Leaders are made by formidable followers

It is easy for us to sit back and narrate the successes of numerous leaders who have contributed to the Nations and organisations . However , the people , the followers , the masses , the men play a pivotal role in the making of a successful movement and the leaders who lead them.

Mind of the people

Much has been said and written on the aspect of how leaders lead , mobilize , motivate their followers but we tend to ignore the fact that the mind and individual make-up , ideology of followers is equally important . Many a time even if the leader is of impeccable credentials with successive victories under his belt but he fails because the followers are not prepared or willing or motivated.

How do people come together for a cause? How do they converge to fight for common interest?

Leaders must know the mind of the people . Because people rise up to a cause of their own free will often to protect their interests and ideology . They get attracted to a leader if they trust his ideology and if it matches with their thinking.

Armed forces

Armed forces are a disciplined force and they are trained to follow orders , respect the ‘chain of command’. However no officer takes this for granted because each soldier has a mind of his own and therefore the concept of ‘Naam ,Namak and Nishan’ is taught and ingrained.

‘Naam’ suggests the name of the unit/battalion/regiment etc which is to be protected even at the peril to one’s life . ‘Namak’ means loyalty and faithfulness to the Battalion and the ‘Nishan’ means the ‘Flag’ of the battalion which must remain flying high and should never get into the enemies hand . However, sometimes the system is tested specially under war conditions and extra ordinary situations. During the first world war the Indian troops under British command consisted of soldiers from various communities and religions. When one such battalion was embarking ships in Singapore for fighting against Turkey, then Ottoman empire whose Sultan was considered the Caliph the Muslim soldiers expressed their unwillingness to fight against them.

The ‘Peshawar Kand’ is documented in history when in 1930 civil disobedience movement two platoons of Garhwal rifles refused to fire on unarmed , peaceful Pathan protesters of ‘Khudai Khidmatgar’. The order to ‘not fire’ was given by Havildar Chandra Singh Garhwali who was court martialled and sentenced to 14 year imprisonment but became a Hero later . What comes out of this incident is that each soldier has his own sense of right and wrong and a moral compass.

Chandra Singh Garhwali was just a Havildar, a NCO ( non commissioned officer) . The order was given by an officer but Garhwali shouted not to! Similar is the case of the Naval Mutiny of 1946 which happened in Bombay and Karachi. The awareness to revolt was not stimulated from top but simmered from below as each sailor was aware of the ‘freedom movement’ and the ripening of the ‘hour’.

Subaltern revolution

In his seminal work -Modern India ( 1885-1947) , the historian Sumit Sarkar argues that among other factors the subaltern -driven mass mobilization contributed toward the freedom and the elite leadership role was overemphasised. The leaders had to negotiate with autonomous social movements. The book emphasises on history from below and shifts the attention from Congress leadership. The writer brings out the fact that often masses acted on their own rather than following the National leadership. During ‘Chauri- Chaura’ agitation the people took to violence and burnt the police station killing many policemen , when they were fired upon , this was during the non cooperation movement and Gandhiji sensing escalation of violence had to abandon the movement . The ‘Champaran ‘ agitation by Bihar indigo farmers was yet another independent action where Gandhi went to advocate their cause in 1917 , the local farmers were agitated by forceful cultivation of indigo, local peasant Raj Kumar Shukla met Gandhiji in Lucknow and persuaded him to visit Champaran which was the first Satyagrah of Gandhiji in India but was prompted by the local farmers. The ‘Bastar rebellion’ of 1910, the Bardoli farmers agitation were all independent agitations wherein the local people jointly took action and created leaders.

The Chipko Movement

The ‘Chipko movement’ in 1970s in Garhwal hills which led to enactment of laws to restrict tree felling in hills and became known world over and brought about awareness to protect the ecological system was an outcome of many years of small agitations in Tehri and Chamoli hills regarding forest rights etc , which finally erupted when Gaura Devi along with her women workers in Reni village on 25th March 1974 , stopped the trees from cutting by ‘hugging/embracing them’ ( Chipko) . Soon Chandi Prasad Bhatt and later Sundarlal Bahuguna took the leadership but the seeding, simmering and nourishing was of the people since many years-children, women, old and young . The people made leaders of Chandi Prasad Bhatt who got Magsaysay award and of Sundarlal Bahuguna who got many international awards and Padma Vibhushan.

The Wisdom of Crowds – James Surowiecki

In his book titled ‘ The wisdom of crowds’ James Surowiecki brings out that common individuals who may not be experts take decisions correctly , solve complex problems and make reasonable predictions.

In the book he quotes an example of the British scientists Francis Galton who visits a village fair in 1906 , where there was a competition to judge the weight of an Ox after it had been slaughtered and dressed and about 800 people of diverse background participated by writing on a chit there estimate . After the competition Galton asked for the chits and later analysed it and calculated the ‘mean’ of the group which may represent the average wisdom of the group . He thought it to be way off the mark from the actual weight but to his surprise found that it was 1197 pounds whereas the correct weight of the Ox was 1198 pounds. In another example he relates the missing of the US submarine in 1968 where the estimated area was a circle of about 20 miles. As the authorities were handling the situation a Naval officer John Craven invited experts from various fields such as mathematicians , salvage experts, submariners and created various scenarios and asked them for their estimate . He then collated all the information and used a formula called Bayes’s theorem and arrived at the group’s collective estimate and judgement . After five months a Naval ship found the submarine . It was 220 yards from where the group had said it would be.

The Crowd in the French Revolution – George Rude

The famous historian on French Revolution George Rude in his book ‘The Crowd in the French Revolution’ and other works brings out the ‘bottom ups’ approach to history and interpretation . He brings out the role and importance of the common man , the crowd in the French Revolution and how the ‘crowds’ behave and points out that they behave with rationality and reason and fight for their genuine and critical needs such as bread! They have a mind of their own and can think for themselves .

Therefore we should appreciate the contribution and role of the followers in any movement and in many cases it is the followers who make a leader and movements propelled by them. They have ability to think and estimate independently .Champaran made Gandhi, Bardoli made Vallabh bhai Patel, Indian National Army made Subhash Chandra Bose as the seed of INA was born in the jungles of Malaysia during the second world war by Indian Nationalists who had fled from India . The people of Chipko movement made Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sundar Lal Bahuguna. The formidable followers are as important as their Leaders.

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