Perhaps he drank too much of Gandhis satyagraha cool aid.
No. Gandhi was never against the Indian Army(post independence) in the way that Nehru was.
Gandhi mixed idealism with pragmatism. Nehru I think mixed idealism with naievety(good I suppose for a newly independent country) .
I suppose it was just idealism. He wanted to be the leader of the free world - and promoted morality abroad. I suppose the first step to show the world that we are non-violent is to show that we need no Army. And we will resolve all our problems through dialogue.
As the founding fathers leave the most indelible mark or their own persona in the country, Gandhi and Nehru's influence was iron clad in Indians consciousness. Which is why even after Nehru's death and 1962, successive Indian Governments(almost always Congress) never took Military into the decision making process.
We are probably the only major country in the world where there is
no representation of the Armed Forces in the CCS(Cabinet Committee on Security), the highest body in the country for taking policy decisions on Security(both internal and external).
Congress was never comfortable with Military, the Government they kept them at Arms length, never comfortable in making India militarily strong. Always ensuring they remained somewhat anemic. This has reflected int the Indian system which has ensured this. The only major exception has been Indira Gandhi.
Though I think with BJP coming to power slowly(first in 1999, then 2014), we are -
finally - leaving behind the Nehruvian idea of what India was supposed to be. We are getting comfortable with being or wanting to be militarily strong, using military and other means to get our objectives abroad.
I think India has finally started to outgrow Nehru.
