This presentation maps out Gandhi's life story; singles out the life-markers that encouraged a constant process of reflection–action–reflection and framed his values; and proposes that stewardship, obligation, partnership, emotional healing, and elevating purpose characterized his servant leadership. Gandhi took on an empire with the ethics of truth-telling: his story is timeless in its courage and inspiration and lessons from his contributions to ethical behavior and strong influence on social responsibility are not wanting.

1. The Servant Leadership of Gandhi Olivier Serrat
2020

2. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948)
1875 1887 1906 1917 1925
1930 1931 1939 1948
Source: https://gandhi.gov.in/ (n.d).

3. Selfless Service: A Gandhi Chronology (1)
1869 Born Mohandas Karamchand of Karamchand and Putlibai Gandhi, in Porbandar, Gujarat, India
1883 Marries Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia ("Kasturba")
1888
Travels to England to study law; attempts to become an "English gentleman"; reads "A Plea for
Vegetarianism" (1886) by Henry Salt; founds a vegetarian club; discovers a talent for organizing people;
begins to earnestly study religious and moral literature
1892 Returns to India but fails in law practice
1893
Moves to South Africa to advise a Muslim Indian law firm on a lawsuit; witnesses racial discrimination;
booted out of a first-class train compartment and spends night shivering in the waiting room at
Pietermaritzburg station; kicked into the gutter for daring to walk past President Kruger's house in Pretoria
1894 Decides to stay in South Africa; reads "The Kingdom of God Is Within You" (1894) by Leo Tolstoy; finds his
calling as an activist and founds the Natal Indian Congress

4. Selfless Service: A Gandhi Chronology (2)
1896 Publishes "The Green Pamphlet" about the discrimination that Indians face in South Africa
1899 Organizes an ambulance corps for the British at the outbreak of the Second Boer War (1899–1902)
1901 Returns to India to attend the Indian National Congress; meets nationalist leaders
1903 Opens a law office in Johannesburg; publishes "Indian Opinion", a political journal
1904 Reads "Unto This Last" (1860) by John Ruskin; establishes the "Phoenix Settlement", a utopian cooperative,
near Durban
1907 Launches the first satyāgraha ("soul-force") campaign of non-violent civil disobedience to protest
compulsory registration of "Asians", viz., the Indian minority, in Transvaal

5. Selfless Service: A Gandhi Chronology (3)
1908
Leads a satyāgraha campaign in Transvaal, in which Indians burn their required registration certificates;
arrested and sentenced to two months in prison; arrested again and spends one month in jail; reads
"Resistance to Civil Government" (1849), better known as "Civil Disobedience" (1866), by Henry David
Thoreau
1909 Travels to England to advocate the rights of South African Indians; writes "Hind Swaraj" (Indian Home
Rule) while traveling; the Transvaal Asiatic Registration Act is repealed
1910 Establishes "Tolstoy Farm" near Johannesburg to offer co-educational vocational training to the young
1913
Leads a satyāgraha campaign in Natal and Transvaal to protest a racist poll tax and marriage laws;
repeatedly arrested, imprisoned, and released; receives the title of Mahatma ("Great Soul") by Indian
poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore

6. Selfless Service: A Gandhi Chronology (4)
1914
Gandhi and Smuts, the Prime Minister of Transvaal, reach an agreement, ending protests with the
passage of the Indian Relief Act; travels to England; arrives at the outbreak of World War I (1914–
1918); organizes the Indian Ambulance Corps; stricken with pleurisy, returns to India
1915 Establishes a satyāgraha āshram (religiously-oriented communal farm) near Ahmedabad, Gujarat; admits
an "untouchable" family to the compound
1917 Leads campaign for rights of peasants on indigo plantations in Champaran, Bihar
1918 Leads a strike of millworkers in Ahmedabad, Gujarat; launches a satyāgraha campaign for peasants in
Kheda, Gujarat
1919
Organizes a nationwide hartal ("day of fasting and prayer") to protest the Rowlatt Act, which indefinitely
curtails civil liberties in India; suspecting an insurrection, General Dyer orders his troops to fire into a
crowd of unarmed civilians, killing at least 400 men and women, in Amritsar, Punjab

7. Selfless Service: A Gandhi Chronology (5)
1920 Elected President of the All-India Home Rule League; calls a nationwide satyāgraha campaign of non-
cooperation
1921 Leads a public burning of imported British cloth; begins to wear homespun loincloth
1922 Arrested for sedition; encourages the judge to issue maximum sentence; condemned to six years'
imprisonment
1923 While in prison, writes "Satyāgraha in South Africa"; begins writing his autobiography, published in
instalments from 1925 to 1929
1924 Released from prison; avoids politics; focuses his writings on the improvement of India
1925 Becomes President of the Indian National Congress
1930 Leads a 240-mile "Salt March" to protest British law forcing Indians to import salt; arrested and
imprisoned; publishes the Declaration of Independence of India
1931
Released from jail; invited to England for round table conference; returns to India; launches a national
satyāgraha campaign

8. Selfless Service: A Gandhi Chronology (6)
1932 Arrested for sedition and held without trial; begins a fast unto death to protest the treatment of
untouchables under British law; released from jail
1934 Avoids politics; travels in rural India; launches the All-India Village Industries Association
1936 Establishes Sevagram āshram
1939 Writes letter to Hitler; pleads for peace
1940 Launches civil disobedience campaign to protest controls of Indian opinion regarding World War II
(1939–1945)
1942 Indian National Congress passes "Quit India" resolution; arrested with other Congress leaders
1943 Fasts for 21 days to break the deadlock in negotiations with British authorities

9. Selfless Service: A Gandhi Chronology (7)
1944
Kasturba dies at Gandhi’s side in detention; released from prison; visits Muhammed Ali Jinnah,
representing India's Muslims; unable to work out an agreement that would keep India whole after
independence
1946 Meets British authorities to work out the details of an Indian provisional government; tours villages in East
Bengal to quell rioting over Moslem representation in provisional government
1947
Tours Bihar to lessen Hindu–Moslem tensions; Jinnah and the Muslim League reject the British proposal for
an Indian state without partition; the Indian National Congress votes to partition India; Britain withdraws
from India on August 14; India descends into chaos as Hindus and Muslims flee for the borders of India
and newly-created Pakistan; Gandhi ends bloody riots in Calcutta and Delhi by fasting unto death
1948 Fasts for communal unity; assassinated by Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a Hindu nationalist angered by
Gandhi's efforts to reconcile Hindus and Muslims
Source: Axelrod (2010); Gandhi (1948).

10. Life-Markers: Gandhi's Experiments with Books
Reading shaped Gandhi's mind. To
Gandhi, reading was a means by which
to accomplish something: constant
reading, reflecting, and writing, allied to
activism, helped him pose new questions
and refine personal values (Shankaran,
2018).
"Thought came to have no meaning for
him unless it was lived out, and life was
shallow unless it reflected a carefully
thought-out vision of life" (Parekh, 2001).
Life-Markers
The Kingdom
of God Is
Within You
Unto This Last
Civil
Disobedience
A Plea for
Vegetarianism
Bhagavad
Gita

11. The Bhagavad Gita: What Lies Behind Gandhi's Selfless
Action
Gandhi read the Bhagavad Gita ("Song
of God") while studying in England. (The
Gita is a 700-verse episode in the
Mahabharata—the great Sanskrit
scripture.) He later translated the Gita
into Gujarati and discoursed on it: "But
while acting, remember that action leads
to bondage unless it is performed in a
spirit of sacrifice. Sacrifice (yajna) means
exerting oneself for the benefit of others,
in a word, service. And where service is
rendered for service's sake, there is no
room for attachment, likes and dislikes.
Perform such a sacrifice; render such
service" (Gandhi, 1960, p. 19).

12. "My Life is My Message": Servant Leadership in Action
"Service which is
rendered without joy
helps neither the
servant nor the
served".
"That service is
the noblest
which is
rendered for
its own sake".
"The best way to
find yourself is to
lose yourself in the
service of others".
"Man becomes
great exactly
in the degree
in which he
works for the
welfare of his
fellow-men".
"A man is but the
product of his
thoughts. What he
thinks he becomes".
"Happiness is
when what you
think, what you
say, and what
you do are in
harmony".
"An ounce of
practice is worth a
thousand words".
"No action
which is not
voluntary can
be called
moral".
Source: Daum (n.d.); Wikiquote (n.d.).

13. "Truth is God": Stewardship, Obligation, Partnership,
Emotional Healing, & Elevating Purpose
The ethos of servant leadership is the wellbeing and development of people. Gandhi placed
no restrictions on the obligation he felt to serve his communities, encouraged them to join his
struggles for them, and invested in their welfare in return. By putting his disciples to work with
an elevating purpose, "giving direction to their capacity to care, and multiplying miraculously
both their practical gifts and their sense of participation," Gandhi created followers who
were also leaders, "aspirants for highest political power" (Erikson, 1969, p. 408).
Gandhi was an eminently altruistic ethical thinker and activist whose beliefs, values, attitudes,
and behaviors, as his life's work demonstrates, found a natural expression in servant
leadership. In South Africa and India, and then across the world, the impact of Gandhi's
servant leadership was such that Burns (1978) deemed him a transformational leader.
Ethics is the set of moral principles that—from a range of perspectives informed by religions,
philosophies, and cultures—defines what is good and bad for individuals and society.

14. Ten Characteristics of a Servant Leader
"The servant-leader is servant first
[…]. It begins with the natural
feeling that one wants to serve, to
serve first. Then conscious choice
brings one to aspire to lead. […]
The best test, and difficult to
administer, is: do those served
grow as persons; do they, while
being served, become healthier,
wiser, freer, more autonomous,
more likely themselves to become
servants? And, what is the effect
on the least privileged in society;
will they benefit, or, at least, will
they not be further deprived?"
(Greenleaf, 1970)
Listening
Empathy
Healing
Awareness
Persuasion
Conceptualization
Foresight
Stewardship
Commitment to the growth of people
Building community
Source: Spears (2010).

15. Servant Leadership: Learning from Gandhi
Servant leadership is not the preserve of well-known individuals. That said, as
Einstein remarked in 1939 on the occasion of Gandhi's 70th birthday, "Generations
to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh
and blood walked upon this Earth".
Gandhi demonstrated that a single person can take on an empire: he
accomplished this with ethics—notably the ethics of truth-telling—and appeals
to the better angels of human nature that promote cooperation (e.g., empathy,
restrain, moral sense, and reason). Gandhi associated truth with non-violence,
honesty, simplicity, self-control, righteousness, equity, and justice.
Gandhi's story is timeless in its courage and inspiration. Martin Luther King Jr. was
greatly influenced by Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence, believing it the only
possible approach to the problem of race relations in the United States.

16. Servant Leadership: Learning from Gandhi
"The Story of My Experiments with Truth" (Gandhi, 1948), covering Gandhi's life from
early childhood to 1921, when he was 52 years old, reveals a burning passion for
moral issues and self-improvement.
Gandhi's autobiography is candid about his errors and misgivings: he was not born
a servant leader; he became one by experimenting with religions, philosophies,
and cultures, especially with the truths they contain, in a constant process of
reflection–action–reflection rather than action–reflection–action.
Lessons from Gandhi's courageous and peaceful convictions and actions are not
wanting. Aspiring servant leaders might be enjoined to develop a spirit of service;
integrate principles, work, conscience, character, morality, humanity, and sacrifice in
support; and—in keeping with servant leadership—help others do likewise.

17. Epilogue
"We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer
world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could
change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.
As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world
change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A
wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not
wait to see what others do" (Gandhi, 1999, p. 241).

18. Annex: References (1)
Axelrod, A. (2010). Gandhi, CEO: 14 principles to guide and inspire modern leaders. New York,
NY: Sterling Publishing, Co., Inc.
Burns, J. (1978). Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Daum, K. (n.d.) These 37 quotes by Mahatma Gandhi will help you find inner peace in
turbulent times. Inc. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/kevin-daum/these-37-quotes-by-
mahatma-gandhi-will-help-you-find-inner-peace-in-turbulent-times.html
Erikson, E. (1969). Gandhi's truth: On the origins of militant nonviolence. New York, NY: W. W.
Norton & Company.
Gandhi, M. (1948). The story of my experiments with truth. Washington: D.C.: Public Affairs
Press.
Gandhi, M. (1960). Discourses on the Gita. (V. Desai, Trans.). Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan
Publishing House. (Original work published 1930)

19. Annex: References (2)
Gandhi, M. (1999). The collected works of Mahatma Gandhi (Vols. 1–98, Vol. 13, p. 241). New
Delhi, India: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of
India. Retrieved from http://gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/mahatma-gandhi-
collected-works-volume-13.pdf
Gandhi 150. (n.d.) Gandhi 150: 100 years of celebrating the Mahatma. Retrieved from
https://gandhi.gov.in/
Greenleaf, R. (1970). The servant as leader. The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.
Parekh, B. (2001). Gandhi: A very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Ruskin, J. (1860). Unto this last: Four essays on the first principles of political economy.
Serialized in Cornhill Magazine, August–December.
Salt, H. (1884). A plea for vegetarianism, and other essays. Manchester, UK: The Vegetarian
Society.

20. Annex: References (3)
Shankaran, K. (2018, January 30). Reading as a Sadhana: Gandhi's experiments with books.
The Wire. Retrieved from https://thewire.in/books/gandhi-books-collection-reading-
bibliography
Spears, L. (2010). Character and servant leadership: The ten characteristics of effective,
caring leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, 1(1), 25–30.
Thoreau, H. (1866). Civil disobedience. In A Yankee in Canada, with anti-slavery and reform
papers. Boston, MA: Ticknor and Fields.
Tolstoy, L. (1894). The kingdom of God is within you. London, UK: Walter Scott Ltd.
Wikiquote. (n.d.) Mahatma Gandhi. Retrieved from
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

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