An overview of a few great leaders who influenced the world with their moral compass |14 April 2023
Mr Yakub
• ‘From Tolstoy to Gandhi and to King Jr. and Mandela’
By A G Yakub
The reason I wrote this piece is because I thought it might be worth examining what was the common thread that ran through some of the recent political greats in our human history.
Last week marked the 55th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. He was an American Baptist minister and an activist who led the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. Dr King (1929-1968) captured the imagination of, not only the millions in America, but also the millions of people abroad, myself included, with his vision of a fairer world where people are not judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. No doubt, there has been some positive movement in that regard, but to be fair, I think today his dream is still a work in progress in certain parts of the USA and parts of the rest of the world.
Dr King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, but sadly he was gunned down on April 4, 1968 while he was at his prime. He envisioned a world without barriers and he saw the human race as one and he said: “Regardless of the barriers of race, creed, ideology or nationality, there is an inescapable destiny which binds us together. There is a common humanity which makes us sensitive to the sufferings of one another.”
His powerful vision defined and elevated him as a leader. But that vision was shaped by the vision of another great leader – Mohandas K Gandhi (1869-1948). King believed that Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence was “the only moral and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom”.
King’s use of non-violence in the American civil rights movement was a “game changer”. This was the strategy that was first used in the famous Montgomery bus boycott that started in December 1955 as a successful social and political protest against racial segregation in the public transport system – and it came directly from Gandhi.
In India, non-violence acts were powerful tools used to challenge the might of the British Empire. Mohandas Gandhi (usually called the Mahatma out of respect) emerged to lead the Indian nationalist movement, which he rallied with a message of peaceful non-cooperation and non-violent resistance. Gandhi’s 300km march to the sea in 1930, which especially inspired King, was a huge act of resistance, defying a British law that did not permit Indians to make their own salt. The march conveyed Gandhi’s philosophy of satyagraha, or insistence on truth in a spirit of love and peace. Hence, in asserting what was true and right without resorting to violence or physical confrontation, protesters won an important ‘moral’ victory against the British.
Earlier in his career, Gandhi became a well-known activist in South Africa after encountering racial prejudice. He first used satyagraha in 1906 when fighting for the rights of Indians there, in response to a law discriminating against ‘coloured’ Asians in the Transvaal.
One hundred years later, Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was inspired by the significance and value of this philosophy of passive protest against oppression, calling Mahatma Gandhi a “sacred warrior”. Some writers claim this probably inspired the formation of the African National Congress and strengthened Mandela's own belief in our shared humanity. Maybe there was a direct connection between Gandhi’s campaign against discrimination in South Africa and the early principles of the anti-apartheid movement there.
On the occasion of Mandela’s 94th birthday in 2012, Gandhi’s grandson, Rajmohan, asserted at a function in New Delhi that his grandfather’s influence on Mandela was “so immeasurable that the South Africans he met during his travels in South Africa regarded the Mahatma as a fellow countryman”. Mandela spent 28 years in prison before leading his country out of apartheid. In 2007, Mandela declared that Gandhi’s message of peace and non-violence “held the key to human survival in the 21st century”.
If you take a step back and reflect on your history lessons, you will find that this chain of inspiration goes back further than Gandhi to an unusual link – Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), the Russian writer. Gandhi and Tolstoy exchanged letters that helped guide Gandhi’s political, philosophical and spiritual outlook. Intellectually, Tolstoy assisted Gandhi in possibly altering and formulating his views on violence; he helped Gandhi see that the Indian mass could be a moral force for good against the British.
Tolstoy was influenced by various Asian teachings; he even became a vegetarian and spoke of the law of love. He wrote and I quote an extract of his writings: “the recognition that love represents the highest morality was nowhere denied or contradicted, but this truth was so interwoven everywhere….” Gandhi realised that Tolstoy “strove uncompromisingly to follow truth as he saw it, making no attempt to conceal or dilute it”.
It is amazing that Tolstoy’s devotion and faithfulness to the truth and love ultimately planted the seeds and launched, albeit indirectly, so many strong leaders of steel who followed their moral compass in their times. Let us hope that this continues in the times ahead, especially as we are often witnessing the reign of selfish, vain and inward-looking politicians on the international scene.
About the author:
Mr Yakub does not regard himself as a writer per se, but as the saying goes, even the greatest auteurs have to start somewhere. Mr Yakub’s academic background and work experience is varied and vast, spreading from government finance, multilateral and development banking, and international finance and macroeconomics to actively engaging as an entrepreneur in the private sector locally.