Untold conflict between Gandhi And Nehru !

 

 

 

Indian economic liberals may find both M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru wanting vis-à-vis the ideology of economic liberalism. There is a deep layer of disagreement between the two which reflects a clash of two civilizations—an Indian ethic reflected in Gandhi’s thought versus a Western one that India’s first PM had embraced. Gandhi discovered that gluttony for truth telling threatened truth from within. This is a lesson which Gandhi would also impart to Jawaharlal Nehru, only this time not by suppressing but by threatening to publish the letter of 11 January 1928 in which Nehru rejected Hind Swaraj and Gandhi's espousal of 'Rama Rajya' (Kingdom of king-god Rama). Nehru wrote to Gandhi, 'I entirely disagree with this viewpoint and neither think that the so called Rama Raj was good in the past, nor do I want it back,' questioned the political efficacy of the khadi programme and Gandhi's rejection of contraceptives. Nehru was critical of Gandhi's positions regarding capitalism and the relation between capital and labour, which was rather harmonious for Gandhi - 'I believe you have stated that in your opinion there is no necessary conflict between Capital and Labour. I think that under the capitalist system this conflict is unavoidable. That is, the powerful can speak all kinds of truths.