Strong Protests need Strong Leaders

You can’t have a strong protest movement without a strong leader. However, before we examine why we need a strong leader, we must first define what is a strong protest movement and a strong leader. Here, I refer to a strong protest movement as one that brings results. If a protest movement is looking to make the Friends theme song the new national anthem, it’s only strong if it actually succeeds. One reason for defining a strong protest movement like this is it means the protest movement has to be in the significant past which means we can fully examine it. A protest movement currently on going like the Venezuelan protests cannot be examined because they have yet to succeed (but they haven’t failed yet!)

A strong leader is someone who can actually influence the direction of the protest movement. To the national anthem protest, let’s say there’s a group of people trying to change the movement to change the national anthem, but without a proper substitute. When a leader comes in and decides to change it to the Friends theme, then they have exerted significant influence over the protest movement and are therefore considered strong. Therefore, if a protest movement doesn’t succeed, it cannot have a strong leader.

I believe, all major strong protest movements have had a strong leader. One strong example, which I touched on in the “about” section is the Indian Independence Movement. This was a successful protest movement which resulted in the independence of India and the driving out of British colonials. While this movement had many strong leaders, no leader influenced it more than Mahatma Gandhi did. Gandhi turned the movement from a movement of violent insurgents to one of peaceful protest. This was most significantly tested a hundred years ago during the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Despite the British soldiers shooting many Indians, they never gave into violence and attacked the British. This had significant ripple effects with the non-cooperation movement resulting. Without Gandhi, the Indians may have violently retaliated, loosing all sympathy and support they garnered from being massacred.