Letter to Raja

Summary

A single-page typewritten letter from Minoo Masani to C. Rajagopalachari, dated 14 February 1963, functioning as a letter of introduction. Masani writes to alert Rajaji that Professor Milton Friedman of Chicago University — whom Masani describes as one of the world’s leading advocates of the liberal school of economics — will be visiting Madras from 23 to 25 February, and would very much like to meet him. Masani has told Friedman that Rajaji, if in town, will spare him some time, and has suggested Friedman telephone either at Kalki or at Rajaji’s residence.

The brief closing is where the letter’s argumentative weight sits: Masani commends Friedman to Rajaji with a compact comparison to B. R. Shenoy, calling Friedman ‘just as lucid as Shenoy and even more persuasive.’ The note is significant less for policy content than for the network it documents — a mid-1960s connection between the Chicago school of free-market economics and the Swatantra-adjacent Indian liberal circle grouped around Rajaji, Masani, and Shenoy.

Key points

• Dated 14 February 1963, on plain typescript, signed ‘M. R. MASANI’ with an internal reference ‘mrm:rka’ and an archival number ‘1059’.
• Purpose: to introduce Professor Milton Friedman of Chicago University to C. Rajagopalachari ahead of Friedman’s Madras visit.
• Friedman’s dates in Madras are given as 23 to 25 February 1963 (inclusive).
• Masani frames Friedman as ‘one of the leading advocates of the liberal school of economics in the world’ — an explicit ideological alignment with the Swatantra milieu.
• Rajaji is asked to expect a phone call either at Kalki (the Madras journal associated with him) or at his residence.
• The letter compares Friedman with B. R. Shenoy — ‘just as lucid as Shenoy and even more persuasive’ — placing the two economists on a shared axis in Masani’s estimation.
• Addressed to ‘Mr. C. Rajagopalachari, 60 Bazlullah Road, Thyagarayanagar, MADRAS 17.’