In 334 BC, more than 35000 soldiers including chief officers and brigadiers of that time followed the instructions of their leader to conquer the world and partially the leader achieved it. He was Alexander the great. The king of Macedonia led his men to realize his dream of getting the entire world under his rule. Though the motive was an egotistic zeal of the king, still his men supported and followed him. In spite of knowing that they would not get the recognition they deserved, they still did whatever Alexander wanted to do them. What magic did Alexander the great perform on his men?
24 years old Napoleon Bonaparte became the brigadier general of the French army in 1793. This was within seven years of his joining into the armed forces. He defeated four Austrian generals in succession. He led around 5,00,000 soldiers against Russia, England and Austria combined forces and eventually won that battle. But that war cost France 3,00,000 casualties and countless sums of money. Despite losing their friends and money in the war, still the French supported Napoleon. What caused them to do so?
Adolf Hitler, one of the powerful dictators of the 20th century. A lean and short guy who once declared unfit for military services and many times to lead German army finally became the chancellor of Germany. How was that possible?
Mahatma Gandhi was a legal adviser for an Indian firm in South Africa before he guided the Indian masses towards securing independence. Gandhi was literally away from India at least for two decades. As soon as he realized the effect of British rule on Indians and India, he immediately came to India and started the struggle against the British. In no time he became the front line leader for Indian congress. How could people accept a person who was away from the country and not cared for them for decades?
Finally my question is that how and on what basis the followers follow the leaders?
Alexander became a leader as he belonged to a royal family. He was forced to continue his dynasty thus by virtue he learned and adapted leadership qualities. The great philosopher Aristotle was the tutor for him. Aristotle trained Alexander in rhetoric and literature; he stimulated Alexander’s interests in science, medicine and philosophy.
Napoleon was short and lean. To overcome this difficulty he sharpened his mind by mastering mind games. That was how he planned many attacks and won most of them. People believed and followed him through his victories.
Unlike the above two, Hitler was from a middle class family. He lost his father when he was very young. He lost his mother when he was just 19 years old. He was once rejected by German army officials from entering into their army due to his low physical standards. At the age of 21 he was exposed to political literature, later he was deeply hurt by German's defeat in First World War. He thought that Jews had caused Germany’s defeat and decided to join politics to save the country. He attracted thousands of people by his highly provocative speeches. He rose to power very rapidly only by his talking power which he attained by debating with his roommates on several political issues when he was in hostel. People used to gather in large numbers to listen to Hitler’s speeches. He was the foremost fund raiser for Nazi party. They believed in his views, gradually Hitler got support from the people and his co leaders, he became the chancellor. But there were still large number of people who were unable to decide what to do, hence they became neutralistic. There is a global phenomenon that when there are two political forces, the neutralistic people tend to move towards the strongest one. That was what happened in Hitler’s regime in Germany. Thus the seed was sown for the Second World War. The remaining people who opposed with Hitler political views either killed or exiled to remote islands.
Gandhi had a comfortable life till he entered South Africa. He was an avid reader of the works by Leo Tolstoy of Russia and Henry David of America. Specifically Gandhi learned about the passive resistance from the writings of Tolstoy. But all this matter had been in sleeping mode till he got humiliated by white men in South Africa. After completing his work successfully in South Africa by using passive resistance and noncooperation against the government, he returned to India in 1915. When he reached India, there was a lot of hesitation over Indian congress leadership. In 1919 when the parliament passed the Rowlatt acts to crush the Indian revolutionary activities against the British, Gandhi took the charge and demonstrated his dissent by launching Satyagraha which is the part of passive resistance against the British rule. Soon it spread through India gaining millions of followers to Gandhi. It laid the foundation for Gandhi to become a leader to millions of Indians. He soon capitalized on it and organized noncooperation movement against British which was attracted one and all. Indian masses mesmerized by Gandhi’s speeches and his ideas as they were new, different and never heard of, followed him as their undisputed leader.
Alexander had a formal training in philosophy and public speaking from his tutor Aristotle. Napoleon forced to concentrate on philosophy in order to learn battle tactics. He studied his fellow soldiers to master the mind games. Adolf Hitler was vastly exposed to political literature in his early twenties through which he attained complete knowledge about the Europe political scenario. He mastered his public speaking skills by debating on political issues with his roommates when he was in hostel. Gandhi was a lawyer by profession. He had significant practice sessions in England as well as in South Africa through which he learned public speaking skills. Gandhi was understood the psychological aspects of various people through the writings of Leo Tolstoy.
So the fact is that the great leaders were at one time or other practiced various leadership skills intentionally or unintentionally.
All the above leaders enjoyed the loyalty of their followers at good times. But sadly except Alexander, remaining all had their end directly or indirectly due to their detractors. If the history was right, Alexander was died of severe fever. Though he was a great general, Greeks were disagreed and nullified his order of accepting and worshiping him as a god. When Napoleon was defeated in the battle of waterloo on June 18th 1815, he fled to Rochefort where he surrendered to the captain of the British battleship Bellerophon. Later he was exiled to a remote island in South Atlantic Ocean and he died there like a nobody. When Hitler realized that the defeat of Germany in Second World War was inevitable, he was unable to digest the truth. After knowing the horrible death of his good friend Mussolini, he was scared and committed suicide in the awe of humiliation. On 15th August 1947, India got the independence and after few months on 30th January 1948 Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathu Ram Godsey who was a Hindu fanatic.
After all, leaders are few but followers are many! Why?
Because to become a leader you have to think more thus forcing your brain to work more which most of the people hate to do. But to become a follower you need not to think more thus comforting your brain and yourself from the great danger of thinking.
Before finishing, I am irresistible to ask you one thing,
Are leaders born?
Or
Are leaders made?
I hope you are sure of your answer.
by
TIRUMALA SRINIVAS
GIVE YOUR OPINIONS TO sri_sritirumala@yahoo.co.in OR MESSAGE TO THIS NUMBER 9704153560.
No comments:
Post a Comment