Freedom First

Summary

Freedom First No. 296 (July 1977), edited by M. R. Masani, appears in the immediate aftermath of the March 1977 General Elections that ended the Emergency and brought the Janata government to power. The issue’s centrepiece is S. V. Raju’s biographical profile of the new Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, tracing his upbringing, his decades in the Bombay Provincial Civil Service and State politics, his repeated near-misses at the premiership under Nehru and Shastri, and a review of his two-volume autobiography. Vladimir Bukovsky’s translated Berlin address argues that the true frontier of freedom lies within the individual conscience rather than at political borders, drawing on his own experience of the Gulag and Soviet labour camps. Brian Crozier defends principled anti-Communism against the ‘McCarthyite’ label, and ‘Mitradev’ contributes an anonymous memorandum urging the new government to expose Emergency-era abuses, clear politicised intelligence services, and restrain public expectations. The regular ‘Between You & Me and the Lamp Post’ editorial column comments on the Planning Commission, Bombay’s telephone system, politics in sport, Michael Foot, nepotism in Britain and India, and animal-rights correspondence; ‘World News’ compiles short wire-service items on Cuban troops in Ethiopia, Nyerere’s admission that Tanzanian socialism has stalled, Rhodesian civil-war fears, and other foreign affairs; two book reviews cover Woodward and Bernstein’s ‘The Final Days’ and a study of lavatory habits titled ‘Sitting Comfortably’; a reader’s letter on C. Rajagopalachari’s continuing relevance and the ‘With Many Voices’ quotations column round out the number.

Essays

A Homespun Prime Minister

By S. V. Raju

S. V. Raju profiles Morarji Desai on his accession to the office of Prime Minister, framing him as a ‘homespun’ figure shaped by rural, impoverished origins rather than the urban elite background of Nehru or Indira Gandhi. The piece surveys his family history, his education at Wilson College, his entry into the Bombay Provincial Civil Service in 1918, his resignation to join the freedom movement in 1930, and his subsequent decades as Home Minister and Chief Minister of Bombay State, where he earned a reputation for ruthless efficiency (including a willingness to order police firing) alongside a Gandhian claim to non-violence. The essay narrates his repeated frustration at the hands of Nehru and later the Congress ‘Syndicate’ during the Bombay bifurcation crisis, the Kamaraj Plan, and the succession battles after Nehru’s and Shastri’s deaths, culminating in his eventual accession to the premiership through the Janata alliance in 1977. It closes with an assessment of his two-volume autobiography, praising its firsthand value while criticising its length and lack of narrative continuity, and voicing hope that the Prime Minister’s newly ‘mellowed’ public image will not come at the cost of the firmness the moment demands.

• Frames Morarji Desai’s rise to the premiership as a story of fate and stubborn integrity rather than political calculation.
• Describes his rural, financially straitened upbringing in Bhadeli village and his father’s suicide, which left him responsible for his family at a young age.
• Recounts his resignation from the Provincial Civil Service in 1930 in response to Gandhi’s call to join the freedom struggle.
• Details his tenure as Home Minister and Chief Minister of Bombay State, including the use of police force during the Samyukta Maharashtra agitation.
• Traces his repeated exclusion from higher office by Nehru, the Congress Syndicate, and factional manoeuvring, including the 1963 Kamaraj Plan episode.
• Reviews his two-volume autobiography ‘The Story of My Life’, noting its value as a firsthand record despite repetitiveness and length.
• Closes with cautious optimism about his changed, more tolerant demeanour as Prime Minister, tempered by a call for firmness.

Frontiers of Freedom Within Us

By Vladimir Bukovsky

The regular ‘Between You & Me and The Lamp Post’ column offers a set of short editorial items: it welcomes reports (later denied) that the Union Government might abolish the Planning Commission, arguing the Commission was modelled on the Soviet Gostplan and should be repurposed toward market-friendly indicative planning; it praises Union Minister Sikander Bakht’s call to keep politics out of sport while chiding his own threat of state interference; it laments the poor state of Bombay’s telephone system and its ‘Crossbar’ system faults; it recounts British Labour MP Michael Foot’s controversial remarks about judicial bias and quotes Lord Shawcross’s rebuke; it discusses a British Post Office magazine controversy over dog attacks on postmen; it comments wryly on ‘nepotism’ surrounding UK Prime Minister Callaghan’s son-in-law Peter Jay’s ambassadorial appointment, drawing a parallel with Indira Gandhi’s defence of Sanjay Gandhi and Maruti, and recalls a personal anecdote about the editor’s father, then Vice-Chancellor of Bombay University, vetoing his examinership; it recaps Kremlinology around Podgorny’s removal and Brezhnev’s denunciation of Stalinist excesses; and it criticises Anglo-American and Indian press labelling of Israel’s Likud coalition as simply ‘rightist’.

• Welcomes the prospect of abolishing India’s Planning Commission, calling it a Soviet-style organ that fostered fanatical statism and neglected agriculture and consumer goods.
• Applauds a minister’s call to separate politics from sport while noting the irony of his own threatened interference.
• Criticises the decline of Bombay’s telephone service and the Crossbar system’s role in wrong-number complaints.
• Reports Michael Foot’s remarks questioning the fairness of British courts to trade unionists and Lord Shawcross’s sharp rebuttal.
• Draws a parallel between British ‘nepotism’ over Peter Jay’s ambassadorial appointment and Indira Gandhi’s defence of Sanjay Gandhi’s business dealings, with a personal anecdote from the editor’s own family.
• Surveys Brezhnev’s consolidation of power after Podgorny’s removal and his denunciations of Stalinist excesses.
• Argues that Israeli party politics resist simple left-right labelling, noting the Liberal Party of Israel’s role within the Likud bloc.

Am I A McCarthyite?

By Brian Crozier

In a translated Berlin address delivered on 9 May 1977 to the Free German Association, Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky argues that the ‘frontier of freedom’ is not the Berlin Wall but an internal, moral boundary that runs through every individual. Drawing on his own experience of Soviet labour camps and solitary confinement in Vladimir prison, he contends that even the imprisoned retain a freedom of choice — to resist, collaborate, or fight — and that Western governments, in prioritising détente and trade with the Soviet bloc over human-rights demands, risk becoming complicit in the same self-justifying logic that sustains totalitarian rule. He cites contemporary Helsinki-monitoring group members imprisoned in the USSR (Orlov, Ginzburg, Rudenko, Gamsakhurdia, Tikhi, Kostava, Shcharansky) as evidence that the 1975 Helsinki Accords have gone unenforced, and criticises Western willingness to appease Soviet ‘false information’ and to avoid ‘demanding too much’ at the Belgrade follow-up conference.

• Argues that true frontiers of freedom and captivity run within each individual, not merely at political borders like the Berlin Wall.
• Draws on personal experience of Vladimir prison and Soviet labour camps to describe how self-justifying arguments (‘someone else will do worse’) sustain complicity in oppression.
• Criticises West German trade unions and industrialists for prioritising commercial and diplomatic relations with the Soviet bloc over solidarity with persecuted workers, citing the Polish strikes.
• Names specific Helsinki human-rights monitors imprisoned in the Soviet Union: Yuri Orlov, Alexander Ginzburg, Mikola Rudenko, Eviad Gamsakhurdia, Oleksa Tikhi, Merab Kostava, and Anatoli Shcharansky.
• Criticises Western governments and the Socialist International for planning to avoid ‘demanding too much’ on human rights at the Belgrade conference so as not to jeopardise détente.

Concerns of Government & Democracy

By ‘Mitradev’

Brian Crozier rebuts the charge of being a ‘McCarthyite’ leveled at those who identify Communists as Marxist-Leninists committed to totalitarian rule. He distinguishes anti-Communism from right-wing politics, noting a long tradition of left-wing anti-Communism (citing Orwell, Ernie Bevin, and Harold Wilson’s 1966 remarks on the seamen’s strike) and traces his own anti-Communism to reading Victor Kravchenko’s ‘I Chose Freedom’ in 1964, for the same reasons he had opposed Nazism in the 1930s and 1940s: opposition to systems that impose brutal uniformity and mass killing.

• Argues that anti-Communism is philosophically distinct from right-wing politics and has a long left-wing tradition.
• Cites George Orwell, Ernie Bevin, and Harold Wilson’s 1966 remarks about a ‘tightly-knit group of politically motivated men’ as examples of left-wing anti-Communism.
• Traces his own anti-Communism to reading Victor Kravchenko’s ‘I Chose Freedom’ in 1964, paralleling his earlier opposition to Nazism.
• Concludes that genuine understanding of Leninism makes neutrality about it impossible.

World News

Writing under the pseudonym ‘Mitradev’, the author presents an abridged memorandum prepared soon after the March 1977 elections by, the introduction notes, a person of ‘great maturity and experience’ who had been an MP and held high public office. The memo argues that the new Janata government must, above all, expose the truth about Emergency-era abuses to the public in order to inoculate the political system against any recurrence of authoritarianism; it calls for a thorough, fair inquiry into the intelligence and security services, with guilt for excesses falling on those who gave orders rather than those who merely executed them; it insists judicial and administrative appointments must return to being grounded in law and justice rather than a ‘committed’ ideology; and it warns against both false electoral promises and over-zealous, doctrinaire ‘social engineering’, invoking Edmund Burke’s caution against treating tradition and institutions as infinitely malleable. The piece closes by quoting a list of aphorisms on self-reliance and thrift attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

• Calls for a full, public exposure of Emergency-era abuses to prevent any resurgence of authoritarianism.
• Urges a thorough purge and accountability review of the intelligence and security services, but with guilt falling on those who gave orders rather than on lower-level executors.
• Insists that judicial and administrative commitment must be to law and justice alone, rejecting the doctrine of an ideologically ‘committed’ judiciary or civil service.
• Warns the new government against raising false hopes through unattainable electoral promises.
• Invokes Edmund Burke’s caution against radical, doctrinaire social reform that disregards inherited institutions.
• Closes with a set of aphorisms on self-reliance and fiscal prudence attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

The Relevance of Rajaji (Letter)

By P. S. Sridhara Murthy

The ‘World News’ column compiles brief wire-service items from May 1977: China lifts a ten-year ban on Shakespeare; Cuban military advisers arrive in Ethiopia to support the Marxist government against Eritrean and Somali rebellions; a report finds Arabs living under Israeli law live longer and healthier than under Egyptian administration; Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere admits in the ‘Arusha Declaration Ten Years After’ document that his country is ‘neither socialist nor self-reliant’; a Japanese conglomerate’s employee matchmaking scheme is profiled; a former Czechoslovak Communist official, Karel Kaplan, reveals a large smuggled archive of secret Soviet-bloc documents to Time magazine; and Bishop Muzorewa warns of impending civil war in Rhodesia amid rival black nationalist factions.

• China lifts its decade-long ban on Shakespeare and other Western and Russian authors, according to The Times.
• Cuban military advisers begin arriving in Ethiopia to support the Marxist government against Eritrean and Somali rebellions.
• An Israeli Ministry of Health report finds Arabs under Israeli law live longer and healthier lives than before, citing improved sanitation, immunisation and maternal care.
• Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere’s ‘Arusha Declaration Ten Years After’ document candidly concludes his country remains ‘neither socialist nor self-reliant’.
• A profile of Japanese conglomerate matchmaking schemes (the Fuyo group) run for employees.
• Former Czechoslovak Communist Party official Karel Kaplan reveals a smuggled archive of secret Soviet-bloc documents, including material on the 1968 Prague Spring and Alexander Dubcek.
• Bishop Muzorewa warns of a bloody civil war in Rhodesia if divisions among black nationalist leaders persist.

Review: The Final Days (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein)

By Nitin Raut

A letter from P. S. Sridhara Murthy responds to an earlier Freedom First article by K. Veda Murthy on the continuing relevance of C. Rajagopalachari (‘Rajaji’), agreeing that Rajaji’s warnings proved prescient, especially regarding the Emergency, and recounting an anecdote (via B. K. Karanjia’s biography) about Rajaji’s unheeded advice to Indira Gandhi in the late 1960s.

• Endorses an earlier article’s argument that Rajaji’s warnings remain relevant, citing the Emergency as proof of his foresight.
• Recounts an anecdote from B. K. Karanjia’s biography about Rajaji advising Indira Gandhi in the late 1960s, advice she did not heed.
• Argues that had Rajaji been heeded in 1971 or during Partition, subsequent suffering could have been avoided.

Review: Sitting Comfortably

By Harold Jackson

Nitin Raut reviews ‘The Final Days’ by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the follow-up to ‘All the President’s Men’, describing it as a devastating, detailed account of Nixon’s psychological disintegration during the last stages of the Watergate scandal, including his attempts to obstruct justice, his estrangement from his family and aides, and his emotional breakdown in his final days in office.

• Describes ‘The Final Days’ as a follow-up to ‘All the President’s Men’ documenting Nixon’s mental and physical decline during Watergate’s endgame.
• Highlights revelations of Nixon’s attempts to obstruct justice, including hiding evidence and considering destruction of subpoenaed material.
• Notes the book’s depiction of Nixon’s estrangement from his family and aides during his final weeks.
• Praises the book’s investigative thoroughness and narrative style despite the paperback edition’s small print.

With Many Voices

Harold Jackson (reprinted from The Guardian) reviews Professor Alexander Kira’s Cornell University study of human evacuation habits, ‘Sitting Comfortably’, treating the topic with dry humour while praising the book’s exhaustive research into bathroom fixtures, posture, and reading habits.

• Reviews Professor Alexander Kira’s decade-long study of human elimination habits, newly published by Penguin.
• Cites F. A. Hornibrook’s 1933 observation that the squatting posture, not the Western water closet, is more natural and could remedy constipation.
• Discusses the book’s examination of reading as a habitual adjunct to lavatory use.
• Treats the subject with wry humour while acknowledging the seriousness of Kira’s research programme at Cornell’s Center for Housing and Environmental Studies.

Essay 10

The closing ‘With Many Voices’ column compiles short, often wry quotations from the contemporary Indian and international press on politics, culture, and current affairs, ranging from Princess Anne’s remarks on public expectation to commentary on the Janata Party’s uncertain future, Soviet humour, and the Berlin Wall as a symbol of the hunger for freedom.

• Compiles quotations from a range of contemporary commentators including Romesh Thapar, Acharya Kripalani, Kuldip Nayar, Rajmohan Gandhi, and President Jimmy Carter.
• Includes commentary critical of the Janata Party’s uncertain direction and its inclusion of controversial figures.
• Closes the issue with a Bombay subscription form for Freedom First and the publication’s colophon.

---

Generated by the v1.5 extraction pipeline. Awaiting editorial review.