Greg Chappell has done it again. The worst thing to have ever happened to Indian cricket continues to be a miserable pain. Now he has come up with sweeping generalizations condemning the Indian culture at large and our ineffectiveness as leaders in particular. Much as I detest Chappell and his sanctimonious pontifications, it is difficult to ignore that there is some truth in his harsh words.
It is fair to say that our inability to develop inspiring leaders has been one of the critical failings of post-independence India. Whether we look at our politics, business or sports it is difficult to see enough shining examples of leadership. Our politics has been especially cursed. Post-independence there are hardly any leaders that we can admire. Moreover, our slavish acceptance of a dynasty at the centre and multiple dynasties in our states reflects poorly on the orientation of our population. If you look at business, Ratan Tata and Narayan Murthy are honorable exceptions. We find many of our business czars amongst Forbes richest. However, few of them have stood up as leaders for transforming our industry let alone the country. Even in Sports, which is so designed for leadership we see many good individual contributors but few genuine leaders. Saurav Ganguly, the fiercely proud leader is an exception. Even he evokes mixed reactions – many of us not comfortable with his in your face aggression. Our national hero Sachin Tendular is an exceptional cricketing talent but not a great leader. Even our “Captain Marvelous” Dhoni seems to be fizzling out. He has many outstanding leadership qualities and he won us the World Cup but even he seems to be losing himself to self-interest and petty politics.
Sweeping generalizations about national character are always difficult especially for a country as large and diverse as India. However, as a passionately patriotic Indian who fervently wants India to progress I feel it is important to face the uncomfortable aspects of our national character that prevent us from producing great leaders. It is important that we acknowledge our weaknesses because facing them is the only way to do something about them. I feel there are three aspects of our national character that stop us from being good leaders:
- We put our self-interest above the society or the nation. We have low level of national consciousness. We are obsessed about ourselves. Our zone of care extends to cover our families but not much beyond that. The key requirement of a leader is to rise about self-interest and commit oneself to a larger cause. We most often fail that test. Our self-interest makes us go for short-term gains and petty politics as opposed to rising together for a common cause.
- We lack courage. To be an inspiring leader you need courage to challenge status quo and take personal risks. You need spine to stand up for what is right. However, we are very focused on safety and security and fear to do anything rash that will compromise the former. We often keep our heads down and stay within our bounds rather than rise and challenge what is not right.
- We do not sustain our intensity. We produce flashes of brilliance, but these are often not sustained. Our cricket team is a good illustration of this. We rose to be the No. 1 test team in the world, but then proceeded to give that away with depressing ease. Leadership is not about being a flash in the pain but it is about sustained excellence. To achieve this requires deep ambition, unwavering commitment, and discipline to keep working very hard. We often have the talent, but are not able to translate that into sustained success.
Why are we like this? Why is one of the most ancient and deep civilizations of the world struggling to develop national consciousness and common action? Why is the civilization that created profound knowledge through epics like Gita, Mahabharata and Vedas struggling with basic awareness and education? Why is the country that produced giants like Lord Budhha, Ashoka and Mahatma Gandhi struggling to develop a new generation of leaders? These are deeply reflective questions and there are perhaps no easy answers in a country as complex as India. I believe there are three root causes that might explain our inability to develop leaders and the weaknesses in our national character mentioned earlier:
- Centuries of foreign subjugation. India has seen a succession of invaders for most part of the last 1000 years. The first 700 years saw a succession of Muslim invaders from Central Asia. They were brutal but eventually they did assimilate into the Indian society. I believe the 200 years of British rule that followed were lot more debilitating. Not only did massive wealth go out of the country but change of land use led to some of the most serious famines in human history. The combination of the above led a once rich country becoming seriously poor. In addition, spread of English language at the cost of local languages and creation of institutions like the bureaucracy took out sense of identity and created a subservient culture. We continue to suffer from the resulting loss of self-confidence and national spirit, both of which are so necessary to create strong leaders.
- An old civilization in need of rejuvenation. We are proud of being an ancient civilization. However, being an old civilization also has its pitfalls. The strong sense of purpose that a new civilization or nation has in proving itself is missing. In addition, with time lot of diversity has developed in our culture, languages, social structures and religions. All of this complexity makes forging a common national identity difficult. Finally, Hinduism the dominant religion of our country might also be a contributing factor. It is a profound religion and has tackled the eternal questions of life in a very deep manner. However, many have interpreted it as advocating acceptance of fate and trusting God’s will as opposed to focus on action. The combination of the above factors seemed to have weakened the vitality, sense of purpose and bias for action in our country.
- Lack of role models. Success begets success and vice versa is also true. We currently have few leaders who can be role models for the younger generation to emulate. Having a role model can be a great inspiration to push oneself to achieve similar or greater heights. I believe the sustained success of the Australian cricket team is a good case in point. Michael Clarke might not be a superior leader than M.S. Dhoni. However, he has a great legacy to look up to and live up to. Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting have established a formidable legacy. Looking up to such role models perhaps gives him added appreciation of leading the Australian Test team and has helped him make the self-less decision of ignoring the IPL riches. Contrast that with our star Dhoni who seems to be so spent by the silly IPL that he is contemplating retiring from Test cricket!!
So are we a lost cause? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! I am convinced that this country will wake up. It might be a slow process but it will happen. No civilization or country or people are fundamentally superior or inferior. All civilizations rise and fall. No state is permanent. Tide will turn for India. Moreover, we have seen that when Indians are faced with a real crisis they are roused to action. Kargil and the other wars that we have faced are a good case in point. Suddenly we saw the nation coming together and a lot of heroes emerging. However, instead of just trusting the good lord to work his magic or waiting for the next crisis we need to figure out what actions we need to take as a country and as individuals to solve the leadership deficit in our country. There is no point lamenting about our history and its implications. Out future is in our hands and we must act now. I believe the following four actions are necessary to ignite the development of leaders in India:
- Empower the youth
- Educated elite to step up and take responsibility
- Strengthen national pride
- Build centers of excellence
Empower the youth
Our biggest asset is our youth. Centuries of foreign subjugation and past decades of limited economic means have sucked out the self-belief and spirit from our national character. Thankfully, the young India is different. They have tremendous self-belief and are fearless. They are not conditioned by past failures. They are not limited by history. They are not daunted by reputations or the big stage. They want to win and have the self-belief that they will. They are fearless and take risks. They may come from small towns but are totally at home at the big stage (see related blogpost on the next gen, “Born to Win!!”).
To develop our country it is essential that we are developing this asset properly. The key to unlocking the potential of this asset is quality education. We need concerted efforts to improve the quality of both education infrastructure and its delivery. This has to be done at both the primary/secondary school level to build basic skills and at the University level to improve employability. Moreover, education has to go beyond the theoretical and should help develop leadership and bias for action. Once we empower our youth with quality education it will dramatically improve their chances of not only creating a better future for themselves but also stepping up as leaders to create a better future for the country as a whole.
Educated elite to step up and take responsibility
The last 10-15 years of economic progress has brought great benefits to the educated middle-class in Urban India. They have gained in affluence and have seen dramatic improvements in their standard of living. I believe it is now time for this segment to give back to the country. Their concerns around fulfilling basic needs that was earlier holding them back are now significantly addressed. They are perhaps best placed to make a broader difference because education gives them the awareness and relative prosperity gives them security to take risks. Moreover, they have perhaps most to lose if the leadership deficit results in the country not progressing to its full potential.
We are seeing some positive examples of the educated elite beginning to participate in politics and stand in elections. We need many more to do that. We are in critical need for a new generation of political leaders. The current generation of political leaders is so corrupt and discredited that it is futile to expect too much from them. It might take time for a new gene pool of political leaders to break through and establish themselves but it very important that enough are making the effort to do so.
On a related note, while it might not be possible for everybody to dedicate themselves to politics and public service, however all of us could do our bit by taking more personal accountability for the situations around us. Leadership is not just about fighting elections or grandstanding. Leadership can happen in small, everyday situations. Leadership is also about not taking the easy route in our daily lives. This could be as simple as not doing wrong overtaking, throwing litter on the road, or trying to bribe the traffic cop. That is why I am a big fan of the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement. It brought the important public issue of corruption to focus and generated momentum for the common man to participate in it. We need more such mass awareness on public issues and for all of us to take more personal responsibility. If all of us could step up and do our bit we would have generated millions of leaders (see related blogpost on taking personal responsibility, “Take personal responsibility and change the world!!”).
Strengthen national pride
We need to rediscover and celebrate our history and culture, push for excellence in sports and other avenues for expressing national pride. This will help strengthen our collective identity, sense of national service and generate self-confidence that is so necessary to develop strong leaders. We could see the surge of positive spirit and national pride that came after the Cricket World Cup win. People across generations, regions and socio-economic strata united in this triumph. We need to invest to create many more winning moments that will strengthen our collective identity and pride. This will hopefully translate into people moving beyond their self-interest and demonstrating higher commitment towards public service and nation building.
Build centers of excellence
As mentioned, role models and the confidence of success are positive catalysts for developing leaders. They enable a virtuous cycle inspiring and encouraging a new generation of leaders. Towards this objective it is important to develop solid success stories in India that can act as a beacon of hope and confidence for many others to rise and shine. We need to identify areas where we have some natural advantages and can become world leaders. A good example of such an area is the IT/BPO industry. China has won the manufacturing race; Service sector is our best opportunity for global leadership. We have solid advantages here with our age pyramid and English language proficiency. Within the services sector, we have a great head start in the IT/BPO industry. However, we should not rest on our laurels but build on the great platform we have to develop a unique and sustainable leadership proposition. Moreover, this opportunity is not just about IT/BPO but also about more broadly leveraging our design and analytical talent across different service areas. Excellence in IT, BPO, Analytics and R&D can act as a great role model and inspiration to develop leadership even in other areas.
If we can raise awareness and make progress on the above-mentioned points, I believe we will start seeing many more inspiring leaders emerge across different areas. These leaders will further help drive progress in our country and help it rise beyond the mediocrity that we have been chained to for decades. It is time for the sleeping elephant to awake from its long slumber and take its rightful place as a leading nation in the world. Let us drop cynicism, doubt and inaction and come together to create a new, wonderful India!!
I would like to end this note with the following immortal poem by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action—
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
