Mahatma Gandhi Topped TIME Magazine's List of Political Icons

TIME magazine in early February 2011 released a list of Top 25 Political Icons of all time on the 100th birth anniversary of the late US President Ronald Reagan. Indian political genius and Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi topped the list of political icons released by TIME magazine. Gandhi's experiments with satyagraha, the genesis of the non-violent methods of protest pioneered by him  as well his leadership of India's freedom movement led him to the top of the list of the 25 all time greats. He inspired many revolutionaries of later years like America’s struggle for civil rights. He had pioneered the concept of satyagraha, or, civil disobedience in response to tyranny. The application of the concept was seen in India when in 1930 he led the Salt March in protest to a British salt tax. Gandhi had featured in the cover page of TIME magazine thrice in the past in the issues of 11 May 1953, 5 January 1931 and 31 May 1930.

The list also included another famous Indian leader and a great ruler, Akbar. The 16th century Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar played a major role in unifying the largely scattered fiefdoms in northern India and pioneered an ethos of pluralism and tolerance. Akbar’s principles in a Hindu-majority India underline the values of the modern republic of India.

The other political gems of the world included in the list are as follows:

Alexander the Great, Mao Zedong, Winston Churchill, Genghis Khan, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Ronald Reagan, Cleopatra, Franklin Roosevelt, Dalai Lama, Queen Victoria, Benito Mussolini, Lenin, Margaret Thatcher, Simón Bolívar, Qin Shi Huang, Kim Il-Sung, Charles de Gaulle, Louis XIV, Haile Selassie, King Richard the Lionheart & Saladin.