Nelson Mandela is one among the
greatest few leaders who lived and led the oppressed and deprived people
in the 20th century. His epic leadership in the struggle against the
apartheid regime of the minority white government is recent history.
Mandela had very high respect and regard towards Mahatma Gandhi who had
the opportunity to start his struggle against the colonial rulers in
South Africa. As far as our nation is concerned the biggest tragedy
during the last millennium is the partition of our country in 1947 and
our great national leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Sardar
Patel etc., could not prevent disaster owing to a combination of factors
such as 'Divide and Quit' policy of the British and the fanatically
violent agenda of the Muslim League.
In my opinion the greatest achievement of Nelson Mandela is
the unified South Africa which we see today. It was the towering
personality and strong leadership of Nelson Mandela that prevented the
balkanisation of South Africa into several units. He was bold enough to
declare that he was ready to wait for many more years to attain the
freedom rather than dividing the country among Whites, Hutu tribals, ANC
etc.