Summary

In current period, one of most popular name of India is Baburao Hazare. He is po

pularly known as Anna Hazare, an Indian social activist who is especially recogn
ized for the Indian Movement against corruption, using nonviolent methods follow
ing the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.
We have identified the key leadership characteristic of Anna Hazare which can be
example of effective leadership characteristic to be a leader, even for an orga
nization.
Moonshot(s)
Redefine the work of leadership
Reinvent the means of control
Context
Short summary of Anna Hazare's Life and Achievement:
In 1962, despite not meeting the physical requirements, 25-year-old Hazare was s
elected, as emergency recruited Indian Army. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 19
65, Hazare was posted at the Indo-Pak border. On 12 November 1965, he was the on
ly survivor of a convoy when Pakistan launched air attacks on Indian bases. This
led him to dwell on the purpose and meaning of life and death. By reading a boo
k of Swami Vivekananda titled "Call to the youth for nation building", he commit
ted to work towards ameliorating the sufferings of the poor. He started to spend
his spare time reading the works of Vivekananda, Gandhi, and Vinoba Bhave and t
ook an oath to dedicate his life to the service of humanity, at the age of 38. H
e took voluntary retirement from the army in 1978.
In 1978 Hazare went to his native village Ralegan Siddhi which was one of the ma
ny villages of India plagued by acute poverty, deprivation, a fragile ecosystem,
negligence, and hopelessness. He reinforced the normative principles of human d
evelopment equity, efficiency, sustainability and made remarkable economic, soci
al and community regeneration in the village without any inputs of industrializa
tion and technology-oriented agriculture.
Haraze identified the key problem among villagers is alcoholism. He understood t
hat without solving the problem of the menace of alcoholism, no effective and su
stainable reform would be successful in the village. He organized the youth of t
he village into a Youth Association organization and motivates them to take up t
he issue of alcoholism. Since these resolutions were made in the temple, they co
nsider this as religious commitments. The villagers decided to close down the li
quor shop and ban alcohol in the village. Over thirty liquor brewing units were
closed by their owners voluntarily and other was forced to close down by youth g
roup as the liquor businesses were illegal. In some case, he authorized the hars
h punishment of some villagers when they were found to be drunk. He justified th
e punishment like mother administers bitter medicines to a sick child as she car
es for the child. He motivates the youth to give up tobacco, cigarettes, and bee
dies (unfiltered cigarette). For the resolution, the youth group performed a uni
que Indian "Holi" ceremony to burn all the tobacco, cigarettes, and beedies from
the shops in the village and burnt them in a Holi fire.
Gram Panchayat (five constitutional members of a village who are elected for fiv
e years by the vote of villagers) is an important democratic institution for col
lective decision making in the villages of India. Gram Sabha (Village meeting) i
s a meeting of all adults who live in the area covered by a Gram Panchayat. Haza
re used Gram Sabha as a platform for collective decision making process to discu
ss the issues relating to the welfare of the village. All these decisions were t
aken in a simple majority consensus. The decision of the Gram Sabha was accepted
as final decision. Using the collective decision platform, Hazare made many dec
isions like bans on alcohol, bans on cutting tree, bans on drugs, etc.
He introduced Grain Bank, with the objective of providing food security to needf
ul farmers during times of drought or crop failure. Rich farmers, or those with
surplus grain production, could donate a quintal to the bank. Farmers could borr
ow the grain when they need but have to return the same amount of grain they bor
rowed, plus an additional quintal as an interest. This ensured that nobody in th
e village ever went hungry or had to borrow money to buy grain. This also preven
ted distress sales of grain at lower prices at harvest time.
Starting with small project, he solved many bigger problems in the village like
water scarcity and made irritation possible. He persuaded the villagers to const
ruct a watershed embankment to stop water and allow it to use for agriculture an
d increase the ground water level. The first embankment was built using voluntee
r efforts among villagers and later with the help of government funding. Cultiva
tion of water-intensive crops like sugar cane was banned and crops such as pulse
s, oil-seeds, and certain cash crops with low water requirements were grown. In
order to conserve soil and water by checking runoff, contour trenches and gully
plugs were constructed along the hill slopes. Grass, shrubs and about 300,000 tr
ees were planted along the hillside of the village. In this movement the irrigat
ion land increased from 70 acres (28 ha) about 2,500 acres (1,000 ha) within 30
years. Government of India followed the development model and implements the con
cept in other villages of India. Many more project like improvement of education
system, removal of untouchability due to cast system in India, collective marri
age of the villagers (marriage incur heavy expenses in India and undesirable pra
ctice in India but has almost become a social obligation) and many more.
Movement on bigger prospective (State Level) - Anti-corruption protests in Mahar
ashtra
In 1991 Hazare launched the People's Movement against Corruption, a popular move
ment to fight against corruption in the village, Ralegaon Siddhi against 40 fore
st officials and timber merchants. This protest resulted in the transfer and sus
pension of these officials. In May 1997 Hazare protested against alleged malprac
tices in the purchase of powerlooms by the Governor of Maharashtra. He was arres
ted in this movement and was released on later. In 2003 Hazare raised corruption
charges against four ministers of the government. He started his fast until dea
th on 9 August 2003 and ended his fast on 17 August 2003 after then chief minist
er formed a one-man commission to probe his charges. The commission report force
d the ministered to resign from the cabinet in March 2005.
In the early 2000s Hazare led a movement in Maharashtra state which forced the s
tate government to pass a stronger Maharashtra Right to Information Act as he be
lieve all corruption can end only if there is freedom of information. He also op
posed the governments policy to promote making liquor from food grains in Maharas
htra, argued the government that Maharashtra is a food-deficit State and there w
as shortage of food grains and it is not logical to promote producing liquor fro
m food grains.
Biggest Movement (Country level): Lokpal Bill in country level
In 2011, Hazare initiated a Satyagraha (Fasting for a nobel cause) movement for
passing a stronger anti-corruption Lokpal (ombudsman) bill in the Indian Parliam
ent as conceived in the Jan Lokpal Bill (People's Ombudsman Bill). The bill is f
or a stronger anti-corruption bill with stronger penal actions and more independ
ence to the ombudsmen in the states. He started hunger strike when the demand wa
s rejected by Indian government. The movement attracted attention in the media,
millions of supporters inside and outside of India, and also identified one of p
opular movements in India after independence. People have shown support in Inter
net social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Online Signature Campaigns like a
vaaz got more than 10 lakh signatures in just 36 hours. The middle class people
and the youth power are participating voluntarily in this movement. The demand i
s propagated as a nation-wide general demand against corruption. In this movemen
t he was arrested and didnt compromise with his ideology of nonviolence by protes
ting against violent movement of his supporters. He became from a well-acclaimed
social activist to the most powerful influencer and visionary leader of modern
India.
Triggers
Leadership characteristic of Anna Hazare.
The dedication of the followers.
Movement of modern Indian generation.
Key Innovations & Timeline
The key leadership characteristics of Anna Hazare:
Honest and Humble: Anna Hazare is unmarried. He lives in a small room of a templ
e. He declared property with bank balance of US$1,500 and owns 0.07 hectares of
family land in the village Ralegan Siddhi which is being used by his brothers. T
wo other pieces of land donated to him by the Indian Army and a rich villager. H
e receives only a pension from the Indian army as income. Honesty is his biggest
strength. A true leader cant exist if people dont believe him and people would no
t follow him if they dont trust him. Trustworthiness is the source of the real au
thority. Honesty displays the sincerity, integrity, and candor in all the leader
actions. Also in his enter life he showed a modest interest on his own importan
ce. He attracted his followers by his honesty and humbleness.
Competent and Confident: Most of the decisions Hazare made, was using collective
decision making process. He started his activities from a small circle and afte
r success of each project; he started the bigger projects or movement. Such a wa
y, he gained confident on him and also acquire the trust from his followers. He
selects the actions based on reason and moral principles (social problem, proble
ms of the followers. Problems of the general people, daily life problems, more i
mportantly he doesnt issues the problem as personal problem, always tries to rese
mble as general or followers problem). He was well aware of his strength (honestl
y, humbleness, lead from front) and selects the actions according to his strengt
h to solve the problems. In each project he proved his confident and his compete
ncy. Most importance, followers have confidence on him and they were motivated t
o do what he decides.
Faces the problems and Solves it Use the strength: A good leader always observes
the situation not only in the box but also think about the out of box and so un
dercover the root of many problems. Hazare identified that alcoholism is the key
challenges to solve many other problems of his native village Ralegan Siddhi. W
ithout solving this he cant achieve the level of effective and sustainable succes
s that he desired to reform the issues in the village. He first selected the roo
t problem and then sets out to solve it. To change the behavior of many people,
it is important to identify the common intersection point of most peoples behavio
r. He indentified the weakness of the villagers about religious scarcity. He cho
oses the temple as meeting point for youth association organization. Since the r
esolution about alcoholism was made in the temple, the villagers sensed it as re
ligious commitments. The great leader identify the root problem, faces it, and s
olve the problems using the right policy and gets the right people involved in r
ight ways. When they indentify the root problem, dont spend too much time to gath
er too much details and unnecessary information. During the solving actions they
may undercover others, and adjust their policy on it. That Hazare did also. In
some cases he used harsh punishment or forced elimination of liquor shop instead
of voluntarily close down of illegal businesses. Great leader faces the problem
, uses their strength to solve, and adjust the policy if requires.
Calm and Enthusiastic: A great leader always inspires others around him. But how
is generally done? Harazes strength is his dedication, passion, calmness, and co
urageous. To achieve the desired goal great leader shows the followers by leadin
g from the front with calmness and enthusiastic. He doesnt scare to face the obst
acle first and set a good example for the followers. Also in the insurmountable
obstacle situation, he remains clam and shows confident, sometimes with childish
enthusiastic (that Hazare did by running with his followers: video is attached
to see) to accomplish the goal. One of the best ways to show confident in the se
rious condition is laugh and showing sense of humor (making fun of him Hazare was
laughing ever after five days fasting). Hazare follows the most common quote on
leadership that if you cant laugh in tough situation, you cant be a great leader.
Visionary and directive: A great leader must have a vision for the future. He is
capable to analyze the situation in out of box and break it into parts that nee
d to be inspected. He sets the target about what they want, sets the timeline, a
nd gives a direction how to get the results to reach on the target. During the e
xecution, it may needs to change the plan and methods but remain strict on the t
arget goals. Definitely Hazare is a great visionary leader. Not only he sets the
target, but also he gives the direction how to achieve the goals. For the anti-
corruption bill, his team made a draft on it by analyzing the peoples opinion and
situation of corruption in India. As an example, he includes prime minister and
judiciary into the bill. Politician and government have major disagree on it, a
lthough statistically judiciary system is one of top five corrupt organizations
in India. The movement of Hazare gives the lesson that not only leader has to vi
sionary, but also they have to be systematic and work orderly towards the final
purpose. For this they must have highly analytical ability to assess the current
situation and the future.
Precise and clear communicative: A great leader communicates clearly, precisely
and consistently. He communicates neither more often nor infrequently. He must u
nderstand when and how to communicate and more importantly which information hav
e to share to motivate the followers and to guide them with a clear direction ho
w to perform a job to reach the target. Infrequent communication doesnt build rel
ation with the followers and followers may lose confident on him. On the other h
and too much communication have problem that he may lost his control and also to
o much information and frequent change of direction may mislead the followers. F
rom Hazares activities, we can easily understand Hazare knows the communication s
trategy perfectly. He communicates regularly to his followers with precise conte
xt what to do and how to do. As a example, in 24th August, 2011 on his 9th day f
asting for anti corruption bill, he provided a speech to the followers that they
should be non-violence if government try to put him again in jail, but he gave
the clear direction to the followers that they should continue the protest by jai
l bhoro (go to jail) activities non-violently. A great leader like Hazare always
communicates his real feelings quite clearly with precise and consistent informa
tion being calm and confident even in tough situation.
Benefits & Metrics
Example of Key influences of good leadership on prospect of Anna Hazare:
Become a solo voice against corruption in India
Role model of modern non-violent but effective protest activities
Single handedly protesting against enter corrupt systems and corrupt politicians
Ideal model of Indian youth (Most popular name in Indian youth)
More than 50% of Indian new born child in august 2011 named as Anna
Villagers of Rama village in UP wants to add Anna with their actual name officiall
y to prove themselves against corruption
Anna (meaning elder brother is given by followers) is now symbol name of anti-corru
ption
Lessons
Annas key leadership methodology:
Be a great person to be a great leader
If you want to do a big change, start with a little one
Each success of small project provides confident for a bigger one
If you know the realistic target, never give up to reach on the target
Be ambitious but understand your strength and set target based on your strength
Lead from the front and bet on you, not on the followers
Credits
Reference:
"Anna Hazare: The man who can't be ignored". The Times of India. 7 April 2011.
"Is the 73-year-old Anna Hazare the new youth icon?" (in English). Mumbai: DNA.
10 Apr 2011. Retrieved 11 Apr 2011.
"Lokpal Bill: Team Anna, govt fight hard today for consensus" (in English). New
Delhi: Indian Express. 15 Jun 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
"Inspiring Indians Anna Hazare" (in English). Tata Building India.. Retrieved 14
June 2011.
"India activist Anna Hazare ends hunger strike". BBC News. 9 April 2011. Retriev
ed 9 April 2011.
Sivanand, Mohan (1986). Why God Saved Anna Hazare. The Reader's Digest Associati
on. Retrieved August 2011.
"Activist fights Indian Corruption". Ralegan Siddhi: Southeast Missourian. 1 Dec
ember 1996. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
"'Anna Hazare's movement is anti-social justice, manuwadi'". Times of India. 19
August 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
Reilly, Carmel (2007). Ralegan Siddhi: a special community. Thomson Nelson. pp.
24 pages. ISSN 0170126900. OCLC 9780170126908. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
Springs of life: India's water resources Authors Ganesh Pangare, Vasudha Pangare
, Binayak Das, World Water Institute (Pune, India), Bharathi Integrated Rural De
velopment Society, Edition- illustrated, Publisher-Academic Foundation, 2006. IS
BN 817188489X, 9788171884896
Dynamics of rural development:lessons from Ralegan Siddhi Publisher- Foundation
for Research in Community Health, 2002. Original from The University of Michigan
. Digitized 21 Jul 2009 Length 181 pages.
http://www.annahazare.org/
Tags
Leader, Leadership, Honesty, Management, Influence
Helpful Materials
Images:
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mlak6kltUs

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Santosh Kr. Sharma
September 2, 2011 at 10:00pm
I liked your story Mr. Saha. Thanks for the indepth analysis of the Indian Manag
ement Style through Anna Hazare. I am myself doing a research on the Indian Styl
e of Management and the Universal Intelligence that it brings to our life and ou
r workplace. This has resulted in the form of a book called "Next What's In" whi
ch was recently released. I have disscussed "Thinking out of the box is not enou
gh . . . Dissolve the Box and REPOSITION to lead the hot, crowded and teh dynami
c flat world." Would like to hear more from you . . .

Avijit Saha
September 6, 2011 at 12:26am
Hallo Mr. Santosh, thanks for your comment. Yes, we need new management approach
in the new informatic world. Today's information flows like a rocket, here the
last centrury mentality of manager will not be effective. The example, we can fi
nd in lots of incident in last years. From wikileaks to revolution in middleeast
and also Anna hazare in India. Our leader should not consider profit is the onl
y goal, we need to calculate the greater good of all the involved stakeholders i
nstead of quaterly monetary goal which generally achieved in many case, ignoring
the future of the buciness, country, and the global.
Like to hear from you. And your book and reaserch!