Mahatma Gandhi – Father of the Nation
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2nd 1869 into a middle class Indian family. Unlike any of the other leaders we have examined throughout this course, Gandhi did not possess any leadership qualities as a child. In fact, he was a very mediocre student in school and admitted to not being “good at anything”. In contrast to Nelson Mandela, there was nothing distinguishing Gandhi from any of his peers. As a boy, Gandhi was shy, introverted, and always kept to himself. He was not a born leader nor did he possess any leadership qualities. Another example of how Gandhi was not a born leader was during his studies and upon his return to India. At the age of 18, Gandhi moved to England to study law. After three painstaking years of rigorous study, he managed to pass the bar exam; however, upon his return to India, Gandhi quickly discovered that he could not practice law in India because he could not be objective, he was not capable enough, and he did not know enough about Indian law. This proves that Gandhi was not a genius, nor was he exceptional during his early years. Gandhi is indeed a true example of how leadership is not innate, but learned.
The fundamental turning point in Gandhi’s life was upon his return from England after obtaining his law degree. Gandhi accepted a job in South Africa where he realized his higher calling. He experienced direct discrimination because of his ethnicity. Although he was dressed like a high class citizen and had a first class ticket, the train officer commanded him to move back to the third class carriage. When he refused, the officer threw Gandhi off the train. As he spent a cold night at the train station, he started contemplating and after realizing that this was not an isolated incident, but a daily occurrence in South Africa, a flame ignited within Gandhi’s soul. He knew at that