LIBERAL INDIA 

How Liberal is India?..Edited by Ronald Meinardus ; Published by Academic Foundation ; Pages 251 ; Price Rs 1195/-

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The Editor of the book under review Ronald Meinardus was the Regional Director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. He headed the Foundation in Egypt, Philippines, South Korea, Greece and Turkey. He is a prolific writer on political affairs and he has to his credit one book on the Liberal movement in India. In the present book, he attempts to answer the question, “ How Liberal is India?”.

Reinhardus assembles authorities in various fields who throw light on their subjects and analyse the state of liberalism in our nation. The book arrives at the conclusion that “ Indian liberals have more in common than what separates them. There is a definite chance to forge ahead towards enhanced freedom for more people .”

There are 17 contributors who have achieved distinction in their field of studies. The introductory essay is by the Editor Meinardus  who declares that his aim is to find out—“ How to make societies better for the people by giving them more freedom  and responsibilities—in short, how to make the world a more liberal place.”

Discourse and arguments are lifelines of democracy and conditions for participation, conflict resolution and also innovation and progress. Liberal aspirations are always driven by the quest for more freedom for more individuals. Freedom stands at the core of liberal thinking, liberal advocacy, liberal policy design and governance—since  the basic principle is not negotiable.

The contributors come from different walks of life, the media, academia, civil society. All have been associated with educational programmes supported by the Naumann Foundation.

Karthik Shankar, who teaches at the Ashoka University tackles the subject, “Liberal Ideas in Indian History of Thought”. His essay delineates a brief history of how Indian Liberalism has become silenced and irrelevant under the strain of Hindu nationalism or Hindutva. Liberalism faced its first onslaught with the ascent of Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister. She declared Emergency, concentrated powers in herself, weakened the Judiciary. Her reign was a marked attack on civil liberties such as the right to protest and free speech. A  new  Liberalism has risen in India and it is different from the one articulated by traditional, metropolitan English speaking elites and it is shaped profoundly by Indian cultural conditions. Liberal democracy is strengthened by movements of resistance.

Barun Mitra –a commentator on public policy and a co-founder of Liberty Institute—an independent think tank--attempts to answer the question,  “Was Gandhi a Liberal?”. Gandhi held Truth as God, was wedded to non-violence and looked at politics as a vehicle for human upliftment for his path to salvation. Liberals lost Gandhi as they lost their own intellectual moorings but he will still be providing  a way for liberals to rediscover their own roots and reclaim the lost political ground.

Two writers Sanjoy Hazarika—a human rights activist, Director  of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative--  and Sarthak Roy---also a part of CHRI and authority on Public International Law-- have thoroughly studied “ The Idea of Justice and the Ideal of Liberalism in India”. People  turn to the idea or meaning of justice when they themselves have experienced injustice. The best example is that of Mahatma Gandhi, who began his quest for justice when he experienced the humiliation and sting of racism and apartheid in South Africa.

Their essay analyses the mobilisation of voices or focus on economic policy and planning for India under a mix of a liberal  and left political regime or ethos. In this context the Right to Information ( RTI) law passed by Parliament in 2005 has great significance. It has been used by some 10 million people and has helped robust civil society to block efforts by governments to shackle liberty.

The authors underscore the fact that it is in the implementation of  such laws that liberal democracies and structures can grow. It is a right that governments must anchor, protect and sustain, not oppose.

Nikhil Pahwa---Founder and Editor of MediaNama a journal on technology policy in South Asia and co-founder ofSavetheinternet which fights for Net neutrality-- analyses critically  Digital India and the chances and challenges to individual freedom while there has been a focus on enabling investment, startups bringing more people online. A decided shift has been made towards establishing a command and control mechanism for activities on the Internet. Under the directions of Nandan Nilekani, the Aadhar Biometric System was inaugurated. This provides every Indian resident a unique identity number linked to their biometrics. Over 1.23 billion Aadhar numbers  had been generated. Pahwa notes the emergence of a threat to individual liberty from multiple perspectives and Government attempting to control both content and behavior of individuals.

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri –the Foreign Editor of Hindustan Times and adviser to the Mitsubishi Corporation--has studied in depth the status of Press freedom in India. The true guaranteers of press freedom in our country is the plethora of platforms, literally to many to control and the competitiveness among the various media players. Its ultimate weakness is the relative passivity of the large Indian population to the state of the media and a continuing assumption that the State is more to be trusted than the newspaper or television news shows.

Various instruments of State control remain and will remain so long as the Government retains a large economic and regulatory footprint. It is the structure of the media industry and the degree of public awareness about this issue that determines the ability of the press to withstand such pressure.

This is a impressive volume of immense use to students of public policy, upholders of liberty and those who value freedom.

P.P.Ramachandran

4/8/2019.