In India, the word “leader” and its Hindi derivative ‘lideri’ have become dirty words. What a pity! Because, if India needs anything today, it is good leadership. This is true not only in political life, where it is so obvious, but also in the fields of education, management and various other walks of life.

Short Supply

There are perhaps special reasons to account for the fact that leadership in India is in short supply. Our tradition and culture contain elements which do not exactly encourage the qualities of courage, dissent and adventure, which are essential parts of the bundle of qualities that go to make a leader.

Thus, for example, there is often the somewhat exaggerated’ and hypocritical respect for the aged and for those in authority. Grown up men and women will smoke, but not in the presence of their parents, and we are all loyal to those who are at the head of our Government until they are removed and then turn our backs on them. On the one hand, there is the cult of personality and on the other the absence of what in England is called “the non-conformist conscience” which takes the form, when necessary of saying “I am damned if I can see it that way.”

It is obvious that the number of those who are prepared to stick their necks out for an unpopular or unpalatable cause is limited even in Britain. Unfortunately, such men are even more scarce in India.

Then there is what the historians have described as the dialectical nature of the Indian mind which is unable to see things in terms of black and white but can only see grey all round. Pandit Nehru’s speeches, when he was the Prime Minister, followed a well known pattern of saying: “At the same time, we must remember that ...” and then a little later “on the other hand, it is also true that ...” No wonder this trend of not coming down on one or other side of the fence led in due course to the evolution of what is gradiloquently described as the’ policy of “non-alignment”.

One of the biggest weaknesses of Indian Management at the top is a weakness in decision making. In politics, this takes the form of ‘tailism”, to use Lenin’s phrase, on the part of political leaders, which means not leading one’s party but carrying out the behest of the dominant trend in the party, whether it is right or wrong. Gandhiji, of course, was an exception to this case. As is well known, he resigned even his four-anna membership in the Congress rather than compromise his own principles.

Stipulating Terms

I personally happen to agree with the view of leadership that was practised by Winston Churchill and General De Gaulle, which was that they were only available to lead their parties so long as the parties were prepared to follow them. In other words, they were prepared to be leaders on their own terms. Compare that with the record of Mr. Morarji Desai and Mr. Charan Singh as Prime Ministers from April 1977 till now, and one sees the contrast between the two styles of leadership.

Many years ago, Walter Lippman in his book, The Public Philosophy wrote:

“If the people find that they must choose whether they will be represented in an assembly which is incompetent to govern or where there is no doubt at all as to how the issued will be decided, they will choose authority which promises to be paternal in preference to freedom which threatens to be fratricidal. For large communities cannot do without being governed. No ideal freedom or democracy will long be allowed to stand in the way of their being governed …..”

If Indian democracy today is in danger and the country faces the possibility of authoritarian government, it is because those who call themselves democrats cannot, or will not, lead.

Those who seek to promote the qualities of leadership can do not better than remember some pertinent things which were said twenty-six centuries back by a Chinese Philosopher, Lao Tze who set down the criteria of judging a good leader:

“A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists.
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him
Worst when they despise him.
‘Fail to honour people
They fail to honour you’,
But of a good leaders, who talk little.
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled.
They will all say: “We did this ourselves”.