Liberalism in India
Encyclopedia
1757–1947: The effect of British liberal ideas
The strengthening of British influence in Bengal with the battle of Plassey in 1757 coincided with significant developments of thought in England (John LockeJohn Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
in the 1680s, Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
with his monumental book in 1776, and Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
) and in the USA (Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
and Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...
, among others). The English language came to India in 1603 in Akbar's time but there was then no pressing economic reason for Indian people to learn English. It was only after the consolidation of Bengal by Robert Clive and the extension of the East India Company into the Indian political landscape, that the demand for learning English began to grow. By 1835, Indians were paying serious money to be taught English, as it gave them job openings in the Company. As Thomas Babington Macaulay noted in his famous Minute: “the natives” had become “desirous to be taught English” and were no longer “desirous to be taught Sanscrit or Arabic”. Further, those who wished to, seemed to picked up English very well: "it is unusual to find, even in the literary circles of the Continent, any foreigner who can express himself in English with so much facility and correctness as we find in many Hindoos." (see the Minute at http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html).
Those who learnt English quickly became aware of its literature, including the rapid evolution of Western political thought. This greater awareness of the advances in freedom laid the seeds for the demand for self-rule.
While people like Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833) were beginning to articulate elements of these political arguments, no one was in a position to explore and articulate new insights. However they did catch up with key liberal ideas and began implementing some of these advances thought through their new demands for greater freedom in India. While the West was firmly embedding its new political institutions, or contesting the growing forces of socialism (which had overpowered parts of the feudal and aristocratic West), the Indian intelligentsia was grappling with the challenge of the first major task ahead of it, namely independence.
As well as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, other contributors to political thought on freedom in 19th century India included Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji , known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political leader. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain...
(1825–1917), Mahadeo Govind Ranade (1842–1901), Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, CIE was one of the founding social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants of India Society...
(1866–1915) and Pherozeshah Mehta
Pherozeshah Mehta
Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, KCIE was an Parsi Indian political leader, activist, and a leading lawyer, who was knighted by then British Government in India for his service to the law...
(1845–1915). Theory led to an independence movement in India. Gandhi demonstrated through a humane, non-violent, and dignified protest, that all humans were equal and should be treated equally, including their being given the opportunity to govern themselves. This was a major advance in the theory and practice of freedom and can be argued to have had a major effect in ending the age of imperialism and the age of racial discrimination.
Nehru, who was very well-educated and fully aware of the history of liberalism, seems to have had surprisingly little faith in an individual’s ability to think and take responsibility for himself or herself. Nehru did not emphasise the importance of each individual undertaking self reflection and choosing among ethical alternatives. Possibly, in his view, making these ethical choices was too difficult for the common man. He definitely believed that these choices were best directed through state level dictates laid down by governing elites. Through planning. In any event, he veered toward collectivist and socialist thinking where decision making power is concentrated in the state. Decentralisation, where power and freedom vests with people at the lowest levels, was anathema to Nehru. He stated in his Autobiography : “socialism is ... for me not merely an economic doctrine which I favour; it is a vital creed which I hold with all my head and heart.” Indian industrialists (with their Bombay Plan) also sided with Nehru on a socialist pattern based on the Russian 5-year plan model.
Despite the environment in which socialist thought was flourishing, India was fortunate to enjoy at least a few liberties even before independence. The advances made in political institutions in England as a result of liberalism were imported and embedded into India over the decades by British rulers. Things like the right of assembly and protest under reasonable circumstances, the right to property, and freedom of expression ─ with a relatively free press, became a part and parcel of Indian political landscape before independence.
Post independence liberalism
The 1949 Indian Constitution gave to IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
ns some of the liberal rights that the British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
and Americans had come to expect by then. In addition, India extended franchise to everyone: all adults had the right to vote in the Indian Republic. That was earlier than even most developed countries had provided to their citizens at that time.
But on most political issues, India adopted Nehru’s socialist model, that included a significant dilution in property rights, among others. The government entered businesses as its primary activity, to help it achieve the ‘commanding heights of the economy.’ Government factories sprung up quickly and began churning out shirts, watches, fridges, scooters, bicycles, milk, bread, and cheese.
While Rajaji and Masani, and economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
s like B.R. Shenoy advocate the greater freedom, they were unable to over-ride the Indian fascination with socialism.
Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari, the second Governor-General of India
Governor-General of India
The Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...
, and a Bharat Ratna, was a close colleague of Nehru during the independence movement. But soon after independence he quickly began to see the risks to India of letting Nehru’s fervour with socialism go unchallenged. Despite having fought for independence by Nehru’s side, and without regard for his own advanced age (Rajaji was 80 by then), Rajaji decided to act to block Nehru’s onslaught on freedom. He formed the Freedom (Swatantra) Party, to oppose Nehru's policies.
For the next 14 years till his death in 1972 he waged a battle with Nehru’s Congress to advance freedom. But as Nehru was extremely popular at that time, and also had the resources of the government at his command, Rajaji’s was inevitably a losing battle. He wrote about his Party in 1960:
“The Swatantra Party
Swatantra Party
The Swatantra Party was a classical liberal political party in India founded by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and N. G. Ranga in August 1959. The party opposed the Nehruvian socialist outlook of the Congress Party by advocating free enterprise and free trade, and opposing the licence-permit Raj...
stands for the protection of the individual citizen against the increasing trespasses of the State. It is an answer to the challenge of the so-called Socialism of the Indian Congress party. It is founded on the conviction that social justice and welfare can be attained through the fostering of individual interest and individual enterprise in all fields better than through State ownership and Government control. It is based on the truth that bureaucratic management leads to loss of incentive and waste of resources. When the State trespasses beyond what is legitimately within its province, it just hands over the management from those who are interested in frugal and efficient management to bureaucracy which is untrained and uninterested except in its own survival.
- "The Swatantra Party is founded on the claim that individual citizens should be free to hold their property and carry on their professions freely and through binding mutual agreements among themselves and that the State should assist and encourage in every possible way the individual in this freedom, but not seek to replace him."
Rajaji’s opposition arguably helped India minimize the excesses of socialism. His party held 44 seats in Parliament in the Fourth Lok Sabha (1967–71). Swatantra was also part of the opposition to the Nath Pai Bill that advocated primacy for the Directive Principles of State Policy over Fundamental Rights. There were many other occasions when Swatantra acted as the voice of reason in a very unreasonable time. Making use of the free press and democracy, Swatantra pressed on for freedom, regardless of the difficulties it faced, but ran out of steam in 1973.
Since then, many new thinkers such as S.Raju, Sharad Joshi
Sharad Joshi
For agriculturist and social activist, Sharad Joshi, please create a separate article:Sharad Joshi Sharad Joshi is a Hindi poet, writer, satirist and a dialogue and scriptwriter in Hindi films and television...
, Barun Mitra, Parth Shah, Gurcharan Das
Gurcharan Das
Gurcharan Das , , is an Indian author, commentator and public intellectual. He is the author of The Difficulty of Being Good: On the subtle art of dharma which interrogates the epic, Mahabharata...
, Sauvik Chakraverti, and many others have emerged on the Indian liberal scene, contributing to the debate on freedom in India, and advancing classical liberalism.
Liberalism in Indian Politics
The Indian National CongressIndian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
, the flag-ship of Indian Independence Movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
, was founded by liberal nationalist, like Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Gopal Krishna Gokhale
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, CIE was one of the founding social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants of India Society...
. Almost the entire leadership of the Congress till mid-1920s was liberal in its stance. Sometime in the 1920s, the Congress leadership was taken over by socialists like Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
and Subhash Chandra Bose
Subhash Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose known by name Netaji was an Indian revolutionary who led an Indian national political and military force against Britain and the Western powers during World War II. Bose was one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement and is a legendary figure in...
, forcing liberals to move into a separate platform. Gandhi however retained liberal leanings and never supported socialism. He was opposed to government taking over ownership of property. He wanted to bring responsible business (trusteeship) and local self-government.
After Independence, Swatantra Party
Swatantra Party
The Swatantra Party was a classical liberal political party in India founded by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and N. G. Ranga in August 1959. The party opposed the Nehruvian socialist outlook of the Congress Party by advocating free enterprise and free trade, and opposing the licence-permit Raj...
was founded as India's Liberal Party in 1959. It was founded by Rajaji, but merged with B.K.D. led by Charan Singh. It has been India's only genuinely liberal political group so far, with a large number of seats in Parliament. This effort ended in 1973.
In January 2004 Indian liberals attempted to revive the spirit of the Swatantra Party by forming the Swantantra Bharat Party (SBP). SBP now has one seat in Parliament, namely of its President, Sharad Joshi.
A minor but distinctly liberal effort, the Liberal Party of India (LPI), based on economic and political liberalism, was floated in 12 April 2005 independent to the Swatantra Bharat Party. The need for a separate party arose over a significant difference of opinion regarding the level of transparency needed in a liberal party. However, LPI wound up within a few months given only a few active members.
The Lok Satta Party launched in 2006 claims to be rooted in liberalism, but its strategy and policies are awaited.
The Jago Party
Jago Party
Trivate enterprises through tax reforms and simplified government procedures.5. No income tax up to Rs Four Lakh; reduction in the number and rates of taxes.- History :...
launched in 2008 is a serious political party based on principles of liberalism and it openly supports free market economy for India. It contested on 17 seats in Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and got around 0.5% votes.
In the meanwhile, Indians are able to take advantage of economic liberalism now on offer from a number of 'mainstream' parties, which, however, are not grounded in philosophical liberalism.
Liberalism in Indian Economy
After Independence, India adopted the Socialist model of development. This led to creation of Licence RajLicence Raj
Licence Raj, the Permit Raj, refers to the elaborate licenses, regulations and accompanying red tape that were required to set up and run businesses in India between 1947 and 1990....
, the elaborate licences, regulations and the accompanying red tape that were required to set up business in India.
The economic liberalisation of 1991, initiated by then Indian prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao
P. V. Narasimha Rao
Pamulaparti Venkata "Narasimha Rao" was the ninth Prime Minister of India . He led an important administration, overseeing a major economic transformation and several home incidents affecting national security of India. Rao accelerated the dismantling of the Licence Raj. He is often referred to as...
and his finance minister Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
in response to a balance-of-payments crisis, did away with the Licence Raj and ended many public monopolies, allowing automatic approval of foreign direct investment
Foreign direct investment
Foreign direct investment or foreign investment refers to the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor.. It is the sum of equity capital,other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in...
in many sectors.
Since 1990, India has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the developing world; during this period, the economy has grown constantly with only a few major setbacks. This has been accompanied by increases in life expectancy, literacy rates and food security. However, India had also shown fast growth in the 1980s while its rating in the Economic Freedom of Nations (EFN) had actually fallen. Agriculture which still employs 60% people had shown faster growth in the 1980s than the 1990s. In fact, post-liberalization, the productivity growth in agriculture has fallen behind the growth in population.
Political parties
This is a list of both past and present political parties with liberal views.- National Liberal Federation of India (1919–1945)
- Swatantra PartySwatantra PartyThe Swatantra Party was a classical liberal political party in India founded by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and N. G. Ranga in August 1959. The party opposed the Nehruvian socialist outlook of the Congress Party by advocating free enterprise and free trade, and opposing the licence-permit Raj...
(1959–1973) - Swatantra Bharat PartySwatantra Bharat PartyThe Swatantra Bharat Paksh is a liberal political party in Maharashtra, India, formed in 1994 by Sharad Anantrao Joshi . It considers itself an inheritor of the legacy of the Swatantra Party of C. Rajagopalachari. It won one seat in the 2004 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, Chatap...
(1994- - ) - Liberal Party of India (2005-2005)
- Swatantra Gokhale Party (2004- - )
- Lok Satta Party (2006- - )
Other liberal organisations
- Centre for Civil SocietyCentre for Civil SocietyThe Centre for Civil Society is a Indian think tank and an independent, non-profit, research and educational organisation, established in 1997 and working towards improving the quality of life for all citizens of India by reviving and reinvigorating civil society.In 2004, CSS was awarded the...
- Commonwealth Human Rights InitiativeCommonwealth Human Rights InitiativeThe Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is an international non-governmental organisation formed to support Human Rights and particularly to support the implementation of the Harare Declaration in the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations...
(website) - Freedom FirstFreedom FirstFreedom First is the name of a monthly magazine in English which has been published since 1953 without a break by the Indian Committee for Cultural Freedom, which was established by Minoo Masani in Mumbai. The magazine, edited by S.V. Raju, publishes articles primarily with a liberal slant...
(website) - Freedom Team of India (website)
- India Policy Institute (website)
- Indian Liberal GroupIndian Liberal GroupThe Indian Liberal Group is a think tank founded in 1965 by Minoo Masani, author and parliamentarian, to promote the Liberal point of view and educate the public on the concept of Liberalism. Its Headquarters is in Mumbai and banker Meera Sanyal serves as the current President.- Organization...
(website) - JanaagrahaJanaagrahaJanaagraha is a not-for-profit organization that aims to strengthen democracy in India by working for citizen participation in urban local government...
(website) - Liberty InstituteLiberty InstituteThe Liberty Institute is a conservative Christian advocacy and legal defense organization in Texas, USA founded in 1972 under the name Free Market Foundation. -Overview:It was founded in 1997 by a Texas coordinator from the Rutherford Institute...
- ManushiManushiManushi: A Journal about Women and Society is an Indian magazine devoted to feminism as well as to gender studies and activism. It was founded in 1978 by Madhu Kishwar and Ruth Vanita, two scholars based in New Delhi. It is currently published as a bi-monthly; a total of 157 issues have appeared by...
- Praja FoundationPraja FoundationPraja Foundation is a non-partisan, voluntary organisation, based in Mumbai, India that works on urban and civic issues. Praja runs an Online Complaint Management System in collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.-History:...
- Shetkari Sangathana
Prominent Indian Liberals
Pre-Independence- Raja Ram Mohun Roy
- Gopal Krishna GokhaleGopal Krishna GokhaleGopal Krishna Gokhale, CIE was one of the founding social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants of India Society...
- Gandhi
Swatantra Party
- C. RajagopalachariC. RajagopalachariChakravarti Rajagopalachari , informally called Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian lawyer, independence activist, politician, writer and statesman. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India...
a.k.a. Rajaji - Minoo Masani
- B.R. Shenoy
Swatantra Bharat Party
- Sharad Joshi
Liberal Party of India
- Sanjeev Sabhlok
- Gurcharan DasGurcharan DasGurcharan Das , , is an Indian author, commentator and public intellectual. He is the author of The Difficulty of Being Good: On the subtle art of dharma which interrogates the epic, Mahabharata...
Lok Satta Party
- Dr. Jayaprakash NarayanJayaprakash Narayan (Lok Satta)Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan , widely known as JP, is a noted Indian politician, social reformer, TV commentator and columnist. He is the President of Lok Satta Party and currently a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Kukatpally constituency in Andhra Pradesh.http://www.loksatta.org/cms/index.php?...
Contemporary Indian Liberals
- Jagdish BhagwatiJagdish BhagwatiJagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati is an Indian-American economist and professor of economics and law at Columbia University. He is well known for his research in international trade and for his advocacy of free trade....
- Deepak LalDeepak LalDeepak Lal is a British development economist of Indian origin who was once a junior member of India's diplomatic corps. Lal was born in Lahore in 1940. He graduated in History from Delhi University's St. Stephens College in 1959; later at Jesus College, Oxford he received the B.A. degree in...
- Parth J. Shah, Founder President, Centre for Civil SocietyCentre for Civil SocietyThe Centre for Civil Society is a Indian think tank and an independent, non-profit, research and educational organisation, established in 1997 and working towards improving the quality of life for all citizens of India by reviving and reinvigorating civil society.In 2004, CSS was awarded the...
, New Delhi. - Madhu KishwarMadhu KishwarMadhu Purnima Kishwar is an Indian academic. She is the Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies , based in Delhi, and the Director of the Indic Studies Project based at CSDS and Convener of a series of International Conferences on “Religions and Cultures in the Indic...
, Founder, ManushiManushiManushi: A Journal about Women and Society is an Indian magazine devoted to feminism as well as to gender studies and activism. It was founded in 1978 by Madhu Kishwar and Ruth Vanita, two scholars based in New Delhi. It is currently published as a bi-monthly; a total of 157 issues have appeared by... - S.V. Raju, President, Indian Liberal GroupIndian Liberal GroupThe Indian Liberal Group is a think tank founded in 1965 by Minoo Masani, author and parliamentarian, to promote the Liberal point of view and educate the public on the concept of Liberalism. Its Headquarters is in Mumbai and banker Meera Sanyal serves as the current President.- Organization...
- Surjeet Bhalla
- Shekhar GuptaShekhar GuptaShekhar Gupta is the editor-in-chief of The Indian Express..Credibility and high integrity, in addition to a persistent sense of inquiry, fairness and professionalism are the hallmark of his editorial leadership. In his own writings, as well as under his editorship...
Documents and Articles
- 21 Principles of the Swatantra Party. The 21 Principles Word document. From The Swatantra Party – Victory in Defeat. Rajaji Foundation, 2002.
- Ray T. Smith, The Role of India's "Liberals" In The Nationalist Movement, 1915-1947 Word document 103 KB (from Asian Survey, Vol 8 (7) June 1968, pp. 607–24)
- H.R. Pasricha, The Swatantra Party – Victory in Defeat. Rajaji Foundation, 2002.
- Minoo Masani, On the Swatantra Party Word document (from ‘Freedom and Dissent’ published by Democratic Research Service– permission obtained)
- Rajmohan Gandhi, War Against the status quo (Essay on C. Rajagopalachari and the Swatantra Party).
- C.R. Narasimhan, Chapter 14: The last years Word document – from "Rajagopalachari. A Biography" by (son of Rajaji). Radiant Publishers, 1993.
- S.V. Raju (1974) (on the death of the Swatantra Party), The Notional Alternative, Freedom First, Sept. 1974
- Howard L. Erdman, India’s Swatantra Party (from Public Affairs Vol 36, Issue 4, Winter 1963-1964, pp. 394–410)
- Gurcharan Das
- Parth Shah
- Wanted: a Liberal Party
- Evolution of Liberalism in India, Liberal Times, Volume X / No.4 2002
- Sanjeev Sabhlok, Victory of India Party and the IndiaPolicy effort since April 1998
- Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan (Lok Satta), Political Parties and Indian Democracy. Delivered as the Narla Memorial Endowment Lecture on December 1, 1998