Indians and the people of most most colonial states have this love-hate affair with authoritarian leaders because they were led out of colonialism in the post WWII era by such leaders. Be it Jinnah, Nehru or the leaders of Indonesia, Taiwan, Phillipines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, the Koreas, and even Japan.
I actually don’t think Gandhi or Nehru had much to do with India’s independence.
Britain was in utter ruin after WW-2, and in no shape to handle its largest overseas territory. Nehru was a subscriber to the Fabian Society movement, from his years as a student in England.
Perhaps Sukhoi-30mki and Cronos can elaborate on all this.
Nehru was anything but authoritarian-because if he were, India would have fragmented before 1965. About your wider point, well it has more to do with the fact most post-WW2 leaders of newly independent states literally crafted their states in their own images. Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and even India belong to that category. The first leaders of these countries continue to be deified. The only exception would have been Pakistan since Jinnah died almost immediately after its birth.