India was on the road to independence before Ghandi. Government acts in 1909 introduced Indian participation in a very limited self government.
In 1917 the British government announced a policy of "increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire."
India was headed for dominion status (which was the same level of independence as Canada, Australia and New Zealand). It might have taken longer without Ghandi, but that is the direction they were heading anyway.
The status of the Palestinians is, and was, totaly different.
The Palestinians live on territory that Israel believes is part of Israel.
Haaretz is a left wing Israeli paper. Their commentator on the occupied territories, Nadav Shragai, summed up the views of Israel recently:
We are not talking of colonialism. The morality of "settlement" after 1967, is equivalent to the morality of settling the land after 1948. Morally, historically and religiously, the right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, takes precedence over the right of other peoples here. The internal dispute within Israel is over what is possible within the framework of the security and international reality that the country faces.
and
The majority of the Israeli public accepts the Bible as the moral, historic and religious basis for the Jewish presence on all of the Land of Israel. There is a dispute within Israel over whether this right can realistically be realised.
It doesn't matter how "nice" the Palestinians play, they are in the way of the "historic, religious and moral right" of the Jews to live in, and control, all of historic Israel.
To this end, Israel deported over 1,000 people from the occupied territories during the late 60s and early 70s. Political activists were deported, even if they advocated only peaceful protest.
If you think all the Palestinians have to do to get their own state is behave nicely, you're very naive.
