Those were perfect testing times for leaders of a nation, which earned freedom through a unique non-violent political struggle lead by Mahatma Gandhi and yet got the freedom at the cost of partition of country on religious basis, migration of people on a never-seen-before scale and unprecedented bloodshed resulting in atleast half a million human beings losing their life.
Freedom at midnight, a novel by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, is a brilliant work on the events during the fateful days of Indian independence and aftermath. I feel it is a great book on leadership. The book is full of illustrations of leadership in action and I share a few of those instances involving three excellent gentlemen – Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India and Mahatma Gandhi, the man who won freedom for India.
Jawaharlal Nehru emerges as a compassionate leader overwhelmed by the miseries of his people struck in the “Greatest Migration in Human History”. His genuine desire to help his countrymen combined with his helplessness sets a perfect background to his quandary. His warning to a group of Sikhs in a village against assault on neighbouring Moslems was indeed effective. The authors say “Nehru’s dilemma was how to translate an effective, isolated action like that to the scale of a nation …”. Authors also bring out the fact that even as Mr. Nehru was delivering his famous “tryst with destiny” speech at the stroke of midnight, 14th August, 1947, “he could only conceive the awful pictures of Lahore in flames”, the news of which he had received just a short while before.
Lord Mountbatten is depicted as a leader of exceptional organizational skills. His sense of urgency and setting challenging targets is highlighted all through the novel, but the most spectacular instance is when as head of Emergency Committee he converted Viceregal palace into an intelligence centre and a control command for monitoring and guiding rescue operations across Punjab. Not to mention the stringent timeframe he set for himself for transfer of power to India and Pakistan and made it possible.
Mahatma Gandhi with his ideals of love, non-violence, truth and belief in God of all Mankind resorted to fast unto death at the age of seventy eight in an attempt to touch the hearts of people behind the riots in Calcutta and restore peace which he did after seventy three hours of fast. As per the authors, “Rajagopalachari, Governor General of Bengal said Gandhi has achieved many things but there has been nothing, not even independence, which is so truly wonderful as his victory over evil in Calcutta”. Gandhi repeated the miracle again after four months with his last fast spanning 121 hours, to restore peace in Delhi. The novel establishes Gandhi as an ultimate example of a leader, leading by example and his astonishing mastery over communication with simple gestures stirring the souls of his countrymen and binding them in instinctive unity.
The book is about leaders whose actions and emotions never cease to amaze me.
No comments:
Post a Comment