1. Summary
In current period, one of most popular name of India is Baburao Hazare. He is popularly known as Anna Hazare, an
Indian social activist who is especially recognized for the Indian Movement against corruption,
usingnonviolent methods following 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 organization.
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 selected, as emergency
recruited Indian Army. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Hazare was posted at the Indo-Pak border. On 12
November 1965, he was the only 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 book of Swami Vivekananda titled "Call to
the youth for nation building", he committed 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 took an oath to dedicate his
life to the service of humanity, at the age of 38. He took voluntary retirement from the army in 1978.
In 1978 Hazare went to his native village Ralegan Siddhi which was one of the many villages of India plagued by
acute poverty, deprivation, a fragile ecosystem, negligence, and hopelessness. He reinforced the normative
principles of human development – equity, efficiency, sustainability and made remarkable economic, social and
community regeneration in the village without any inputs of industrialization and technology-oriented agriculture.
Haraze identified the key problem among villagers is alcoholism. He understood that without solving the problem of
the menace of alcoholism, no effective and sustainable reform would be successful in the village. He organized the
youth of the village into a Youth Association organization and motivates them to take up the issue of alcoholism.
Since these resolutions were made in the temple, they consider this as religious commitments. The villagers decided
to close down the liquor 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 group as the liquor businesses were illegal. In some
case, he authorized the harsh punishment of some villagers when they were found to be drunk. He justified the
punishment like mother administers bitter medicines to a sick child as she cares for the child. He motivates the youth
2. to give up tobacco, cigarettes, and beedies(unfiltered cigarette). For the resolution, the youth group performed a
unique 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 five years by the vote of villagers) is an
important democratic institution for collective decision making in the villages of India. Gram Sabha (Village meeting)
is a meeting of all adults who live in the area covered by a Gram Panchayat. Hazare used Gram Sabha as a platform
for collective decision making process to discuss the issues relating to the welfare of the village. All these decisions
were taken in a simple majority consensus. The decision of the Gram Sabha was accepted as final decision. Using
the collective decision platform, Hazare made many decisions like bans on alcohol, bans on cutting tree, bans on
drugs, etc.
He introduced Grain Bank, with the objective of providing food security to needful 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
borrow the grain when they need but have to return the same amount of grain they borrowed, plus an additional
quintal as an interest. This ensured that nobody in the village ever went hungry or had to borrow money to buy grain.
This also prevented 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 construct a watershed embankment to stop water and allow it to use for
agriculture and increase the ground water level. The first embankment was built using volunteer efforts among
villagers and later with the help of government funding. Cultivation of water-intensive crops like sugar cane was
banned and crops such as pulses, 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 trees were planted along the hillside of the village. In this movement the
irrigation 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 concept in other villages of India. Many more project like
improvement of education system, removal of untouchability due to cast system in India, collective marriage of the
villagers (marriage incur heavy expenses in India and undesirable practice in India but has almost become a social
obligation) and many more.
Movement on bigger prospective (State Level) - Anti-corruption protests in Maharashtra
In 1991 Hazare launched the People's Movement against Corruption, a popular movement to fight against corruption
in the village, Ralegaon Siddhi against 40 forest officials and timber merchants. This protest resulted in the transfer
and suspension of these officials. In May 1997 Hazare protested against alleged malpractices in the purchase of
powerlooms by the Governor of Maharashtra. He was arrested in this movement and was released on later. In 2003
3. Hazare raised corruption charges against four ministers of the government. He started his fast until death on 9
August 2003 and ended his fast on 17 August 2003 after then chief minister formed a one-man commission to probe
his charges. The commission report forced the ministered to resign from the cabinet in March 2005.
In the early 2000s Hazare led a movement in Maharashtra state which forced the state government to pass a
stronger Maharashtra Right to Information Act as he believe all corruption can end only if there is freedom of
information. He also opposed the government’s policy to promote making liquor from food grains in Maharashtra,
argued the government that Maharashtra is a food-deficit State and there was shortage of food grains and it is not
logical to promote producing liquor from 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 Parliament as conceived in the Jan Lokpal Bill (People's
Ombudsman Bill). The bill is for a stronger anti-corruption bill with stronger penal actions and more independence to
the ombudsmen in the states. He started hunger strike when the demand was rejected by Indian government. The
movement attracted attention in the media, millions of supporters inside and outside of India, and also identified one
of popular movements in India after independence. People have shown support in Internet social media such
as Twitter and Facebook. Online Signature Campaigns like avaaz 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 is
propagated as a nation-wide general demand against corruption. In this movement he was arrested and didn’t
compromise with his ideology of nonviolence by protesting 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 temple. 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. Two other pieces of land donated to him by the Indian Army and a rich villager. He receives only a
pension from the Indian army as income. Honesty is his biggest strength. A true leader can’t exist if people don’t
believe him and people would not follow him if they don’t trust him. Trustworthiness is the source of the real authority.
4. 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 importance. 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 after success of each project; he started the bigger projects or movement.
Such a way, 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, problems of the followers. Problems of the general people, daily life
problems, more importantly he doesn’t issues the problem as personal problem, always tries to resemble as general
or follower’s problem). He was well aware of his strength (honestly, humbleness, lead from front) and selects the
actions according to his strength to solve the problems. In each project he proved his confident and his competency.
Most importance, followers have confidence on him and they were motivated to 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 undercover the root of many problems. Hazare identified that
alcoholism is the key challenges to solve many other problems of his native village Ralegan Siddhi. Without solving
this he can’t achieve the level of effective and sustainable success that he desired to reform the issues in the village.
He first selected the root 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 people’s behavior. He indentified the weakness of the villagers
about religious scarcity. He chooses the temple as meeting point for youth association organization. Since the
resolution about alcoholism was made in the temple, the villagers sensed it as religious commitments. The great
leader identify the root problem, faces it, and solve the problems using the right policy and gets the right people
involved in right ways. When they indentify the root problem, don’t spend too much time to gather 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? Haraze’s
strength is his dedication, passion, calmness, and courageous. To achieve the desired goal great leader shows the
followers by leading from the front with calmness and enthusiastic. He doesn’t scare to face the obstacle 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 serious 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 can’t laugh in tough situation, you can’t be a great leader.
5. 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 need to be inspected. He sets the target about what they want, sets the
timeline, and gives a direction how to get the results to reach on the target. During the execution, it may needs to
change the plan and methods but remain strict on the target 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 people’s 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, although 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 visionary, 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 understand when and how to communicate and more
importantly which information have to share to motivate the followers and to guide them with a clear direction how to
perform a job to reach the target. Infrequent communication doesn’t build relation with the followers and followers
may lose confident on him. On the other hand too much communication have problem that he may lost his control
and also too much information and frequent change of direction may mislead the followers. From Hazare’s activities,
we can easily understand Hazare knows the communication strategy perfectly. He communicates regularly to his
followers with precise context what to do and how to do. As a example, in 24 th August, 2011 on his 9th day fasting 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 ‘jail bhoro (go
to jail)’ activities non-violently. A great leader like Hazare always communicates his real feelings quite clearly with
precise and consistent information being calm and confident even in tough situation.
6. Benefits & Metrics
Example of Key influences of good leadership on prospect of Anna
Hazare:
1. Become a solo voice against corruption in India
2. Role model of modern non-violent but effective protest activities
3. Single handedly protesting against enter corrupt systems and
corrupt politicians
4. Ideal model of Indian youth (Most popular name in Indian youth)
5. More than 50% of Indian new born child in august 2011 named as
‘Anna’
6. Villagers of Rama village in UP wants to add ‘Anna’ with their
actual name officially to prove themselves against corruption
7. Anna (meaning ‘elder brother’ is given by followers) is now
symbol name of ‘anti-corruption’
Lessons
Anna’s key leadership methodology:
1. Be a great person to be a great leader
2. If you want to do a big change, start with a little one
3. Each success of small project provides confident for a bigger one
4. If you know the realistic target, never give up to reach on the
target
5. Be ambitious but understand your strength and set target based
on your strength
6. Lead from the front and bet on you, not on the followers
7. Credits
Reference:
1. "Anna Hazare: The man who can't be ignored". The Times of India. 7 April 2011.
2. "Is the 73-year-old Anna Hazare the new youth icon?" (in English). Mumbai: DNA. 10 Apr 2011. Retrieved 11
Apr 2011.
3. "Lokpal Bill: Team Anna, govt fight hard today for consensus" (in English). New Delhi: Indian Express. 15 Jun
2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
4. "Inspiring Indians » Anna Hazare" (in English). Tata Building India.. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
5. "India activist Anna Hazare ends hunger strike". BBC News. 9 April 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
6. Sivanand, Mohan (1986). Why God Saved Anna Hazare. The Reader's Digest Association. Retrieved August
2011.
7. "Activist fights Indian Corruption". Ralegan Siddhi: Southeast Missourian. 1 December 1996. Retrieved 7 April
2011.
8. "'Anna Hazare's movement is anti-social justice, manuwadi'". Times of India. 19 August 2011. Retrieved 21
August 2011.
9. Reilly, Carmel (2007). Ralegan Siddhi: a special community. Thomson Nelson. pp. 24
pages.ISSN 0170126900. OCLC 9780170126908. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
10. Springs of life: India's water resources Authors Ganesh Pangare, Vasudha Pangare, Binayak Das, World Water
Institute (Pune, India), Bharathi Integrated Rural Development Society, Edition- illustrated, Publisher-Academic
Foundation, 2006. ISBN 817188489X, 9788171884896
11. 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.
12. http://www.annahazare.org/
Tags
Leader, Leadership, Honesty, Management, Influence
Qualities of anna
1. Honesty or integrity
2. A high level of people skills
3. Initiative, assertiveness, drive, or determination
8. 4. Excellent communication skills or willingness to speak up, take a position,
or take charge
5. Vision (being forward-looking)
6. Desire or passion to lead and inspire
7. Positive attitude and self-confidence; charisma
8. Knowledge of the business and/or group task at hand; competence
9. The ability to overcome adversity or obstacles
Lead from front
• Find out the common cause and work on it.
• Spot the leadership vacuum and fill it.
• Be a risk taker. Risk for your life and move forward come what may.
• Talk less and do more.
Read more: http://profmsr.blogspot.com/2011/08/leadership-lessons-from-anna-
hazare.html#ixzz259CZ667v
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Read more: The Leadership Style of Anna Hazare http://www.sooperarticles.com/self-improvement-
articles/leadership-articles/leadership-style-anna-hazare-612741.html#ixzz22DmmS9s9