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When Nehru was a young politician, the Soviet Union was the world's most vocal enemy of colonial imperialism. For years he accepted the Communist proposition that imperialism and fascism were the same thing. He completely refuses to admit that Soviet Russia has developed a new imperialism compared to which Britain's regime in India, lathi charges and all, was a riot of freedom. Nehru's great enemy today is yesterday's imperialism. He still seems to believe that Europe's waning colonial powers are a greater danger to Asia than the rising might of Communism.
What About Gandhi? There is no doubt that Nehru's desire for peace is deep and sincere. Yet his efforts for peace are what most perplex his Western admirers. He has said: "The policy India has sought to pursue is not a negative and neutral policy. It is a positive and vital policy that flows from our struggle for freedom and from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. How can . . . peace be preserved? Not by surrender to aggression, nor by compromising with evil or injustice, but also not by talking and preparing for war." In spite of this Gandhi-like doctrine, Nehru's government has fought one successful war (against Hyderabad) and maintains a large army, poised for fighting, in Kashmir.
The key to this contradiction is the fact that Nehru has to govern India, and Gandhi never did.
Nehru loved Gandhi and was loved by him. He followed all Gandhi's commands in the battle for Indian freedom, and was designated by Gandhi as his political heir. Yet Nehru was no true disciple of Gandhi: he disagreed with Gandhi on most essentials, and often failed to understand him. Nehru "could not take seriously" an idea which Gandhi took very seriously: that India should eschew modern industry and return to the culture of the spinning wheel. He disapproved of Gandhi's preaching sexual continence; that, said the onetime student of Krafft-Ebing, would lead straight to neuroses.
Gandhi held that materialism is sin. Nehru demurred: he is a materialist himself. They disagreed on Socialism: the Mahatma considered its doctrine based on the "belief in the essential selfishness of human nature." Nehru felt the beauty of Gandhi's ethics, but refused to accept the religious beliefs on which the ethics were based. Nehru declared himself "repeatedly angry" with Gandhi's emphasis on religion and mysticism.
Nehru accepted Gandhi's policy of nonviolence and ably helped carry it out: he saw in it a magnificent and practical weapon against the British. But he would never accept the moral principle underlying nonviolence, i.e., that it is more blessed to be hit than to hit. (Nehru has been known to get off a political platform to cuff unruly listeners.)