The Indian Libertarian

Summary

In the rendered pages, this 15 June 1957 issue of The Indian Libertarian (Vol. V No. 8, the Bombay fortnightly edited by Miss Kusum Lotwala) opens with an editorial on Indo-Pakistan friction — the ‘Grim Humour of Pak Protest’ over Kashmir and a wry section headed ‘India has been Russia’ — before turning to its signature anti-Nehru, anti-Communist commentary. J. K. Dhairyawan’s lead article, ‘Nehru, the High Pontiff of Pseudo-Saints in Khaddar’, mocks the cult of Gandhian sanctity around the Congress leadership in the setting of an A.I.C.C. meeting. A. Ranganathan’s ‘The Making of Modern India’ is a more reflective survey of the nineteenth-century Indian Renaissance and its reform movements, centring on Raja Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj. The issue also carries Sumant Bankeshwar’s ‘Communism—Not an Ideology but A Conspiracy’, Miss P. Pillai on ‘Co-operation in Agriculture’, Dr. K. N. Kini’s ‘Revolutionising Indian Life’, and a four-page Supplement of the Research Department of the R. L. Foundation, whose rendered essay ‘Money’ by K. D. Valicha (edited by B. S. Sanyal) sketches the origins and theory of money. In the rendered pages the standing departments listed in the contents — ‘The Mind of the Nation’, news round-ups, and Book Reviews — appear only in the contents box or in passing.

Essays

Nehru, the High Pontiff of Pseudo-Saints in Khadi

By J. K. Dhairyawan

J. K. Dhairyawan’s ‘Nehru, the High Pontiff of Pseudo-Saints in Khaddar’ is a satirical attack on the quasi-religious aura surrounding Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress establishment. Set against an A.I.C.C. meeting, it lampoons the politics of khadi-clad ‘Mahatmaism’ and argues that this cult of saintliness substitutes posture for sound economic and public policy.

• Satirises the cult of Gandhian sanctity around Nehru and the Congress.
• Frames its critique around an A.I.C.C. meeting.
• Contends ‘Mahatmaism’ masks poor economic and public policy.

The Making of Modern India

By A Ranganathan

A. Ranganathan’s ‘The Making of Modern India’ traces the nineteenth-century Indian Renaissance, presenting Raja Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj as the fountainhead of a reforming, liberal modernity. It reads the encounter with Western thought and the reform of Hindu society as the dynamic that shaped modern India, weighing conflicting interpretations of that awakening.

• Centres the Indian Renaissance on Raja Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj.
• Treats engagement with Western thought as a force for liberal reform.
• Offers a reflective counterpoint to the issue’s polemical articles.

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