The Freedom First September 1962 edition captures a moment when several of the central questions facing independent India were converging at once. V. B. Karnik examines the government’s shifting position on Chinese aggression in Ladakh, arguing that the lack of a firm, consistent stance was undermining both military morale and public confidence. M. A. Venkata Rao and M. R. Pai turn to the domestic economy, questioning whether the predominance of political considerations over economic ones in Indian planning — from needless nationalisations to unaccountable state enterprises — was compatible with the goal of rapid development that planning was supposed to serve. Taken together, the pieces in this edition reflect the journal’s consistent editorial position: that democratic institutions and liberal economic principles were not obstacles to India’s progress but preconditions for it.