Leadership Lessons from A Road to Freedom - The Dandi March (1930)

Introduction

Mohandas K. Gandhi's Dandi March (March 12, 1930) had carved a niche for itself in the history of India's long struggle for freedom from the British Raj. It was an awakening of two different beings - the rulers and the ruled, the oppressors and the oppressed. The rulers realized that their hold on India has come to an end and its better to walk away gracefully while the Indians realized the strength of Self. Gandhiji wanted them to realize that freedom is nothing but a state of mind which fiercely listens to the conscience and conscience alone. On the 61st anniversary of our Independence, it is my humble endeavour to look at this event with a critical eye deriving the underlying meanings of the symbolic act.

The Dandi March - A Conceptual Overview

Gandhiji left his ashram with his followers on March 12th 1930 from Sabarmati in the outskirts of the city of Ahmedabad and marched approxmately 320 kms to arrive and break the Salt law at Dandi on April 6th 1930. It was the morning hours and Gandhiji took a bath in the sea and with his wet loin still clung to his body and his upper part drapped in a shawl, took a handful of salt from the shores of the Arabian Sea and proclaimed the end of British empire. The police arrived and arrested the men under Gandhiji, jails were filled to brim, yet the movement sparked a fire that ignited the souls of millions of men and women throughout India. The prescence of International Press added glamour to the event and the movement was recognized and known as far as America (which was important since India needed International solidarity for its struggle for independence).

Undeterred by the Government's effort in cutting his wings by the mass arrests of his supporters, Gandhiji decided to sieze the salt works of Dharesena. The Govt. moved into a rapid reaction by immediately arresting Gandhiji in the midnight of May 4th and 5th and by mid-morning lodged him in Yeravada Central Jail in Pune. However the movement started by "the half-naked fakir" did ignite India and Civil Disobedience became the norm of the citizens.

Leadership Insights

Looking critically, three major parameters of Gandhian leadership styles can be plucked from the above incident of historical significance. We will try to isolate them in this particular section from a series of counter questionings.

1- Why did Gandhiji select "salt" as an item for protest? Why not "textiles" as he did it in the Non-Cooperation movement of 1920? There is a huge significance in this choice of protest object. Gandhiji was trying to arouse India in this struggle for independence. And Congress has to be a National party and hence its activities must be able to touch every section of society residing in India irrespective of their economic, racial and social status. Salt served the purpose very well. It is the only thing used by the elite rich and the desperate poor, the Hindus (with their castes) and the Muslims (with their sections) in common. There was no brands of salt available then unlike today and hence it served as a common instrument to bind everyone in the nation. Textiles on the other hand were having various brands like the Bombay Dyeing, which was inaccessible to the India living in villages. By taking up the issue of salt, Gandhiji ensured the involvement (even if not active, at least attention) of ALL Indians. Hence the first leadership secret is affective unity of actors in your operational context. The operational context in the case of Gandhiji was India and he ensured the unity of it by his appropriate choice of instrument - salt.

2- The second obvious question is "why did Gandhiji march to Dandi?"He had so many rich and famous individuals like Mohd. Ali Jinnah, Motilal Nehru, Jawarharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel. He could have borrowed any of their vehicles, gone to Dandi and broken the law. Precious time would have been saved too. Yet he marched. Marching according to me had two purposes - the oft quoted purpose of involvement with people at the grassroot which allowed them to identify with the leader. It gives the people a psychological access to the leader and breaks any inhibition and gives the leader a chance to influence the people in his ideology. The second important purpose of marching was attention capturing through dramatised action. A leader is percieved as a leader by the subordinates for he/she is believed to have powers and influence that is absent in them. A leader to remain a leader has to manage that impression of the followers without being decietful. Gandhiji was a master impression manager. Every action had an element of drama. The salt march was literally a war against an empire since it was aimed to break a major revenue providing law. And a war is fought with an army. Gandhi had to SHOW that to the international media and to the assembled authorities of the empire. Hence he marched as a lieutnant of his "army". Agreed his method of fighting was different from the conventional bloody games wars used to be, yet it was a WAR of a nation against another. It clearly demarcated India from the Empire and SHOWED the existence of TWO nations and not ONE to the International community. Grabbing attention - the Gandhi way - is unique. Even his passive non-violent resistance or Satyagraha was uniquely designed to be dramatised. Gandhiji understood that anything that is not natural is a drama and attracted attention. When a man is hit, its natural for him to fight or take recourse to flight. Satyagraha demolished the two alternatives. No fighting and no running away but rather dying if possible yet not relenting to the oppressor. It will attract anyone's attention!

3- The final leadership secret that can be isolated is empowerment through promotion of behavior as expected after the end of project operation. According to Gandhiji freedom never meant replacing one ruler with another. But it meant providing a sense of free will to the common man that ensures a safe and peaceful society. A democratic ruler takes into account this free will of people to frame laws to do the maximum good to maximum people. Thus the underlying principle is free - will. And Gandhiji wanted every citizen of India to exercise it. If one sees a merit in something, follow it, if not, chuck it. This is freedom. In a nutshell he was making people practice the Advaita Vedantic school of philosophy. As long as one recognises a law, it exists; and if one dis-recognizes it, it vanishes. Gandhiji was making the people bahave as if there was no law and hence actions must be guided by conscience. All his movements aimed at this end - to break Govt. laws by disrecognizing them. Hence it put the Govt. in a soup for there is no such "provision" like "disrecognition be treated as crime". It was a unique way to achieve freedom - Free the man - free the home - free the nation.

Summing up

The Gandhian leadership style from Dandi March can be summed up as "effecting an emotional bonding of people in a operational context by appropriate choosing of an unifying object of use leading to personal empowerment of the subordinate by giving scope to exercise the free will by personal involvement and dramatised action."

India was free after millions of sacrifices, people who never lived to enjoy the fruit of their labor. Lets understand their perspective of freedom and their motive of fighting for it. Its nothing but free will leading to unity and again unity that fecilitates free will. Both are necessary for becoming a free and powerful nation in this century. Lets work towards it.