A thoughtful article by Meenal Pandya:

Anytime we talk about leaders, we think of politicians, business leaders, and spiritual leaders but we forget that just being an adult is being a leader and a role model – especially if you are a parent.  As long as there is someone who looks up to you, depends on your decisions, or follows in your foot steps, you are a leader.  And being a leader is a tough job because your every action – or inaction – brings consequences to those in your life.  You may change the course of the future generations depending upon how big a leader you are.

Mahatma Gandhi was, without doubt, one of the most respected leaders in recent times.  He said “my life is my message” and thus when we look closely at his life, we can derive some fundamental principles of being a good leader.

• Govern by principles and not policies. It is natural for a leader to make rules and policies that can be implemented.  Many business locations display a sign, usually a retail store or a small business where they proclaim that “Honesty is the best policy”.  Although it sounds great and policies are needed to run any business, organization or even a family with a clear perspective, the true leader should govern by principles and not by policies.  Honesty is a great principle. Policies can be bent when needed but a principle is something you live by.  Gandhiji always perfected his actions according to his principles and made every decision – political or personal – based on his guiding principles of truth and non-violence. Be clear about what you value and which principles dictate your leadership.

• Integrity is sacred.  When any leader’s integrity is derived from values that are absolute, it becomes sacred and dependable.  A great leader is the one whose integrity is never questionable and rests on absolute principles.  In Gandhiji’s case, his absolute values were truth and non-violence and even during the toughest of times or against the strongest of enemies, his actions always abide by those two values.

• Have one single standard for all your actions.  Gandhiji always believed in a single standard of conduct in his public life and his private life.  When we see today’s leaders behaving very differently while they are in public versus in their private life, we understand why this is a very important aspect of being a good leader.  Having a single standard of conduct creates the kind of persona that others can trust.  There is no distinction between who you are at work with who you are at home, there is no distinction between how you treat a superior and how you treat your inferior.  When this line is erased because you have a single standard of conduct, then you emerge as a leader who is respected by every one.

• Lead by example.  Gandhiji proclaimed that “my life is my message”.  Whether your role as a leader comes from being a parent, a small business owner, a supervisor at work or a leader of a community, lead by your example.  This is easy to say but hard to follow.  As parents we always know that children learn from our actions and not our lectures.  Let people around you see how you conduct yourself and without saying a word, they will understand what the right behavior is.

Of course, Gandhiji taught us many things, including brevity, truthfulness, non-violence, resistance to injustice, and service to humanity; traits that are extremely important in a leader.  But these traits can become hollow words if they are not practiced with principled leadership that Gandhiji modeled, the kind that we can all practice.

We hope you have enjoyed the Newsletter.  We are now in nine countries.  Please leave us your comments here.  We welcome your suggestions for topics for future issues.  Help us meet your needs.

Our mission is to create, collate, present and distribute community based learning resources about India to parents, teachers and children.  Our teaching materials will be truly community based when they reflect an authentic voice.   We will know our teaching and curricular materials are working when children, parents and teachers feel connected to India because they now know something or have learnt something about that country.  That is why we would like you to give us feedback and tell us what topics you want to study and teach.  When we use your suggestions we will have found an authentic voice.

“Bringing you the best online resources about India” – the tag line of the Newsletter of the Teach India Project – There are any number of excellent websites with content about India but you have to buy a subscription.  Nor are they for the home user.  These resources are for the institutional user where there is a wide audience who can all pick and choose among the offerings.  The online resources we refer you to are freely accessible and are exactly what you need for the theme. 

Tell us who the Most Valuable Players are in your part of the world when it comes to keeping children connected with your roots?  Are people and groups doing off-beat and interesting things.  Did you read about Khel Mel in our January Newsletter?  How cool is that!

Do you have a Christmas/holiday tree at your house? I do and we enjoy putting it up every year along with the decorations for the season. I think it is an important part of living in a different culture and raising multi cultural kids to participate in such a celebration. It is great that you have lights on Diwali but it my view it is just as important to have decorations/ to mark Christmas.I was telling one of my friends about the tree. She said she did not believe in having a tree in her house. In her opinions Christmas is a religious celebration. So anything related to that like a tree, gifts etc is religious. As a non Christian, that is not the message she wants to give her child. She has explained to her child that they do not celebrate Christmas. What is your opinion? Should non Christians have a tree? Should Santa visit these kids?  Is having a tree following a different religion?

From one of our readers: “I really enjoyed this issue.  Being a new yoga convert, I found all the links inspirational!  I’m going to forward it to my …. friends who are taking yoga with me, and I’ll tell my yoga teacher about the newsletter when I see her on Thursday. ”