya lists nearly forty methods by which a government officers can swindle funds.

• He suggested regular transfer of officers to manage corruption.

• Just as fish moving under water cannot possibly be found out either as drinking or not drinking water, so government servants employed in the government work cannot be found out (while) taking money (for themselves)

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Introduction if Raja Ram Mohan Roy

• He was born in 1772 in Hoogly(West Bengal)

• He was a great religious, social and educational reformer

• He is considered to be the Maker of Modern India or Father of Modern India

His Contribution

• He established Brahmo Sabha in 1828 with Dwarkanath Tagore

• He tried to revive the Vedanta philosophy of Upanishads.

• He preached about Unity of God.

• He made translation of Vedic scriptures in English

• He also founded Calcutta Utilitarian Society.

• He fought against the superstitious practices of Hindu religions like Sati, Caste rigidity, polygamy and child marriage

• He sough to create a fair and just society by implementing the humanitarian practices similar to Christian ideals.

His fight against Sati Pratha

• In 1812, his brother died and his widow was forced to burn herself too at his lit pyre.

• Young Ram Mohan tried his best to stop the evil from occurring but failed miserably. This incident left a deep impact on his mind.

• He made it a mission to remove the Sati Pratha from Indian society.

• He personally used to visit crematoriums to keep an eye on the people who forced the womenfolk to commit sati at their husbands’ pyre.

• He played important role in the demolition of Sati pratha alongwithWilliam Bentinck

His life in East India Company

• He worked in East India Company from 1803-1815

• He served East India Company’s ‘Writing Service” as a private clerk "munshi" to Thomas Woodroffe, Registrar of the Appellate Court at Murshidabad

• He estimated that almost half of the money is drained out of India

• He was first to anticipate the ‘drain of wealth theory’ which later nationalist formulated in detail

Religious Reforms and His thoughts of God

• There is only one Supreme God

• You can pray to God from any place

• Prayer should not invoke any name of specific individual God

• Idol worship not permitted

• Animals should not be killed for sacrifice

• Religious discourses must promote charity, morality, piety, benevolence, virtue and social cohesiveness

Educational and Social Reforms

• He demanded property inheritance rights for women.

• He set up Hindu College in collaboration with David Hare.

• He also founded Anglo-Hindu school and Vedanta College.

• He supported inclusion of Western education in the India curriculum.

• He supported inclusion of English, science, medicine and technology in curriculum.

Mahatma Gandhi

The Source of Gandhian Ethics

• Religion: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Jainism

• Leo Tolstoy's book ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’

• Ruskin's book 'Unto this Last‘. He translated it into Gujarati under the title of Sarvodaya (Well Being of All)

• Gandhi was deeply impressed by the philosophy of ‘Bhagwat Gita’

• Gopal Krishna Gokhale, whom he considered his teacher who embodied the goal of spiritualizing in politics

• His own experiences as a political leader and activist

Ethical Ideas of Gandhi

1: Sarvodaya

• The good of the individual is contained in the welfare of all.

• All have same right of earning their livelihood from their work.

• A life of labour is the life worth living.

2. Faith in God

• God is an impersonal force and benevolent governor of the world

• God is present in every being in the form of his Atman/soul

• The inner voice of the person is the voice of God within him

• Follow the path of love, truth, non-violence and service to realize God

• God is Nirguna (no quality) and Nirankara (No form)

• The idols of God in temple are only a symbolic representation of God

• God and His laws are one and same.

• God is Sat-Chit-Ananda (Truth-Knowledge-Bliss)

3. Truth

• He called his religion as ‘religion of truth’

• He transformed the concept from ‘God is truth’ to ‘Truth is God’

• Being truthful is to be close to God

• “I am devoted to nothing but truth and I owe no discipline to anybody but truth.”

4. Service to Society

• God can be realized only by service to humanity.

• He followed the teaching of Jesus Christ that service to poor is service to God.

• “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in”… ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Bible)

5. Cleanliness and purity of heart

• Man should be pure in heart

• There should be cleanliness in the physical surrounding as well

• He believed in the adage ‘Cleanliness is next to godliness.’

• He preached self-purification by following the ideals of one’s religion

6. End and Means

• “They say, 'means are, after all, means'. I would say, 'means are, after all, everything'. As the means so the end...

• He rejected the Chanakya and Machiavelli's principle that ‘end justifies means’

• He believed that end and means are one and same thing.

• You can’t achieve noble ends by following evil means.

7. Human Nature

• He rejected the concept that man is inherently evil and selfish.

• Every person has a speak of God (atman) within himself.

• Every person is inherently good and spiritual by nature.

• Violence and selfishness are not natural to man.

• Most human beings are reasonable and willing to accommodate other points of views.

8. Ahimsa (Non-violence)

• Ahimsa is natural to man who is spiritual.

• You must not only refrain killing or hurting others but must have love for all living beings.

• Man can realize God and Truth only through nonviolence as violence and truth are incompatible with each other.

• “Hate the sin and love the sinner.”

• “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.”

9. Satyagraha

• He believed that good people should never cooperate with evil forces for perpetration of evil practices.

• He followed the ideal of civil disobedience taken from Henry Thoreau’s book ‘Resistance to Civil Government’ and his autobiography ‘A Yankee in Canada”.

• Asked to ignore the authority of the government and oppose the unjust laws imposed by them without resorting to violence

• He used fasting as a weapon for Satyagraha (instance of truth) which he believed increases the power of prayer

Main Qualities of a Satyagrahi

• Harbour no anger.

• Suffer the anger of the opponent.

• Never retaliate to assaults or punishment; but do not submit to an order given in anger

• Voluntarily submit to arrest or confiscation of your own property

• Do not curse or swear

• Do not insult the opponent

• Joyfully obey the orders of the leaders of the civil disobedience

Gandhi’s Economic Ideas

• Earn your bread through manual labour

• People should reduce their wants and live simple life

• Rich people should regard themselves as the trustee of the wealth

• All excess wealth belong to society and must be used for service of poor

• Gandhi opposed the forceful distribution of wealth of Marx as it would lead to violence

Seven Sins According to Gandhi

Gandhi ji published a list of seven sins on October 22, 1925 in his weekly newspaper ‘Young India’. These are,

1. Wealth Without Work

2. Pleasure Without Conscience

3. Knowledge Without Character

4. Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics)

5. Science Without Humanity

6. Religion Without Sacrifice

7. Politics Without Principle

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore

A brief Introduction

• Born in 1861 into a wealthy family in Calcutta

• Never liked the conventional methods of learning

• Went to join University College in England for further studies

• A great poet, writer and philosopher• Wrote novels, short stories, dramas,

essays• Also a great painter and musician• His songs, known are Rabindrasangeet,

are still very popular

Achievements

• He is the author of our national anthem ‘Jan Gan Man’

• He was the first Asian to win Noble Prize for his book ‘Gitanjali’ in 1913

• He received Knighthood in 1915

• He was conferred the title of ‘Gurudev’ by Mahatma Gandhi after he gave the title of ‘Mahatma’ to Gandhi Ji

• He protested Jaliawalabag massacre and wrote a historic letter to Lord Chelmsford repudiating his Knighthood

• He established Vishwabharati University in 1921

Ethical Ideas of Tagore

• Caste and nationality as incompatible with each other

• Education to be the most important element in the development of a country

• Gather knowledge from everyone.

• Opposed the religious and communal thinking used by the freedom fighters of his time.

• He was opposed to extremism .

• He believed that Indians have gained from British Raj.

• He believed that India’s problem is more social than political.

His Disagreement with Mahatma Gandhi

• Gandhi called Bihar earthquake (1934) that killed many people “a divine chastisement send by God for our sins”, in particular the sin of untouchability

• Tagore’s protested, “it is all the more unfortunate because this kind of unscientific view of phenomena is too readily accepted by a large section of our countrymen.”

• Gandhi advocated Charkha for everyone. Tagore opposed such concepts and advocated modern technology to reduce human drudgery and poverty.

• Gandhi advocated ‘moral abstinence’ as the right method of birth control. Tagore advocated family planning through preventive methods.

• Gandhi distrusted modern medicines while Tagore supported them.

Ekla Chalo Re

If they answer not to thy call walk alone,

If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,

O thou unlucky one,

open thy mind and speak out alone.

God in World

Leave this chanting and singing andTelling of beads!

Whom do you worship in this lonelyDark corner of a temple with doors

All shut?Open your eyes and see your God

is not before you!

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground And where the Path maker is breaking stones.

He is with them in sun and in shower,And his garment is covered with dust.

(From Gitanjali)

Abdul Kalam

About Kalam

• Abdul Kalam was an aerospace scientist.

• He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering.

• He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

• He was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts and

• He died while delivering a lecture at IIM Shillong, from an apparent cardiac arrest on 27 July 2015.

Achievements

• He came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.

• He also played a pivotal in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998.

• Kalam was elected as the 11th President of India in 2002 with the support of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the then-opposition Indian National Congress.

• He was widely referred to as the "People's President“.

• He was also awarded Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

Religious and Spiritual Views

• He was a proud and practising Muslim who offered daily namāz and fasted during Ramadan.

• His father had impressed upon the young Kalam the value of interfaith respect and dialogue.

• He was convinced that the answers to India's multitudinous issues lay in "dialogue and cooperation" among the country's religious, social, and political leaders

• He believed that "respect for other faiths" was one of the key cornerstones of Islam.

• Kalam was well-versed in Hindu traditions; he learnt Sanskrit, read the Bhagavad Gita and he was a vegetarian.

• He was fond of saying: "For great men, religion is a way of making friends; small people make religion a fighting tool.“

His message to youth

• “My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.”

• “To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.”

• “Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.”

Inspiriting Quotes of Kalam

• “You have to dream before your dreams can come true.”

• “Dream, Dream, Dream Dreams transform into thoughts and thoughts result in action.”

• “When learning is purposeful, creativity blossoms. When creativity blossoms, thinking emanates. When thinking emanates, knowledge is fully lit. When knowledge is lit, economy flourishes.”

• “Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.”