Gandhi (1982)

Undeniably, Mahatma Gandhi is one of the greatest leaders of the world. In this 1982 film which was directed by Richard Attenborough, the Gandhi’s character was played by Ben Kingsley.

Most of the articles identify him as a transformational leader. Normally there are four characteristics of a transformational leader.

In the first place, transformational leader should be able to provide vision. They are conscious about the future. According to what we watch in the film, Mahatma Gandhi apparently developed a vision that they wanted to get back the indepence and sovereignty from the British Empire.

Secondly, it is being authentic. A leader who has the characteristic of authenticity is commonly perceived as someone who hold the humanistic worldview and beliefs, such as honesty, ethical as well as practical. Especially, he always put attention on ethics. He showed his anger on the Massacre of Amritsar. Besides, his main weapon of this indepence campaign is non-violence.

Third vital characteristic is to lead by example. For those followers and publics, he was a role model. One of the ways he led was to show people what he expected others did. Once he said that, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” For example, he advised Indian citizens to abandon all the British Empire’s products. Hence, he started to sew his own clothes. He transformed himself from a lawyer to be an Indian citizen.

At last, creativity is another characteristic of Mahatma Gandhi. Throughout his life, we can notice that he keeps innovating a new method to fight the British Empire.  For example, he encouraged people to make salt and their own clothes rather than using violence to fight.

Simon Sinek said that a great leader eats last. Throughout his life, we could realize that he was that kind of leader who could fast and sacrifice himself in order to gain the wellbeing of his people.