As the selection of the Ph.D. topic itself shows, Lohia was inspired by the famous Salt March of Gandhi. He was closely associated with Gandhi and considered himself a better Gandhian than Jawaharlal Nehru, which he expressed to Gandhi also. Although known more as a democratic socialist, Lohia continued to consider himself a follower of Gandhi throughout his life though he developed greater acceptance of developmentalist model and started focusing on justice, people’ democratic movements and international peace. Lohia (1970, 86) wrote: “I do not think that any other revolution in history has gone back upon its objectives as totally as the Indian revolution.” “To men of my generation Gandhiji was the dream, Jawaharlalji the desire, and Netaji Subhas the deed. … The desire has soured and the deed not completed.” (Lohia, 1970, 89).
Lohia was a great supporter of the idea of World Government for peace. He seemed to be influenced greatly by his mentor. His friends accused him of “fostering a personality cult around himself” (Guha, 2010) and Guha sees him as an Indian Trotsky. He was a critic of both the systems the capitalist system and the communist system but unable to articulate and alternative vision of development. To quote (Basole, 2009):
In his books “The Wheel of History,” and “Marx, Gandhi and Socialism” (of particular interest is an essay titled “Economics After Marx”) Lohia challenges the Eurocentrism of orthodox Marxist accounts of History. He notes that the vast majority of humanity has only a secondary place in a narrative centered largely on the “Rise of Europe.” Further he challenges a narrative of progress which only recognizes the adoption of industrialism in either its capitalist or (then) communist forms by the colonies as progress. Struggling to keep history open-ended and the fate of post-colonial societies in their own hands Lohia notes:
“Capitalism and Communism are two completely elaborated systems and the whole world is in their grip. The result is poverty, war and fear. A third way of thinking is also making its presence felt on the world stage. It is still insufficient and has not been completely elaborated, but it is open-ended. An open system retains the possibility of truth and progress, while in a closed system facts are treated violently, declared meaningless and cast aside.”
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