Topic: Indian Liberals Matter

The totalitarian states indeed are never tired of claiming a legal basis for their action and are too eager to make use of conventional legal institutions to further their ends, said Justice HR Khanna in 1980.

Rabindranath Tagore stood apart from his contemporaries by infusing poetry and universalism into Indian nationalism, opposing chauvinism and blind obedience, wrote A Ranganathan in 1962.

An Indian Hitler will have to be exceptionally lucky to survive for any length of time. This much hope ought to be enough for seekers of liberty and equality, wrote Sharad Anantrao Joshi, president of Swatantra Bharat Paksh party, in 1995.

A free-market system based on consumer sovereignty, with the state confined to essential public functions would generate much faster growth, Shenoy wrote in 1963.

Our brand of socialism did not result in transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor but only from the honest rich to the dishonest rich, lawyer-jurist Nani A Palkhivala said in 1991.

If banks were to be nationalised, politicians would start interfering with bank officials and put undue pressure on them, Prof Shroff wrote in 1963.

Planning Commission couldn't tackle unemployment because new job opportunities in large-scale industries producing consumer goods were not created, wrote GN Lawande in 1963.

‘If socialism does not serve the purposes for which it was intended, that is, moving towards a freer and more equal society, is liberalism the alternative?’ wrote Minoo Masani in 1966.

‘The tirade against capitalism is wholly unfounded. Capitalism as it has shaped during the past quarter of a century is a far better method of developing the economic resources of any country,’ wrote DN Hosali in 1956.

‘Nationalisation of the Imperial Bank and recently nationalisation of life insurance have dealt further blows to Private Enterprise and made capital more and more shy', wrote AD Shroff in his 1956 essay.