What role did political parties and leaders play?

Mahatma Gandhi Jawaharlal Nehru

- He believed that every problem had a
non-violent solution
- Wanted to reserve his country from the
curse of commercialization, the horror
of machine exploitation and
production, the slavery of the wage
labor, the whole black systems of
capitalist life
- He believed that for the preservation of
law and order in a country coercive
authority of the state is indispensable
- He supported heavy and large scale
industrialization
- He had an urge to move forward and
modernize and industrialize the country

- He favored small scale and cottage
industries including Khadi
- He laid great stress on truth and non-
violence and expected the Congress to
be instrumental for the moral
regeneration of the country
- Was against the state controlling
individual actions
- He was in favor of a passive role of the
state
- He was in favor of autonomous village
republics
- He wanted the Congress to play role
effectively in the political and
economic sphere
- He was convinced that unrestricted
freedom induces an individual to
interfere with the freedom and rights of
other individuals
- He acknowledged the idea that
economics might terminate the
communal difficulties
- He remained faithful to parliamentary
democracy
- Nehru felt no ties or connection to
Hinduism

Who had most suitable projects?

Even though I find the ideologies of both thinker’s justifiable when analyzing them
through various perspectives, if I had to decide which leader’s projects where more
suitable to the current situation in India, I would incline more on Nehru’s side. The
reasoning that lead me to this conclusion mostly consists on the argument that Nehru was
more “progressive” than Gandhi. A grand majority of Nehru’s projects focused on the
shared objective of modernization. In an age were scientific and technological
development was well on its way, a progressive way of thinking was crucial for the
prosperity and development of a country. By this I’m not saying that Gandhi’s way of
thinking was retrograde, I’m just arguing that Nehru’s projects allowed India to keep up
with the fast pace (in regards to industrialization) of Western civilizations.
References:
Dash, S. (2006). Gandhi and Nehru. Retrieved 8 February 2021, from
http://magazines.odisha.gov.in/Orissareview/dec-2006/engpdf/5-8.pdf.

Differences Of Jawaharlal Nehru And Mahatma Gandhi History Essay. UKEssays. (2018).
Retrieved 11 February 2021, from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/differences-of-
jawaharlal-nehru-and-mahatma-gandhi-history-essay.php.