Leaders of people's hearts

GREAT LEADERS: If you do your homework right, it is an easy task to win a spelling test or a maths quiz, yet to many peoples dismay it is a tedious task to win people's hearts. In order to win people's hearts genuinely you have to be merely blessed.

Today we pay tribute to two leaders who have won the battle of hearts fair and square globally.

During an election, the public choose who they feel should be the leader of their nation.

They select the correct individual by judging their leadership skills, governance capabilities, personal character, understanding and humaneness.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Gandhi is known throughout the world as Mahatma Gandhi.

The name Mahatma comes from Sanskrit and means 'great soul'.

Gandhi was also recognized as the father of the Indian nation as he was a major spiritual and political leader of India and the independence movement.

Gandhi was the inspiration of the movement for civil rights and freedom across the world. Throughout his life he was not only a leader to his people but he was a dear friend to them too, he struggled to find freedom for his countrymen and to spread his belief in nonviolent resistance.

It was during his visit to South Africa that he faced racial discrimination he strived to end inequality and prejudice among people of all races.

People began to notice a vast difference in Gandhi during this period of time as he began studying Bhagavad Gita, the Christian Bible and the writings of Thoreau, Ruskin and Tolstoy.

Gandhi made a decision to forgo a life filled with wealth and riches and chose to focus on enhancing his natural character.

Together with Kasturba , Gandhi founded Phoenix Ashram, a community in which people came to live together and treated each other with respect.

After 21 years in South Africa, Gandhi's next mission was to fight for India's independence from Great Britain.

Gandhi spent numerous days in jail with the aim of showing people that violence is not the answer. Gandhi's determination and passion for human beings was larger and greater than his own life.

Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and a few days before he was murdered in 1948.

The committee never made any comments on why Gandhi was never awarded the prize.

Here are some wise words which Gandhi said to the public in hope that these words will stay in our minds and after we leave this world passed on to the next generation.

'You should be the change that you want to see in the world.'

'I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.' 'I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.'

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa, Mandela is known throughout the world as Nelson Mandela. Mandela's father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe.

Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa.

Mandela was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

Before his Presidency, he was a prominent anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress (ANC) and was sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage after he went underground and began the ANC's armed struggle.

Despite spending 27 years in Jail on Robben Island, local and international pressure was exerted upon the South African government to release Mandela, under the much chanted slogan 'Free Nelson Mandela'.

On February 11, 1990 President Fredrik De Klerk announced Mandelas release. After his release from prison, Mandela returned to the leadership of the ANC and during 1990- 1994, Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Frederik De Klerk in 1993, after winning the Nobel Peace Prize he received a numerous amount of prestigious local and international honours .

In 1994, he led the party in the multi-party negotiations which immediately led to the country's first multi-racial elections.

The ANC won the majority in the election, and Mandela, as leader of the ANC, at the age of 75 was inaugurated as the country's first black State President, with the National Party's de Klerk as his deputy president in the Government of National Unity.

After his retirement as President in 1999, Mandela went on to become an advocate for various social and human rights organisations.

In July 2001, Mandela was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer and decided to retire from public life in 2004 at the age of 85, as his health needed attention and he wished to spend more time with his family.

Here are some wise words said by Nelson Mandela, keep them stored in your mind and heart.

'The greatest glory in living, lies not in ever falling, but in rising every time we fall.' Mahathma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were leaders of people's hearts and even today in our society a day never goes by without us wishing that more people like them are born into this world.

For people who aspire to be like these leaders, fight for your dreams to come true, believe in yourself and your dream.