The Indian Libertarian

Summary

This is the 15 May 1957 issue (Vol. V, No. 6) of The Indian Libertarian, a twice-monthly Bombay ‘Independent Journal of Economic and Public Affairs’ incorporating the ‘Free Economic Review’ and edited by Miss Kusum Lotwala under the banner ‘We stand for free economy and liberal democracy.’ In the rendered pages the issue is dominated by foreign-affairs commentary clustered around Kashmir, Pakistan, and the Cold War: M. A. Venkata Rao on theocratic fanaticism versus world peace, Josef Korbel on ‘Nehru, the UN and Kashmir,’ a ‘Vigilant’-bylined piece on ‘Political Bankruptcy in Pakistan,’ M. N. Tholal on India and Arab nationalism, and K. D. Valicha on the Kashmir imbroglio, alongside an economic note on ‘Soviet Capital in American Industries’ and the journal’s regular news and review departments. The argumentative center is classical-liberal and anti-theocratic, defending secular liberal democracy and a free economy while reading the Kashmir dispute and Pakistani politics with skepticism.

Essays

Theocratic Fanaticism and World Peace

By MA Venkata Rao

M. A. Venkata Rao argues that theocratic fanaticism is the principal threat to world peace, contrasting closed, dogma-bound religious politics with the open, liberal temper he associates with secular democracy. In the rendered pages he treats the clash between liberal and theocratic outlooks as a stir in religious-intellectual life, drawing the line between sectarian closure and free thought.

• Names theocratic fanaticism as a central danger to world peace.
• Contrasts closed religious dogma with the open liberal mind.
• Defends secularism and liberal democracy against sectarian politics.
• Casts the conflict as one within religious-intellectual life.

Nehru, The UN and Kashmir

By Josef Korbel

Josef Korbel’s ‘Nehru, the UN and Kashmir’ reviews the Kashmir conflict before the United Nations, the charges between India and Pakistan, and the diplomatic manoeuvring around the dispute. In the rendered pages it surveys the UN Security Council proceedings, the constituent-assembly question, and the competing Indian and Pakistani positions on Kashmir’s status.

• Reviews the Kashmir question before the UN Security Council.
• Lays out the mutual charges between India and Pakistan.
• Treats Nehru’s handling of the dispute critically.
• Discusses the constituent-assembly and accession arguments.

Political Bankruptcy in Pakistan

By Vigilant

Written under the pen-name ‘Vigilant,’ ‘Political Bankruptcy in Pakistan’ diagnoses the instability of Pakistani politics, tracing constitutional drift, communal-democratic tensions, and what the author casts as a failure of liberal political development across West and East Pakistan. In the rendered pages it reads Pakistan’s troubles as a cautionary case against theocratic and unstable governance.

• Diagnoses chronic instability in Pakistani politics.
• Discusses constitutional and communal tensions across the two wings.
• Frames Pakistan’s troubles as ‘political bankruptcy.’
• Implicitly contrasts with secular liberal-democratic governance.

---

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