The document provides a summary of lessons learned from the film "Lagaan". It discusses how the film tells the story of a village in colonial India that faces exploitation and hardship due to scarcity of water. They accept a challenge from the British to a cricket match, where if they win their taxes will be canceled. The film teaches about facing adversity with courage and conviction, the power of collective action, and managing challenges systematically while prioritizing human welfare. It also conveys the importance of conserving natural resources and dealing with threats like brokers and traitors. Overall, the film's message is about empowering people to take charge of their lives and work together to overcome oppression.

1. Lessons from LAGAAN
WORKSHOP IN MANAGEMENT
THROUGH THE MOVIE
2004
CONDUCTED BY
ASHIMA DESHMUKH
(LECTURER IN EDUCATION)
ashima.deshmukh@gmail.com

2. The presentation is about
• The story that is also ours’
• Tha characters as in our lives
• The plot that also affects us
• The lessons of management
• The larger values which inspire us
• Larger context of the story
• Contemporary relation to the story
• Globalization and the story

3. THE REAL THEME
• SCARCITY OF WATER

4. EFFECTS OF THE SCARCITY OF
WATER
• POOR CROPS
• ECONOMIC BACKWARDNESS
• EXPLOITATION
• SLAVERY TO PEOPLE WHO ARE
POWERFUL
• LOSS OF SELF ESTEEM
• BREAK IN UNITY
• DISPLACEMENT

5. THE PLOT OF STORY
• WOVEN AROUND PROBLEMS THAT
AFFECT COMMON MAN SO OFTEN
• DISTINCT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE
GOVERNANCE AND THE MASSES
• BATTLE AT LOGGER HEADS
• ONE’S IGNORANCE IS OTHER
PERSON’S POWER
• GLOBALISATION OF KNOWLEDGE

6. Initial part of the
MOVIE
• THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE
INTRUDER & COMMON MAN’S MIND
SET
• BHUVAN TRIES TO SAVE THE
HELPLESS ANIMALS
• MORAL –HUNT ONLY WHEN
REQUIRED, NOT FOR PLEASURE
(indicates the nature of Bhuvan)

7. Conviction of the common man as a
natural leader

8. Synopsis as written in media
:: Queen Victoria's India. The year is 1893. Champaner... a small farming
village in Central India. On the outskirts of the village stands a British
cantonment, commanded by Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne)- an arrogant
and capricious man who wields the power of life and death over the villages
under his jurisdiction. LAGAAN - a story of a battle without bloodshed.
Fought by a group of unlikely heroes led by Bhuvan (Aamir Khan), an
enigmatic young farmer with courage born of conviction - and a dream in his
heart. Helped by Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley), an English rose who came to
India and lost her heart, and Bhuvan's pillar of strength, Gauri (Gracy Singh),
the young and perky village girl who dreams only of a home with the man she
loves. A story of extraordinary circumstances thrust upon ordinary people.

9. In reality is “Lagaan” only telling a story of
the colonial period?
Do you see something beyond the plot?
What is the hidden message for us in the era of
open economy and globalisation?

10. LAGAAN AS A TEACHER
Lagaan teaches
• To face globalization in the stride
• survival strategies
• Management as a science
• That economy of your country is equally
affected by other countries
• Of course! that sports have been the
starting point of many historic events as in
Mahabharata, the game of chess

11. Lets plunge into
the management aspects
• The needs emerge from the environment and
the political governance of people
( Environment paradigm)
• The problem is converted into a challenge
• The initiative is taken by the natural leader
• The acceptance of challenge is taken in
adverse conditions
• Bhuvan becomes accountable for the stand
taken

12. During the movie-the
plan for the game
• Learn about the game of cricket by observation
• Find out the right players
• Choose the right player for right work
o Arm twister as the spinner
o Swift bird catcher as the fielder & the spinnner
because of his arm twisting, the dependable as
wicket keeper
• MORAL -No square pegs in the round holes

13. the strategy for motivation in
Bhuvan's case
Get the people to be motivated to accept challenge
• Start the membership( inner ring) even with one
• The conviction and integrity gives others confidence – IT
IS INFECTIOUS
• Recognition of which options are better helps people to
join the gang
• Most people are followers
• very few are leaders
• Pool in the key and influential people – like brands
• Stock taking of one’s own strengths and weakness
• personal audit gives inner strength

14. Focused on the target
• Fight pressures from out siders and be
focused on the interest that is at stake
( the LAGAAN - tax)
• Tax can be foregone for the following
three years if the match can be won!
• Bhuvan sees only the positive aspect of
the challenge and is never seen
mentioning the otherwise

15. MOVIE FOCUSSES ON…
• The larger interest – universal values
stand above trivial and short term interest
(cybernetics)
• Learn quickly the game that others play
and play in their same way
• Find out the weakness of your opponent-the
ego which is blind & irrational

16. Conflicts the movie presents
• The villain represents conflict of interest
• The villain makes himself useful to the British
officer to fight the common enemy
• The traitor always plays the role of broker & is
without any values
• The leader must be aware of the traitor- do not
undermine your enemies
• The path to materialize the challenge is a difficult
one and full of obstacles

17. The broker of the movie
• Forms of brokerages should be
understood in the global context
• Has no identity
• Are scavengers – inherent nature
• Looses his self respect
• May be parasite pretends to be symbiotic
• Should be quickly identified

18. Benefits of accepting challenges
• The challenge brings & binds the people
together
• Increases their self esteem
• MAKES the impossible into possible
• People take charge of their own lives and
become participatory in their governance

19. DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THE KING OR YOUR RULERS CAN
MANAGE YOUR’S AND COUNTRY’S WELFARE?

21. BHUVAN WAS THE DELIVERER
• He did all that was required to
face the challenges
• Planning
• Organizing
• Leading
• Staffing
• Directing/ Controlling/
Training
• Coordinating
• Executing
• Evaluating
• Setting bench marks
• Getting the desired results

22. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
LEADER
• Emotionally sound
• Good life and empathy for living things
• Secular
• Respects diversity
• Delegates work – shows faith on others
• Is forgiving – gives another chance to the traitor
• Binds people – characterized by conviction
• TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR FAILURES
• DOES NOT BLAME OTHERS

23. Leadership in Lagaan
• Path which carved in adverse conditions
• Exists only due to conviction
• Has vision and dreams
• Bhuvan asks his mother as what answer
would he give if not to accept the
challenge
• Support of the mother to Bhuvan

24. GOOD HOMES CREATE
LEADERS
• Social change breeds from within the problem and
is never external to the problem
• A searching mind always is progressive, finds
ways & means to attack the problem by
resourcefulness
• Leadership is inconspicuous and emerges only in
crisis
• Sensitivity of the person makes one a concerned
person
• All intellectuals who are karma yogis are leaders
in their own way

25. The story of lagaan
• Has set a precedent for the rulers who do not
seek welfare of others
• The globalisation of economy has lessons to be
learnt from it (even the remotely situated man is
affected by other countries’ economies)
• Natural resources are the assets of one’s country
– keep the power of negotiation with the owner
( the country)

26. The story of lagaan
• Breaks the barriers of languages , cultures
and practices
• Brings home the fact that
WATER AS A RESOURCE WILL RULE
THE ECONOMIES OF THE FUTURE
WORLD
• Make rules & follow rules that can sustain
life on EARTH
• Conserve nature to continue life

27. LAGAAN AND MANAGEMENT
• Uses contingency approach
• Follows environment paradigm
• Is systemic in execution of plan
• Puts human welfare above nations and
their interest
• Reveals the power of game in strategic
battle- similar to Mahabharata

28. LAGAAN
• IS EMPOWERING
• Take charge of your life
• Entrepreneurship can thrive only
if power of negotiation and
conflict mediation is understood
in the long run

29. Implications
• All battles are first won in minds of people
• Good governance demands participation
• Role identity & identify with the challenge
• Identify with the problem
• Cohesiveness
• Excellent coordination amongst people
• Spirit in place of work/life
• Vision of the consequences
• Belief & science are not separated- SCIENTIFIC
TEMPER
• Nature cannot be overpowered

30. Media reviews about LAGAAN
A prodigious Dalit spin bowler, Palwankar Baloo, was one of the
first superstars of Indian cricket, joining Hindu upper caste
players on the field as early as the late 19th century.
In Lagaan the game of cricket in its pure, classic, test match form is
nothing less than "a critique and defiance of modernity in a world
moving toward post-modernity."
you needn't go in expecting a savage historical expose of colonial
atrocities.
Every member of his village home team, a multi-ethnic "bomber crew"
that includes a Muslim, a Sikh, and even a Dalit, gets the time and the
space he needs to register as a vivid individual. – the tradition of true
Indian Society

31. ANALOGY WITH THE ASTERIX AND THE
VILLAGE OF GAULS
• The residents of the tiny, dusty, drought-plagued
hamlet of Champaner, egged on by a salt-of-earth
hothead named Bhuvan (Khan), recklessly
accept a sporting challenge thrown down by
Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne), the
commander of the local British cantonment, and
proceed to master the game in just a few short
months. At stake is the crushing lagaan, or land
levy, the tithe from their annual crop that the
villagers are obliged to hand over every year.
(The tax will be canceled if the locals win, tripled
if they lose.)

32. The Delhi-based cultural critic Ashis Nandy's
paradoxical thesis.
• The film is an irresistible underdog fantasy with
gratifying post-colonial implications. The ordinary rural
villagers in Lagaan manage to internalize the spirit of
this archetypal colonial import so deeply that, even
when armed with hand-carved bats and pads made from
bundles of sticks, they are able to hold their own against
the sport's ostensible standard bearers, toughing it out
right down to the final wicket. "To become cricket,"
Nandy suggests, "a game must leave open the
possibility of the meek inheriting the earth."
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Island/3102/lagaan.htm

33. WHAT ECOLOGY HAS TO DO WITH THE
MOVIE?
• The Industrial Revolution of the 16th century in
Europe changed the way natural resources were
used. Knowing how to transform resources from
one form to another and its easy transportation to
distant places helped the process of colonisation.
Political victory over India (beginning 1757 with
the Battle of Plassey) gave British absolute hold
over the social and ecological fabric of the Indian
society.
(Extracted from This Fissured land, An Ecological History of India by Gadgil
and Guha, published by Oxford University Press)

34. • Large quantities of natural resources were taken
away by the colonialists to keep the engines of
the European industrial revolution moving.
• Forest, land and water previously controlled and
used by local village communities became
property of landlords and the colonial state.
• Forest
Indian teak facilitated the maritime expansion of
the British empire. Ships built in the dockyards of
Surat and Malabar coast were sent to England.
From 1853 onwards, large tracts of forest were
cut to provide sleepers for railways.

35. ENVIRONMENT PARADIGM
• Water
The British in their desire to rule,
administer and exploit, destroyed the
traditional water management systems
built by the rural communities of India over
centuries.
www.gobartimes.org/sept2001/gtimes_cov3.
htm

36. Summary of the lessons learnt
• Fight situations , make no compromise,
face head on but view the problem as a
challenge
• Fight larger problems collectively
• Collective efforts bind people
• Globalization does not breed humanism
but is founded on mutualism

37. Summary of the lessons learnt
contd …
• Steps of management
• Conviction and proactive participation can
change situations into a favourable one
• Ignore negativism and be positive
• Do not undermine your enemies
• Look at problems objectively
• Find out your assets useful in mutualism

38. Summary of the lessons learnt
contd…
• Human resource development
• Scientific temper along with strong beliefs,
conviction and vision
• Conservation of nature
• One cannot overpower nature
• Beware of the broker and traitor
• Do not be cynical
• Love for one’s country without chauvinism
• Sports are important for nations as in past,
present and so also in future.

39. Learning is fun
If the strategy to teach the subject is learner
centered
Do you agree?
THANKYOU