The Indian Libertarian

Summary

This New Year Special issue of The Indian Libertarian (Vol. V No. 20, 1 January 1958), a Bombay fortnightly edited by Kusum Lotwala and subtitled an ‘Independent Journal of Economic and Public Affairs’, gathers an editorial plus more than a dozen short polemical pieces by named and pseudonymous contributors. The rendered pages carry the masthead and advertising matter, a New Year greeting essay setting out the journal’s libertarian creed, an editorial on Pakistan and Indian foreign policy, and the opening of two signed articles. The argumentative center is a classical-liberal defence of free economy and ‘libertarian democracy’ against state trading, Nehruvian planning, and communism, combined with sharp commentary on Congress politics and Hindu-Muslim relations.

Essays

Editorial

The unsigned editorial, headed ‘Nehru on Pakistan’, responds to a Prime Ministerial speech on Indo-Pakistan relations and the question of self-determination. It weighs Nehru’s overtures against what the journal regards as the lessons of Islamic expansion and partition, and argues for a foreign policy grounded in realism rather than sentiment. A second editorial note, ‘The Animosity of External Affairs’, criticises the conduct of India’s external-affairs apparatus.

• Frames Nehru’s remarks on Pakistan as well-intentioned but naive about the realities of self-determination and partition.
• Urges a realist rather than sentimental basis for India’s foreign policy.
• A companion note attacks the ‘animosity’ and posture of the External Affairs establishment.

The Bitter Truth

By Baburao Patel

Baburao Patel’s ‘The Bitter Truth’ opens with a discussion of Nehru’s June 1957 address to the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference in London and the broader posture of the British towards India. Under the running head ‘Nehru Sounds the Reason Why’, the piece sets up a polemical reading of Anglo-Indian relations and Congress conduct.

• Takes Nehru’s 1957 Commonwealth Conference address in London as its point of departure.
• Reads Anglo-Indian relations through a sceptical, polemical lens.
• Continues the issue’s running critique of Congress leadership.

When Congress High Command Double-crossed the Muslims

By Lal

Signed ‘Lal’, ‘When Congress High Command Double-Crossed the Muslims’ argues that the Congress leadership manoeuvred against Muslim interests in the run-up to and aftermath of partition, surveying the driving aims of the Congress and the position of Muslims within Indian politics. Only the opening is in the rendered set.

• Alleges that the Congress High Command betrayed Muslim political interests.
• Sets the argument against the backdrop of partition-era Congress strategy.
• Written under the single-name byline ‘Lal’.

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