Here is a detailed comparative overview of the two movements:

Tablighi Jamaat — Timeline
1924 — The fall of the Ottoman Caliphate creates a vacuum of Muslim political and spiritual authority in the subcontinent, motivating religious reformers.
1926 — Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi receives inspiration during his second pilgrimage to Mecca and formally launches the movement in the Mewat region of northern India, near Dargah Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi.  The movement began partly as an effort to counteract Hindu revivalist movements that were attempting to convert Muslims back to Hinduism. 
1932 — Maulana Ilyas convenes a large panchayat attended by 107 eminent persons from the Mewat region, passing fifteen resolutions covering Islamic education, prayer, mosque building, and expansion of the movement. 
1939–1941 — The first-ever Jamaat congregation is convened in Kandhla (Shamli, UP), and by 1941, approximately 25,000 people from across North India attend the first Tablighi conference. 
1944 — Maulana Ilyas passes away; the movement continues under his successors.
Post-1947 — The movement spreads rapidly into Pakistan and East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) following the Partition of India.
1960s–80s — Tablighi Jamaat expands into Western Europe, with its European headquarters established in Dewsbury, UK.
1991 — After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the movement makes inroads into Central Asia. 
2014 — A significant internal split begins after the death of Maulana Zubayr, with a leadership dispute centering on Maulana Saad, eventually leading to a division within the movement. 
Today — Pew Research Center estimates between 12 and 80 million adherents spread across more than 150 countries, with the majority living in South Asia. 

Jamaat-e-Islami — Timeline
1932 — Maududi begins laying intellectual groundwork through a monthly journal, Tarjuman al-Quran, and activities aimed at launching an Islamic movement in India. 
1940 — Maududi delivers a major lecture at Aligarh University expressing his disagreement with the Muslim League’s ideology of territorial nationalism, arguing that nationalism in any form is un-Islamic. 
August 26, 1941 — Jamaat-e-Islami is formally founded at Islamia Park, Lahore. Seventy-five people attend the first meeting. Maududi envisions his group as a vanguard of Islamic revolution, modeled on the early Muslim community of Medina. 
1947 — Following the Partition of India, the Jamaat splits into two organisations: Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. 
1948 — Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is formally constituted at a meeting in Allahabad under Maulana Abullais Nadwi. 
1951 — Jamaat participates for the first time in a provincial election in Pakistan, beginning its formal entry into electoral politics. 
1953 — Jamaat leads an anti-Ahmadiyya campaign in Pakistan that results in widespread violence. 
1972 — Maududi retires; the party continues under successive leaders (Amirs).
1977–1988 — During the era of General Zia-ul-Haq, Jamaat-e-Islami becomes seen as the regime’s ideological and political arm, with party members holding cabinet portfolios. 
1979 — Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh is formally revived after a ban by the post-liberation government.
2008–present — Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami faces prosecution at the International Crimes Tribunal for its role in the 1971 Liberation War.

Key Differences Between the Two Movements Dimension Tablighi Jamaat Jamaat-e-Islami Founder Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi Abul A’la Maududi Founded 1926, Mewat, India 1941, Lahore, India Root tradition Deobandi Modernist Islamist (influenced by Deobandis and Nadwis) Core mission Personal spiritual revival of individual Muslims Establishing an Islamic state through political action Politics Strictly apolitical Deeply political; contested elections across South Asia Method Door-to-door preaching, khuruj (going out), congregations Literature, education, political organizing, legislation Structure Decentralized, voluntary, no hierarchy Strictly hierarchical pyramid structure with an Amir and Shura Membership Open to all Muslims, no formal enrollment Formal tiered membership; full members (arkan) and supporters Target audience Ordinary, lapsed, or non-practising Muslims Educated, activist Muslims who could become a governing elite View of society Reform from the bottom up, person by person Reform from the top down (“Islamization from above”)

Philosophical Core Contrast
According to Tablighi Jamaat teachings, the reformation of society is achieved through personal spiritual renewal — the individual Muslim must first reform themselves. Maududi took an almost opposite view: he believed politics was an integral and inseparable part of Islamic faith, and that creating an Islamic state would not only be an act of piety but would also resolve the social and economic problems Muslims faced.
In essence, Tablighi Jamaat sees the mosque and personal conduct as the vehicle of Islamic revival, while Jamaat-e-Islami sees the state and political power as the necessary instrument. Both emerged from the same era of South Asian Islamic anxiety about colonialism, secularism, and Hindu revivalism — but arrived at fundamentally different conclusions about how Islam should respond.