Liberalism in India
I am glad that a book on Liberalism in India has been published by the Centre for Civil Society, New Delhi, in honour of my friend S.V.Raju, and that it was released on November 20, 2016 on the 111th Birth Anniversary of Late Shri Minoo Masani. These two stalwarts promoted liberalism after Independence. Mahadeva Govinda Ranade, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and many others were the pioneers before Independence. All these liberals drew their inspiration from the British institutions and the British experience. There was no connect with the Indian tradition, the Indian culture and the indian experience. This flaw made it difficult for it to strike roots in the Indian soil. It is so with the Communists and Socialists as well. They remained potted plants.
India adopted liberal democracy with a Constitution which proclaims liberty,equality and fraternity as its guiding principles on January 26,1950. It has granted adult franchise to the citizens of the country whereas it has taken centuries of fight with the Monarch for the citizens of UK, and a revolution for the French citizens. We all know how African-Americans had to fight for it in USA. Though our constituent assembly was elected by a restricted franchise, and its members were steeped in the democratic ethos of the British, it was not a gift by the elite of the country to the people of India. The freedom struggle by all the sections of society and liberal ethos of the country made it a natural step after Independence.
The general election after the adoption of the Constitution was gigantic exercise held almost without any hitch or violence. It reminds us the Kumbha Mela held every three years in the four tirthas (religious centres) in India which is also a gigantic exercise held without any chaos. Everybody observes the order agreed upon by the akhadas ( religious order) and the administration. No wonder Indian people have taken to the democratic system like a duck to the water unlike in our neighbouring countries which became free soon before or after India. India’s democratic temper is the product of its civilizational ethos which held ‘ Man is the flame of the Divine’.
Though Indian people have a liberal temperament, liberalism espoused by the liberals did not strike a sympathetic chord among the people like how Mahatma Gandhi did during the freedom struggle. The Mahatma was able to connect with the masses when he invoked Ram Rajya ( welfare state), Rama dhun ( Raghupati Raghava Rajaram and Vaishnava janato). He connected Swaraj (self-rule), Suraj ( good governance), Swadeshi ( made in India) and Swavalamban ( self-sufficiency) with cottage industry, support for artisans, satyagraha ( struggle for fair price for peasants in Champaran, Bordoli). The Mahatma followed on the footsteps of Swami Vivekananda who had repeatedly observed that keynote of India’s life is religion or dharma which has many meanings - that which sustains life or what is right and what is wrong. All the meanings have a role in making the Indian mind.
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May 26,2017.
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