Compare And Contrast Gandhi And Indian Independence Movement

The Indian Independence Movement was a new kind of success, able to merge both moderation and radicalism. Mahatma Gandhi led the Indian anti-colonial struggle with strategies such as satyagraha, a form of nonviolent collective resistance, encouraging peace and cooperation as a safe and stable way of revolting. During his twenty years in South Africa, Gandhi was able to develop a method of nonviolent resistance satyagraha based on human morals and dignity, as he believes: “All society is held together by non-violence, even as the earth is held in her position by gravitation… Having flung aside the sword, there is nothing except the cup of love which I can offer to those who oppose me” (Hay 252). A passive way of revolting, people were asked …show more content…
The two man, completely different in approach, had the same goal of Indian independence and their contrasting ideas collectively contributed to the trajectory of India in its future. As much as Gandhi’s approach of peace and coexistence influenced him, Nehru primarily focused on transforming the relations within society and the relations between countries, with a concentration on economic modernization. In his inauguration of the Interim Government, he proposed “as far as possible, to keep away from the power politics of groups, aligned against one another, which have led in the past to world wars and which may again lead to disasters on an even vaster scale”. His policy of nonalignment asks for India to stay neutral and not take any sides in the binary world, so that it could focus on internal development and nation building. Nehru, western at heart, believed a strong economy makes a strong nation, and stressed industrialization as the main factor leading to economic success. Aiming to provoke self-sufficient secular nationalism, Nehru led India in state led industrialization under his Five Year Plans, which saw industrial production doubled between 1950 and 1960, and flew up another dramatic 40% between 1960 and 1964 (Zachariah 262). Workers and industrialists alike committed to work together for the collective good, bringing people across the country under one goal, resulting in a long term optimism. Under his vision, India’s development as a country has been tremendous, successfully emerging from poverty and rapidly industrializing into one of the most successful economies measured by GDP today. His ambition for self-determination has led India to peacefully coexist in the world. By literacy standards, Nehru’s only greatest failure resulted in a compromised education program,